Stress

Things have been really difficult for me this summer. I am definitely feeling the stress. This morning was starting off rough, but then I saw a bottle sitting on my dresser. It's a Neroli hydrosol from Wyndmere. I sprayed some on myself and reminded myself what it is to be happy. This scent has become a favorite of mine. I want to design a perfume around it in the future.

Dear Blogger...

I just mixed my first fragrance. I wouldn't consider it my first official one, just me playing around. I'm getting a better feel of the smell of the few oils I own. It's a good way to familiarize myself I think, a little at a time. I put a little bit of the fragrance on the back of my hand, we'll see why the boyfriend thinks when he gets home. It's not fantastic, but it smells good. And in a few weeks in the closet hopefully it will continue to improve.

I finished Mandy Aftel's wonderful book last week, Essence & Alchemy. I knew it would be informative, but I had no idea!! There was so much useful information in there! Now my fingers are itching to start mixing. I have to keep telling myself to be patient, in due time. My boyfriend surprised me the other night with 2 glass beakers for my mixing. Now I'm working on making my first formula before I mix. It's so hard to contain myself!!

Lindsey Jean

All of my adventures with perfumery have been halted at present until I am of sound mind again. I unexpectedly lost my cousin on June 1 and I haven't been taking it well. We grew up together and it has all been very difficult to handle. I'm still planning everything that I want to do, but for now that is all there is.

Rose tinted glasses

I have this overwhelming desire to plant rose bushes at my parents' house right now. If I thought that they actually had a chance of surviving there, I definitely would. Planting in that yard is pretty much a guaranteed death sentence. There's not enough shade for one thing, and they forget the plants are there. My parents might have been awesome parents for me, but they are neglectful plant parents. So instead, I'll just do more research and plan out my ideal perfume garden. I hope that I can start planting things to cultivate soon, the sooner I do the better chance I have of actually having plants that can be harvested in a few years. It takes time.

Better with time?

I am hoping that I will get better with this in time. So far, I'm kind of awful at it. I've managed to ruin all of my oil infusions, though I suppose they were never really infusions considering that they all went rancid. I broke down and bought a bottle of Everclear. Alcohol was going to be easier, or so I thought. Apparently my roses weren't dried out completely (even though I thought they were) I took a wiff of the tincture 2 days after putting it in the jar and it smelled just as awful (if not worse) than the failed oil infusions!! On the bright side of things, I started a tincture of some of my vanilla beans. When I shook the jar today a little bit leaked out and got on my hand, imagine my surprise when it smelled like vanilla and not some foul substance! I'm glad that that one is working out so well, I have big plans for it that involve Neroli. Despite my failings and flailings, I have started one more tincture and one more infusion. I'm currently in love with the smell of Black Currant Tea. Especially considering that it's more cost effective than buying a Black Currant Bud absolute. The infusion is staying out of the heat this time. There should be plenty of smell goods in the tea to not need the boost.

For this summer I hope to complete two perfumes: the Neroli and Vanilla concoction and then the Black Currant Tea dabble. I want a new fragrance or two. A fellow aromatics enthusiast that I work with is encouraging me every step of the way, and is even offering up brilliant ideas and brainstorming sessions.

I hope that I can get all of this right this time.

A Note About Infusing

Note to self:  Do not ever try to infuse Honeysuckle again. I tried it twice, and both times it smelled rancid and horrible. Never again.

I have a new infusion I'm attempting now, however. Using my fractionated coconut oil I'm trying an infusion of local roses. I have tried so hard to find the actual rose's name. No luck whatsoever. Apparently "Tyler Roses" don't actually exist, and yet somehow that's all I hear about locally. There are vendors that sell them out of the back of their vans in front of the grocery stores for $2 a dozen. They smell absolutely amazing. And so it brings us to my latest oil infusion project, I'm going to infuse my roses in the oil multiple times, then after I get the strength of scent that I want I'm going to add in a few other things to give it a smokey woodsy smell. I'm excited. And impatient. Some of my supplies are on their way to me in the mail as we speak.

Now this particular batch of roses are a peachy yellow color, but they don't smell as strong as I remember them smelling from last season. Perhaps the red ones or darker colors smell stronger. Nevertheless I will be smelling my fair share of the selection before selecting one for the next step. I found that the amount of oil I was using for this infusion required the petals of roughly half of the roses. So I stuck the rest of them in some water to keep for a couple of days, until the first switch. This morning when I went to pluck the roses I found that it hurt a piece of my soul to dismantle the beauties. This specific rose made it extra hard: