Jasmine News

I was happy to read it’s been proven that inhaling the scent of jasmine is as calming and soothing as taking a valium:

“Instead of a sleeping pill or a mood enhancer, a nose full of jasmine from Gardenia jasminoides could also help: in collaboration with Dr. Olga Sergeeva and Prof. Helmut Hass from the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, researchers from Bochum led by Prof. Dr. Dr. Dr. Hanns Hatt have discovered that the two fragrances Vertacetal-coeur (VC) and the chemical variation (PI24513) have the same molecular mechanism of action and are as strong as the commonly prescribed barbiturates or propofol. They soothe, relieve anxiety and promote sleep. The researchers have now been granted a patent for their discovery. “ (full article)

"Vertacetal-coeur (VC) and the chemical variation (PI24513) have the same molecular mechanism of action and are as strong as the commonly prescribed barbiturates or propofol. (full article)

So all that and beauty too, without a lot of dangerous side effects or addictive qualities, except perhaps a rather nice perfume addiction that may develop in certain susceptible types.

I still have the jasmine sambac concrete from Enfleurage I purchased last summer, so I have been using it much more frequently ever since reading about this phenomenon. I notice that in addition to the mentally beneficial effects it also has a beautiful effect on certain perfumes worn over it, especially those that already have a fair amount of floral, wood or musk components.

I know that most perfumes, maybe as many as about 80%, have jasmine in them to begin with so this makes it simple to experiment with layering jasmine as a separate component. I found that wearing a little of the jasmine concrete as a base with Nenufar for example, a blue lotus perfume I have written about before, and also Tallulah B2 from A Wing and A Prayer, lifts and expands these already beautiful compositions up and out into the air around me, and also adds depth, almost like sinking their warmth into the skin. The intense humidity and heat we have had lately also heightens the effect. Definitely something for the evenings, or on weekends, for relaxation and sleep enhancement. Most jasmine plant scents are stronger at night, so it all fits together.

Above photo, the Jasmine Festival in Grasse . In early August, with jasmine covered floats, girls throw flowers at the spectators, who are also getting a fine spray of jasmine scented water.

A favorite prior post on Jasmine here. Enfleurage Jasmines - available as both essential oil and sometimes as concrete, available online and at the store.

Septimanie Pavilion des Fleurs, a fine super-realist jasmine perfume, with more thoughts on Jasmine in a prior post here. More thoughts on layering as a trans-seasonal practice and with other types of fragrances here and here.

Photo at right, a jasmine and pearl ornamentation from India, the connection is clear between the head and the nose, with a fascinating article, here.

Dupetit No. 5 Giveaway Winner

Emma! You are fortune's favorite tonight - congratulations!

Please send me your address/email information and I will forward it on to Dupetit so that you can have a full bottle of No. 5 shipped to you directly from Germany. You can send me an email by clicking in the About Me section in the right hand column, which lists an email link.

Thanks to everyone for participating. I'm glad this project got people who might be unfamiliar with natural perfumes and musks in particular to be interested in exploring such perfumes. I hear there is going to be another Artisan Natural Perfumer's Guild project in November, which I am sure will be equally enlightening and beautifully fragrant.

Dupetit No. 5 Giveaway - Natural Perfumers Guild Musk Project

Dupetit Natural Perfumes has graciously offered a giveaway of a full bottle of their Musk Perfume No. 5 (see below for my full review). Please leave a comment on this post by Monday night, 8 pm, and I will announce the randomly chosen winner Tuesday night. Perhaps you'd like to comment about your musk experiences...

Musk - one more! Dupetit Natural and Organic Perfumes

One more sample of the Natural Perfumer's Guild Musk Project arrived from Germany yesterday - Botanical Musk Nr. 5 by Dupetit Natural Perfumes. I am happy to learn that there are a number of fully natural perfume makers in Europe experimenting and creating in this genre. Dupetit has combined certain of his compositions: Vetiver, Chypre and Foin Coupe, then added further elements from his established palette to a number of interesting and unusual natural fragrance materials. Costus, and for a heavy fond the resinoid mastix absolue, styrax containing a big cinnamon alcohol component, African iris, Moroccan rose, Bourbon geranium, and the hesperidic notes grapefruit, petit grain, verbena, and buchu betulina. They are fixed and grounded with oakmoss, one of my favorite notes, as well as the sweet birch tar and tonka, blended with lots of Egyptian jasmine. The result is a complicated softness that clouds together these many elements, resulting in a tarry sweet and soft wilderness tone overall. Like a forest walk in the heavy golden light of 4 o'clock in the afternoon, when the slanted rays of the sun pick out all the individual edges of each blade of grass, twig and leaf, yet blends the rest into large swaths of volume and form. This perfume maker uses the old European 17th and 18th century natural perfume basic materials and traditional manner of composition, combined with the unfamiliar materials found and made available through Western Europe's subsequent botanical exploration of the "New World" and the other continents, to add new tones and depths to these natural perfume traditions.

Above photo of pepper and cloves from Dupetit website.

Natural Perfumers Guild Musk Project – Part 4

We are at the end of a period of time I think of as the festival of musk, so I have put together the following perfume notes as a group.

As noted before, natural perfumes tend to hold very close to the body, and have an ephemeral nature. You experience them at first with curiosity, and then familiarity because they harken so much to our real life experience of nature and the body. They are fleeting, very much like our thoughts and moods. You can always re-apply, and you can also re-frame your sensitivity around the subtleties that quietly linger in a whisper. It is a calming and peaceful pace, making a private space for beauty and a gentle, personal concentration on it.

DSH Musk Eau Natural perfume’s composition is an Art Deco inspired, elegant and sophisticated interpretation of the musk theme, in keeping with the aesthetic that DSH carries through in a line of perfumes (Beaux Arts) of which this in now a part. It is an abstract Chypre, an aromatic feminine and masculine (but not unisex) perfume, which would carry a very different message on each sex. On a woman I would find it mysterious and sophisticated, on a man I would find it earthy and at the same time intellectual, and on both like a smoky amber cognac with an immediate opening of beauty that carries straight through to the transparent clean skin of a musk dry down. Dawn Spencer Hurwitz is one of my favorite perfumers and I have written about her before a number of times.

Strange Invisible Perfumes has a well-known, well-developed, interesting and distinctive aesthetic, which to me speaks of a combination of opposites in this perfume Temple of Musk. The black currant and myrtle, the vanilla and mandarin, oppose and combine to pull back and forth in such a way as to bloom forth into a deep earthy muskiness. The result is indeed strange in the sense of different because the earthiness is arrived at by such unusual means and the element of myrtle is new to most of us. It goes very quiet after a short introduction by the mandarin and currant of the smooth vanilla and follows into the resinous quality of the myrtle. I find this perfume is best experienced very closely and would be one that you might apply to your face in order to get the full effect from beginning to end of the precious wild crafted materials.

Artemisia’s Drifting Sparks dries down quickly to an appealing dirty sweetness and dusty, sultry woods. It contains a classic floral center that imparts sweetness to an earthy atmosphere. These florals are in the form of absolutes, which are dark concentrated herbal forms, very tenacious in the summer humidity. It also contains the unfamiliar note of nyctanthes abortistus tree blossoms from India. This scent reminds me of a big old tree with a dense and textured bark, dark green thick summer leaves giving black shade, blossoms scenting the air wafting through the full branches, exactly that kind of subtle but interesting force of nature. There is more than the usual staying power in this natural perfume.

Verdigris by Bellyflowers has a lovely structure that includes fir balsam (the evergreen notes I often long for) with lavender absolute and clary sage in mid notes that cool a warm base headed by patchouli, ambergris, and labdanum absolute, plus something new to me called African stone tincture and benzoin. These are strong notes in themselves, combined into a tenacious balsamic musky flavor, with a strong green top. This one too can also be seen as a masculine/feminine perfume, without the dreaded unisex implication. The pairing of a green with a musk base is uncommon. I personally find it very satisfying, and often wished for a dark forest scent combined with an earthy but sheer musk. This one dries down to a clean earthiness, which seems like a contradiction but is not; especially today after a rainstorm that followed many hot days and the thirsty trees suddenly gave out green scented air above their moistened earth.

Perfume by Nature’s Craving has a hazelnut, caramel, dark chocolate beginning, toned by vetiver and sandalwood, equally. Incense notes give a tang that is reminiscent of what pepper does to chocolate, and the hay/wood tomes become more prominent as the base notes take over. Vetiver and chocolate with the other gourmand notes are what create the dark and rich musk. Personally, for me this combination creates an effect of toasted almond /strong black coffee, which then gives rise to the impression of moist tanned skin. In my opinion this would be a perfect scent for a young man, and grounding for a strong woman with an exuberant, outgoing personality, or perhaps to be shared by a couple who has a taste for natural, organic aromatics and love gourmand notes.

