Botanical Perfumes
About a year and a half ago I started making my own
perfume. I thought when I started, this
will be a piece of cake. Well is hasn’t been easy, but it has been fun and
interesting. Working with different
essential oils and seeing how they blend together at different stages of the
perfume making, has been very thought provoking. How do two things that smell different blend
together to make new scent. Well this
has been just a blast to learn. Thus far I am self studying and have not had
any kind of formal botanical perfumer training, but I feel like I have some
good scents and have gotten some great feedback on them fro herbalist and non
herbalist as well.
One of the first perfumes I made, I came later to name
EarthKeeper after Marina Raye’s song, Earthkeeper. I knew this had to be the name of the perfume
so I messaged her and told her about my perfume and got her blessing to use the name as my perfume name. EarthKeeper, was formulated to be relaxing
and grounding but I wanted something that smelled good on me personally. I am a wildlife rehabilitator, naturalist,
herbalist and have Cherokee ancestry so I have been connected to Earth and am
trying to an Earth Keeper to the best of my ability. So that’s how I started and that’s what I
wanted from this blend, to reflect me and remind me of my mission.
A few others I have
formulated were made with specific people or issues in mind, while others are
just for fun. (Well, they are all for fun, really).
I will write more about botanical perfumes in the future but
for now I just wanted to share my journey thus far and share some of the blends
I have made.
I have about 10 blends, some of them are available for
purchase on my Etsy site (and you can always email me if you don’t see what you)
kelliarmes@gmail.com Everything is
made with real essential oils and not fragrance oils and organic jojoba oil.
Bergamot Uplifting, designed to be an uplifting
scent. Its very nice and it’s a favorite among a lot of teens and youth. It has patchouli in it but it’s not over
powering. I created this one with my
daughter in mind.
EarthKeeper, with Vetiver and Ylang ylang and other
Essential oils, it is grounding and earthy feeling but still smells nice on. I created this one with myself in mind. One herbalist told me, 'it gently rocked me to sleep last night'. after she sampled it.
Vanilla Spice also has patchouli (I say that because
some folks don’t care for it) and is spicy yet sweet smelling. Its subtle, but if you like it stronger
message me before I make it and I can make it stronger sent for you. I try to keep all of my scents from being
overpowering because many people are scent sensitive.
Enchanted Forest is like walking through a magical evergreen
forest. Its very energetic (at least
that’s what it feel like when I wear it). It’s quite nice. It is one of my new
loves.
Midnight Rose An Earthy yet floral scent. Probably
one of my stronger scents. Admittedly
made to be a bit of an aphrodisiac.
Ladies be prepared, your mate may be overly interested in you while
wearing this one.
These are a few. I
have others but these are the favorites among most folks.
Some Helpful Resources:
Essence and Alchemy by Mandy Aftel
Natural Perfumery Workbook Jeanne Rose
