Wednesday, November 18, 2009

THE SCENT of LOVE and GIVING

Discovering Natural Fragrance for Holiday Gifts

When it comes to physical attraction, smell is everything, some experts say. It’s no secret that when something smells good, it provokes a positive reaction - a freshly bathed infant, the salty mist from the ocean, a bouquet of fine roses, and, of course, our favorite perfumes. These scents can evoke deep personal and emotional reactions. Certain familiar scents can take you immediately to a fondly remembered time or event in the past or remind you of a favorite person. How many of you smell the scent of lavender or rose geranium and remember your grandmother’s warm, loving presence?

Tiring of the overpowering and pervasive odor (and having allergic reactions) of synthetic fragrance, many have turned to natural ingredients for perfumes, skincare and relaxation products. The emerging study of aromatherapy and natural perfumery is exploding across the United States and the use of natural essential oils for stress relief and simple health problems is now commonplace, both at home and in the clinic or hospital. The Home Spa is now seen as not only desirable, but necessary.

The revival of the interest in personal hands-on preparation of perfumes and natural scented products has created an emergence of plant extraction and distillation training for the aficionado and professional, alike. People are seeking ways to re-connect with the plants and flowers of the Earth to make their lives more meaningful and to seek answers to the deeper questions of purpose.

You can find a wide range of ingredients and natural fragrance materials to make thoughtful perfumes or naturally-fragranced bath and skincare products with a click of your mouse at www.wingedseed.com. You might try your hand at simple natural scented products for gifts that are sure to please this season. And,you’ll save money during these difficult times. Some of your creations may offer additional health benefits to surprise and delight the recipient. Here are some simple ideas to try.

Simple Scented Bath Salts:
3 cups coarse Dead Sea Salt
3 cups Epsom SaltsJarSalts010_150
20-35 drops of a combination of essential oils. Rose otto (or Geranium), Lavender, Lemon and Sandalwood (or Vetiver) makes a nice floral scent. (Easy on the lemon and remember to stay out of the sun for a day after bathing to avoid sun sensitization).
Place Sea salt in glass jar and add, drop by drop, the essential oils. Tightly cover and let sit for several days, shaking periodically. Decant salts into plastic jar or container suitable for use in the bath. Present in a lovely organza gift bag with instructions to use within 2-3 weeks to maintain strength.  For layering of scent, make the following simple cologne.

Perfume_Bottle1_105 Simple Rose Cologne:
2 C. distilled water
1/2 C. vodka
10 drops rose essential oil
1 C. fresh, deep-red rose petals
(You can substitute other desired flowers such as lavender flowers, and lavender essential oil or eliminate flowers altogether, just using essential oil.)
Measure the distilled water into a thoroughly cleaned glass jar. Add the vodka slowly to prevent cloudiness. Gently mix in the rose petals until they are completely wet. Add the rose oil and mix well. Let the mixture stand in a covered bottle in a cool, dark place for one week to allow the scent to age. Strain mixture and pour into decorative perfume bottles or perfume misters.  You’ll find perfume bottles and misters in the packaging section on the website.

image

Elegant Salt Crystal Potpourri:
Place a few Colossal Salt Crystals from Brazil (item 66004 found in Dry Raw Materials) in a pretty dish. A nice covered dish works beautifully.  Slowly drop a favorite essential oil or undiluted essential oil blend directly onto the crystals to the desired saturation.  If in an open dish, cover tightly with saran wrap.  Wrap with a pretty bow and it’s ready to go.  This potpourri is lovely anywhere in the house.  If placing in the bathroom, make sure it cannot be easily knocked over and broken, especially near the tub.  The salt crystals can be refreshed over and over with the essential oils and add negative ionization to the scent. 

If you simply don’t have time to make your own, may we recommend a couple of the lovely aromatic gifts from Samara Botane to delight the people in your life.  

Renew Milk & Honey Bath Ensemble  This fabulous skin softening blend dissolves in theimage bath to create a beautiful skin renewing therapy - drops of the essential oil blend make it aromatically restful while adding additional skin healing, and the lotion completes the experience of skin rejuvenation and renewal. Packaged in a charming little suitcase with Fall colors. Item code 02703001 under Aromatic Gifts in the shopping cart.

image Sea Spa in a Tin  This therapeutic bath contains harvested organic seaweed Fucus serratus, dead sea salt and Epsom salt and recreates the traditional combination used in seaweed baths for hundreds of years in Ireland. We’ve updated the experience by including our Sea Spa essential oil synergy of French lavender and seaweed, making this a most powerful detoxifying and rejuvenating spa experience. Very special for the stressed out, overworked person in your life.  They’ll appreciate you all year to come.  Comes packaged in a nice silver tin with angels dancing all around. Code 02526001 in the Aromatic Gift Section of the shopping cart.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

poppies

In remembrance for all who have served, we thank you.