Musk Nouveau by Providence Perfume Co. gives an impression of brightness within the musk. It is made for both men and women, and uses boozy sherry and pepper notes to uplift the aged patchouli and oud as tempered by angelica. The floral center of champaca, night blooming jasmine and coffee balance their narcotic aspects with the coffee lift. Of course the smell of coffee just works that energizing way, regardless that in itself coffee has a thick, rich scent. The jasmine and champaca have the strength to linger and impart their bright vivid quality to the musk.

There is a huge range of creativity and fresh ideas within the world of modern natural perfumery. There are now so many talented artisan perfumers working, and happily many here in the U.S., using naturals toward a full expression and development of their own personal aesthetic styles, entirely through an intimate understanding and respect for natural materials. Their art encourages a refinement and recalibration of the sense of smell toward a more contemplative, intimate and personal sense of fragrant beauty. It has been a pleasure to go on this journey into a world of unique modern creative energy fed by respect for the magic of Nature itself. I know there will be much more to come that will further delightfully surprise and refine sensibilities.

Above paperbark acacia detail, from the Arizona Arboretum

Scroll below for my first three posts on this topic, and this list of the other participating sites:
I Smell Therefore I Am
Perfume Shrine
The Non Blonde
Bitter Grace Notes
CaFleureBon
Olfactarama
First Nerve
Olfactory Rescue Service
Grain de Musc
Basenotes

The Winner Is

La Bonne Vivante! Congratulations. Please email me with your full information and you will soon receive a full bottle of Tallulah B, from a Wing and a Prayer Perfumes. Enjoy!

Draw Saturday, July 10, for Tallulah B/A Wing and a Prayer

I will be posting the winner of the draw for a lovely full bottle of Tallulah B, a most soft, seductive fragrance, on Saturday, July 10 (tomorrow). Please enter your names before 8 pm to be included.

Good luck !

In the meantime you may wish to browse the Etsy shop for more info on A Wing and a Prayer.

For a full review scroll down to Part One of the Naturals Musk project.

Natural Musk - Part Three - JoAnne Bassett’s Sensual Embrace

JAB's Sensual Embrace surprises me. I am surprised at how often the same or similar ingredients, in the same structure, even built on the same basic idea, which is - high soprano top notes of citrus blended with a floral middle notes of rose and jasmine with various minor floral notes, over a dark base, in this case a musk accord of course, results in something so individual and particular. As the personality of the musician interprets a classical piece, the perfumer imparts their personality into a classic structure. After the first five seconds of gathering its powers, this perfume bursts forth into a gorgeous, close to the body, private experience of something like smooth brushed hair dressed with fresh flowers, on a body of healthy skin rubbed with creamy sandalwood and rose essences. This stuff is so delicious, I want to find a way to cover myself with it or eat it, like a feline having a catnip ecstasy. This is a tightly blended perfume, the individual notes poke out for only a second or two from time to time. All notes seem to hit the olfactory nerve deep in the mind/brain at the same time. There is no sweetness but there is the smell-consistency of caramel, without the sweetness. JAB has used a couple of vintage materials, vintage jasmine sambac and vintage Mysore sandalwood, and I believe this must be the reason for the depth and richness of this fragrance. After some time, the contemplative sandalwood dominates, lightly tinted with the other elements.

This perfume comes in two strengths. The 16% eau de parfum is the one I have tried (which sends me right away) and a 32% parfum (I can only imagine what that strength would do…probably narcotic - NSFW). I know if this perfume were not made with completely natural ingredients, to reach this level of strength and depth via chemical ingredients would probably result in a giant sillage and possibly headaches for those nearby, rather than the peaceful sensuality that this completely natural one does, as it is strong but holds itself very close to the skin.

Notes: citrus notes of clementine and green mandarin, floral notes of Rose de Mai oil, vintage jasmine sambac, tuberose, violet, orange blossoms, musky notes of ambrette seed and angelica, amber accord, smoky notes of tobacco, sensuous woody notes of smooth vintage Mysore sandalwood, dark patchouli, and others.

Above details of Rosetti's Portrait of Jane Morris as Beatrice, 1872.

Visit the other sites participating in the natural Musk project:

Yahoo Natural Perfumery group
I Smell Therefore I Am – Abigail Levin
Perfume Shrine – Elena Vosnaki
The Non Blonde – Gaia Fishler
indieperfumes – here, me, Lucy Raubertas
Bitter Grace Notes – Maria Browning
CaFleureBon Michelyn Camen, Mark Behnke, Ida Meister, Skye Miller, Marlene Goldsmith
Olfactarama – Pat Borow
First Nerve – Avery Gilbert
Olfactory Rescue Service – Ross Urrere
Grain de Musc – Denyse Beaulieu
Basenotes

Mystery of Musk – Natural Perfumer’s Guild Project – Part 2

There's a mysterious thing about many natural perfumes. They start out actually quite scary, quite strong, quite non-ornamental, and then, in a few minutes, they will turn sweeter, softer, fuller and then, at their own speed, turn another corner and become richly ornamental. Then they take the journey on from there. Rich and strange, is what it is, certainly not what you would ever expect at the start. I asked a natural perfumer what is this all about, and she said this is the way it often is with naturals. You have to know to let them develop on skin, you can't tell anything by simply trying them on a scent strip or directly sniffing out of the bottle, at all, at all.

I have two such in mind now, they are both strong out of the gate in a manner that took me aback at first. I have worn them both a number of times now, and this evening I have one on each wrist. Anya's Garden Kewdra was when I first tried it one night, at the first instant, almost bitter and astringent. I fell asleep with it on, and had fitful dreams, from which I woke to find myself enveloped in comforting sweetness and beauty. I didn't understand where it was coming from and wondered what it was, then realized, the Kewdra had turned into something completely different. It turned into a gardenia (lightly toned by boronia and angelica), couched in the musk notes of patchouli, sandalwood, ambrette and beeswax. I inhaled deeply then, it was indeed of an unusual light sweetness and beauty enough to calm a sudden wakefulness in the middle of the night, a strong effect for such a gentle sweetness. I suspect the ambergris was the element that bound everything together and magnified the beauty, as musks are wont to do.

I experienced an even more extreme version of this development with Dionysus by Lord's Jester, Adam Gottschalk. The start was very shocking for me, it felt like a strong chypre without top notes. Then, almost unbelievably, it mellowed into a tobacco honey plum with polished wood, very rich and full bodied. Reminded me of the first cigarette of the day, with black coffee, in a warm well kept room with polished floors.

Both of these scents have a strong warm musk base that lastly comes forward and binds to the skin, veiling it with a soft narcotic glow. Narcotic because they are both relaxing and heady at the same time. Like an opiate dream, the acrid smokiness slowly turning into something dense, mellow sweet and then intoxicating.

Above, a French postcard, nude smoking opium ( see the Opium Museum for more images)

Please continue to visit these other sites for more on these and other natural perfumes in the Musk series:

Yahoo Natural Perfumery group
I Smell Therefore I Am – Abigail Levin
Perfume Shrine – Elena Vosnaki
The Non Blonde – Gaia Fishler
indieperfumes – here, me, Lucy Raubertas
Bitter Grace Notes – Maria Browning
CaFleureBon Michelyn Camen, Mark Behnke, Ida Meister, Skye Miller, Marlene Goldsmith
Olfactarama – Pat Borow
First Nerve – Avery Gilbert
Olfactory Rescue Service – Ross Urrere
Grain de Musc – Denyse Beaulieu
Basenotes

Mystery of Musk – Natural Perfumer’s Guild Project – Part 1

This the first in a series about the Natural Perfumers Guild project to showcase the creativity of natural perfumers in the use of musk. A number of sites are working together to help bring naturals to the forefront of attention by discussing the theme of musk in 12 unique and completely natural interpretations.

Like all naturals, these musk perfumes require a recalibration of your attention antenna. You have to be quiet and calm and allow the natural elements to reveal themselves at their own calibration and pace, which is something different than you might be used to from perfumes that use stronger man-made chemical ingredients. It is a contemplative and refreshing plunge into the natural world.

It’s been a delightful treat to receive such samples from all over the map, with a truly wide range of creativity and emphasis. Every day the mailbox has contained these special packages of beautiful samples from talented natural perfumers.

What is surprising is how different they all are from each other. The interpretation of the musk theme runs from citrus brightness to traditional floral to fruit sweetness to chypre-like abstractions and everything else besides and in-between. The styles of the perfumes were all intensely personal, and there was originality in the structures of the fragrances.

The first fragrance I received, Graines de Paradis, by Sharini Parfums, a natural perfume workshop in the South of France was surprising, both in scent development and in how it is made. Their method of creation used 19 ingredients infused in organic corn alcohol and orange blossom hydrosol, with floral notes extracted by lavage of 4 enfleurage pomades. Enfleurage is a very nineteenth century style labor and materials intensive technique that draws out the fragrance of a natural material by soaking it in a rich substance such as oils or fats, which capture it. In particular the perfumer Nicolas Jennings and his friend Crystel gathered wild Genet (Broom flowers) and used a cold enfleurage process repeated 18 times. This perfume’s top notes of white grapefruit, ginger, green mandarin, cognac, wild cherry and rooibos red tea opens out expansively with a strong, joyous citric tang that grabs your attention, and then burns down to usher in heart notes of white rose, linden, Tahitian Gardenia, Neroli, Jasmine and wild Genet (the last four washed from enfleurage pomades). These are blended so smoothly and are so subtle that the Gardenia, while it gently rules the composition by reason of its strong character, is smoothed by rose and the base notes which hold the musk theme. The musk comes forward over the heart notes and dominates at the end. This musk base is composed of ambrette, angelica root, iris, Australian sandalwood, agar wood, oliban, and patchouli, and a vanilla tincture infused for more than a year from organic Madagascan vanilla pods. The luxuriously abundant use of these unique hand-made fully natural ingredients, combined with the labor-intensive process to refine them, results in a limited edition of 25 precious, individually signed and numbered bottles (120 Euros – 50 ml).

The ultimate dry down into musk from the opening and middle of the expression of the perfume is like following a dance that winds down into the repose of ease and sensuality. The floral elements are planted in the musk’s earthiness which while it has the rich dirtiness of patchouli, it is very smoothed by the vanilla, sandalwood and ambrette and toned by the other elements into a gentle soothing softness, like the well groomed, clean fur on a cat. None of the elements of the musk accord stand out individually but all blend into a harmonious, honeyed earthiness. As is usual with natural perfumes, the top and middle notes especially are complex and interesting, and while they quickly expend themselves, what is left is the predominantly musk theme that has been touched by and gently flavored by the citrus and floral elements. The musk aspect in this natural perfume is earthy but my sense of it is something very clean and wholesome at the same time, like fresh washed blonde hair.

Next came a fragrance from California, made by Jane Cate of A Wing and a Prayer, called Tallulah B2, in honor of the vintage Hollywood star Tallulah Bankhead, whose reputation as a wild one was well deserved. It opens out immediately with a quick aerial unwinding of a tight combination of the top varied citrus and rosewood notes and middle notes of mimosa and rose, at the same time. This is a perfume that has the notes holding together as one, creating a floral theme softened and uplifted by touches of bright citrus and magnifying musk. It makes me think of a refined rose heated by melting pure white wax, and a candle flame lighting and warming up the whole. The base notes are a botanical musk with vanilla, smoothing all. This is a lush bright floral, very responsive to body heat, with good lasting power especially for a natural, which generally are known for being ephemeral because of the avoidance of chemical fixatives and the fugitive nature of many of the classic ingredients. The predominant naturalistic rose is shaded by the vanilla-ed musk that binds and magnifies the notes so that they stay true for the length of the dry-down. I love rose, and I dare to say rose loves me, so as far as I am concerned, this is a perfect mood enhancer, of a decadent flavor. It comes in a spray or a solid or a roll-on, 1.78 liquid ounces for $35 on Etsy. There will be a giveaway later in this series of a full size of this fragrance, so floral musk lovers should make sure to leave a comment about Tallulah B2, to be entered for the giveaway.

In the meantime, visit these other sites participating and watch for more in the next week about these natural perfumes using musk as a theme…

Yahoo Natural Perfumery group
I Smell Therefore I Am – Abigail Levin
Perfume Shrine – Elena Vosnaki
The Non Blonde – Gaia Fishler
indieperfumes – here, me, Lucy Raubertas
Bitter Grace Notes – Maria Browning
CaFleureBon Michelyn Camen, Mark Behnke, Ida Meister, Skye Miller, Marlene Goldsmith
Olfactarama – Pat Borow
First Nerve – Avery Gilbert
Olfactory Rescue Service – Ross Urrere
Grain de Musc – Denyse Beaulieu
Basenotes

Tallulah Bankhead publicity shot by Eugene Robert Richee for Thunder Below,