Friday, November 6, 2009

A Bouquet of Roses

According to Goethe, the most evolved plants go through a transformation from the primitive germ to the exuberance of the flower in a natural movement toward spirituality where the flower, in its impermanence and openness, represents an instant of rapture and jubilation. No other floral fragrance compares to that of the precious rose, often inspiration for poetry, prose and tales of love and sorrow. The natural fragrance extracted from the rose has become the cornerstone for many signature perfumes since time began.

‘Rosa’ comes from the Greek ‘roden’, meaning ‘red’, as the ancient rose was thought to be crimson. Avicenna, the 10th century physician and chemist used the rose as his first distillation. Perhaps the first rose distillery existed in 1612 in Shiraz, Persia. Roses have a long history of use in celebrations. Rose petals have been scattered at weddings to insure a happy marriage. Also traditionally used in meditation and formal inaugurations.

It takes about 60,000 roses (approximately 180 lb.) to make one ounce of rose otto, and similar quantities are required for other extraction methods. If you consider that it takes about a dozen and a half roses to produce 1 drop of essential oil, you will have a greater appreciation of the preciousness.

Samara Botane has carried many different extractions of rose over the years.  Here are a few to choose from along with a few tidbits of information about each.

image Rugosa Rose, Ramanas Rose or Japanese Rose (Rosa rugosa) Native to Japan, China and Korea, the petals are used to flavor Chinese tea. The plant bears slightly purplish-pink flowers and is often cultivated for its enormous rose hips, which contain a high quantity of vitamin C. This rose is said to be "richly fragrant", having "one of the most delicious fragrances to be found among roses, and very strong".  Michael Shoup recommends, "plant it where you have access to its delicious fragrance or you will end up with a well worn path leading to it." We have two rugosa bushes on the property, one now towering at about 9 ft.  The other was planted later and is a little slow poke, only about 4 ft. in height and diameter. The essential oil of the flowers in our collection is obtained by hydro distillation. Using capillary GC-FID and GC-MS; 35 major constituents are identified, and include over 100 components including citronellal, geraniol, nerol, citronellyl acetate making up over 76% of the total. In Chinese medicine, both petals and roots are used. The fragrance of Rugosa Rose is more honeyed than Bulgarian otto with a peppery or spicy note in dry-down.

May Rose Absolute, Rose de Mai, Cabbage Rose or Provence Rose (Rosa centifolia var. Nabonnand or image Rosa centifolia L. var. Lunier) Macoboy writes, "the artists do not exaggerate its beauty, but they could hardly convey the wonderful sweetness of its perfume. Indeed it has for over a century been grown in the south of France to supply the perfume industry there with attar of roses," This rich Old Rose fragrance is extracted early in the Springtime, hence the name “May” Rose. Highly sought after in perfumery, it is rare to obtain outside that industry. Considered a superior odor amongst roses, concrete production now is less than ¾ ton, representing a 22% yield from the flower. This fragrance is a full rose with cinnamon-spicy undertone, with a fresh, herbaceous sweet-honeyed note. Most rose absolute is produced in Morocco in the valleys between the High Atlas and Jbel Sarhro mountains east of Marrakech. Rose absolute is a refined, liquid extraction of fragrant compounds from the fresh blossom. Although absolutes contain essential oil compounds they differ from distilled essential oils. An absolute is a refinement of a concrete, which is a thick, fragrant material extracted from the plant using a hydrocarbon solvent. The concrete contains essential oils, fatty acids and waxes. Absolutes are extracted from concretes with pure alcohol. The alcohol dissolves and absorbs the fragrant material from the concrete. Waxes, fats and other non-aromatic contents precipitate out and are removed by filtering. The alcohol is removed through evaporation. What's left behind is the pure, fragrant absolute - a concentration of aromatic compounds including essential oil constituents.

imageBulgarian Rose Otto (Rosa damascena) Known as the finest rose essence or ‘otto’ in the world, Bulgarian damask rose oil has been distilled for over 300 years. The exact origins cannot be traced, however, there are fossil records that show roses have existed for millions of years. It is the oldest cultivated European plant in the United States, and has been called the Queen of Flowers all over the world. The uses of rose oil date back to the ancient civilizations of Persia, Asia, Greece, Rome and Egypt. It has been and still is a symbol of love and beauty. Rose otto is steam distilled and has a pale yellow color. Most rose otto is produced in southern Bulgaria from roses grown in the valleys of the Stryama and Tundzha rivers near Plovdiv. The best oil is distilled from newly opened flowers, picked in the cool morning hours before the sun has warmed away the aroma. In order to extract every trace of the precious oil, the distillation is done in two phases. An initial distillation yields a small quantity of concentrated green essential oil and a large amount of rose flower water. The flower water is then redistilled to produce an additional amount of pale yellow colored oil that is combined with the green oil from the first distillation. The primary base notes are deep, sweet and floral with spicy middle notes. It combines well with most other essential oils for perfumery or medicinal use. Its primary constituents are citronellol, gerianol and nerol. Although most Rose Otto is used in perfumery, the therapeutic uses include: Analgesic (pain reliever), Antibacterial, antidepressant, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, antiviral, aphrodisiac, cosmetic, deodorant, disinfectant, diuretic, emmenagogue (tones female reproductive organs and menstruation), Germicidal, hepatic sedative tonic, vulnerary (heals fresh cuts or wounds). Internal applications in the medical field include asthma, high blood pressure, bronchitis, poor circulation, diarrhea, dysmenorrhea (painful menstruation), cough, fever, fluid retention, Indigestion, insomnia, palpitation, stress, urinary tract infections. For topical applications, Rose otto is specific for abrasions, boils, burns, fragile capillaries, postnatal depression, dermatitis, eczema headache, insomnia, poor memory, rashes, sores, oral thrush and tinea.

image Rose Ruh Gulab (Rosa damascena ) Another precious oil from the flower of love & passion. This extremely rare and sacred rose oil is carefully hydro distilled to produce the finest Ruh Gulab for use in love, celebration or relationship spiritual work, meditative, healing & calming rituals, sacred products, or anointing. Ruh Gulab is the most expensive attar, priced higher than gold in weight. Rose essence or Gulab Ruh, is used in flavoring Gulab Jamun (a Bengali sweet) and rose sherbet. A mild, delicate fragrance of desi (Indian) roses can be sprinkled on guests from silver rose-water sprayers' at weddings. In the traditional process various flowers, roots, herbs, spices, etc are hydro distilled in copper vessels into a receiving vessel, using an ancient process. This means that a certain proportion of flowers or other aromatic plants is put into a copper vessel containing water, sealed and the aromatic vapors produced from a wood or cow dung fire, rises through bamboo pipes and passes into another copper vessel, sitting below the larger distilling one. There the vapors condense and after the day’s distillation the water and oil separate. This process is similar to that of producing traditional attars with the exception that no sandalwood is added.

image Rose Gallica (Rosa gallica) is commonly called Gallic Rose, French Rose, Rose of Provins and Apothecary’s Rose.  In the 19th century it was the most important species of rose to be cultivated and most modern European rose cultivars have at least a small contribution from R. gallica in their ancestry. Botanical classifiers say that R. damascenas are created from a hybridization of R. gallica and R. phoenicia occurring in Asia Minor then distributing throughout Syria and the Near and Middle East. R. gallica is a deciduous shrub much like R. rugosa with pinnate leaves and flowers clustered up to four together.   When assessing the quality of the otto produced in central and southern Europe, it is sometimes described as a crude distillation, with a few twigs and leaves included in the process. This somewhat brash, sultry cousin to the more refined damascenes from Bulgaria or Turkey should not be overlooked as a respectable perfume ingredient and it has all of the same chemical constituents as R. damascena which makes it an economical choice for aromatherapy and massage.  One might accuse the snooty finishing school damascenes of dismissing their colorful cousin from SE Europe as irrelevant, however, upon closer examination she has an exciting, street savvy personality and sings her bawdy song quite sexily with her raspy voice, especially when combined with other florals to sweeten along with perhaps some citrus and wood bottom notes.  The affordable cost of Gallic Rose also makes it a beneficial addition to creams, lotions, toners, facial masques and a wide range of skincare and bath applications.

In addition to the aromatic delights one revels in when using any of the various ottos and absolutes made from rose petals, it is a joy to grow roses in the garden for bouquets, dried petals, potpourri and other crafts.  In the kitchen, rose petals can be added to a robust black tea for flavor or made into rose petal jam.  I suspect that if women were polled across the world to name their favorite flower, it would undoubtedly be the rose.  What are some of your favorite stories about the magnificent rose?  Please share them with us.