Gift Certificates for Custom Natural Perfume Consultations

Give the gift of a private perfume consultation!  You'll be giving a unique and very personal experience.  Your gifted one will learn how to blend a selection of scents into their own personal perfume. In a step by step process they'll be able to choose from over one hundred essential oils, absolutes and concretes, some rare and exotic, to create a fragrance that is uniquely theirs. This fun, sometimes surprising and sometimes revealing journey into scent memories and preferences will result in a perfume that is theirs alone, one that works with their individual body chemistry and reflects their personality and interests. 
I've teamed with clients to create fragrances for different mood, occasions and seasons, fragrances that evoke memories or the unforgettable qualities of a particular location or experience.  A perfect gift for the bride to be.  This is a one-on-one consultation in Julianne's studio.

$190 for an hour and a half consultation, includes 1/4 ounce vial of perfume.  Call (718)788-6480 or email info@herbalalchemy.net to make an appointment or purchase a gift certificate.

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Review of Flora on EauMG

Once again the lovely Victoria Jent  of EauMG has reviewed one of my perfumes, Flora.

"Flora is a dusty, aromatic lavender in a haze of clove ciggie smoke. It opens with peach skin and spice. The heart is like a delicate, peachy green carnation smoothed by a soft, milky sandalwood and boozy vanilla. Flora dries down to a mélange of close-wearing exotic, earthy woods."

Many thanks to Victoria for her kind words and enthusiasm for the much maligned and neglected carnation.

Fragrance Parties and Private Classes

A private class in my home studio.

I've been asked to do quite a few private classes and perfume parties this past season.  I'm getting calls from a lot of brides (and bridesmaids) to book showers and bachelorette parties and some event planners have gotten in touch to book private affairs.  I was recently hired to do a private party in a 42nd floor three bedroom penthouse suite at the Ritz Carlton.  Some days I just love my job!

I can accommodate five or possibly six students in my home studio in Park Slope.  There is a two hour minimum booking at $350, $125 per hour thereafter.   Parties offsite are $500 minimum for two hours plus $25 per head.  Call (718)788-6480 or email info@herbalalchemy.net for more information or to book a party or class.

Lights! Camera! Action!

I was recently interviewed by the lovely Christie Clements for Cosmo Times.  Christie and I made a perfume together while the cameras rolled.  It was my first time being interviewed on camera and I learned a lot!  For all of you wondering what a custom perfume consultation is like...

Gift Certificates for Custom Perfume Consultations

Give the gift of a private perfume consultation!  You'll be giving a unique and very personal experience.  Your gifted one will learn how to blend a selection of scents into their own personal perfume. In a step by step process they'll be able to choose from over one hundred essential oils, absolutes and concretes, some rare and exotic, to create a fragrance that is uniquely theirs. This fun, sometimes surprising and sometimes revealing journey into scent memories and preferences will result in a perfume that is theirs alone, one that works with their individual body chemistry and reflects their personality and interests. 

I've teamed with clients to create fragrances for different moods and occasions, fragrances that evoke memories or the unforgettable qualities of a particular location or experience. A perfect idea for the bride to be.  This is a one-on-one consultation in Julianne’s studio. 

$175.00 for an hour and a half consultation, includes 1/4 ounce vial of perfume.  Call (718)788-6480 or email at info@herbalalchemy.net to make arrangements.

Teeny Tiny Mention in Marie Claire Magazine

It's so tiny you could almost miss it.  In fact I did miss it!  A client was on their way over for a consultation and was reading Marie Claire on the train and noticed it.  I don't even know who to thank!  Whoever you are, Madame Editor, thank you for the sweet inclusion!

Consultations are $125 per hour and include a quarter ounce vial of perfume.  To find out more click here.

Creating a Carnation Perfume

The sun hits the work in progress on Flora

Every once in a while I get a really enticing teaser.  "This is National Geographic, we'd like to interview you for a new show on scent" or "this is Time Out, we'd like to feature you".  Often these offers don't pan out and I've chosen to be flattered by the interest but not get too attached to the outcome.  The latest offer to dangle before me and never materialize is from the giant mass produced floral arrangement company, Teleflora.  They were sussing out some ideas for having a fragrance bar and new fragrance to celebrate their Mother's Day line of arrangements.

Once upon a time I used to be a floral designer.  I started in Boston and worked in two very sweet shops catering to a sophisticated clientele.  After I moved to New York I worked at a big shop on the Upper West Side before I ventured out into freelancing and working for party and event planners.  While in the shops I frequently would get Teleflora and FTD orders for arrangements that were not quite to my taste, and that of our patrons.  We designers would always do our best to fulfill the orders while raising the mark slightly.

Dianthus caryophyllus

When the call came I thought first that I couldn't associate myself with the floral industry giant but the more I thought about it the more inspired I became to create the most beautiful carnation perfume that I could.  Carnation is an underrated flower with an irresistible scent of vanilla and cloves that got a bad name from their association with just this kind of company.  I've decided to pair mitti, the Indian attar of distilled baked earth in sandalwood, with the carnation.  Agarwood co2, dark patchouli, vanilla and clove bud absolute have rounded things out and although the top notes have not been determined there is a very good chance for ho wood and wild lavender.  I've decided to call it Flora for the often overlooked and unfairly maligned carnation.

Lovely Review in Fragrantica

I taught my first workshop in my home studio last weekend and among my students were very special guests Olga Ivanova and Zoran Cerar of Fragrantica.  Their eagerness to participate and infectious enthusiasm were a delight.   I was so honored to have them and thrilled by the beautiful review they gave the class.

Sol de la Foret

Sol de la Foret, my newest fragrance, is a true labor of love.  After falling head over heals with the fragrance family, fougere, I set out to make my own.  To be a true fougere a perfume must contain a coumarin note, oakmoss and lavender.  Coumarin was the first synthetic chemical created in a laboratory in 1886 and was the principal ingredient in Houbigant's Fougere Royale, since considered the industry standard.  Coumarins are found in abundance in materials like tonka bean, sweet clover, flouve and deertongue.  It is also found, rather surprisingly, in lavender.

For this creation I've used a generous amount of rich caramelic tonka bean.  To give it a greener, mossier and more coumaranic note I also added sweet clover, a new favorite of mine.  I used a bit of fossilized amber, a tree resin that is millions of years old from  high in the Himalayan Mountains, in the bottom to add a dry smokey quality to the earth element of the blend.  It dries down very soft and sweetens adding a slight powdery note at the bottom - along with great fixation.  Tobacco and Vanilla CO2 add some warmth to the whole bottom.  Following the rules of the true genre there is also the addition of oakmoss, adding a wet roots and leaves note to the forrest floor.  Those sensitive to oakmoss be warned.

At the heart of the perfume is a lovely synergy of carnation and lavender absoutes with a touch of clary sage and orange blossom concretes.  Tunisian neroli was a perfect match for high linalool ho wood at the top, with just a drop of blood orange.

Top:  ho wood, neroli, blood orange

Heart:  carnation and lavender absolutes, clary sage and orange blossom concretes

Base:  tonka bean, sweet clover, oak moss, fossilized amber and tobacco absolutes with vanilla CO2

This perfume comes beautifully packaged in a brown velvet envelope in a gold box with a vintage velvet millinery leaf nestled inside.  No markings of any kind have been made to the box or velvet envelope so that they bay be reused (or regifted as the case may be).  The leaf is your keepsake, that and the lingering fragrance.

Introducing Sol de la Foret, the forest floor.

See the listing on my website or Etsy store.

To learn more about fougere's, and a chance to make some yourself, sign up for my Fougere Workshop, Saturday, November 16th.

Fougere Workshop

The fragrance family known as the fougere is a fantasy concept meant to capture the scent of the natural habitat of ferns - the forest floor.  The principal notes are oakmoss, tonka bean and lavender. In this workshop we’ll be sampling Fougere Royale and Jicky, the instigators of this fragrance family, as well as a careful selection of the botanical world’s best perfumers.  Each student will create two perfumes using a collection of oils I’ve assembled for the the occasion including tonka bean, sweet clover, hay and a selection of lavender essential oils, absolutes and concretes.  This will also be an opportunity to work with a few rare and precious oils such as orris root, ambrette, choya nak, ho wood, buddahwood and wild sweet orange.

Fougere Workshop

Saturday, November 16th

1:00 to 4:00

$150 includes all materials

Park Slope, Brooklyn

Call (718)788-6480 or send an email to info@herbalalchemy.net for more information or register here.

Scented Powder

My summers are spent conjuring up ways to stay cool.  Middle age has caused a heatwave in me that needs as much chilling as possible.  I have a few standby tried and true remedies I use including cucumber water, violet tisane, mugi cha (Japanese roasted barley tea) and an evening bath followed by a delicate dusting of body powder.

Most commercial powders are made with talc, a mineral composed of hydrated magnesium silicate, a known carcinogen. There are other materials which are far less toxic and also have great absorptive properties.  Corn starch is often used but bacteria can grow easily in corn so the less noxious alternative is arrowroot powder, a starch obtained from the rhizomes of several tropical plants.

Another alternative base for dusting powder is clay.  Kaolin is often used but I use bentonite (simply because it's what I have on hand).  Clay is absorptive so it's perfect for homemade powders.

My Herbal Body Powder

Scenting the powder is a matter of choice.  You can simply add essential oils to your powder base and mix them up, either in a blender or carefully spraying the oils over the powder and shaking it up.  I prefer to use powdered herbs to scent mine.  I started with powdered orris root and was using an equal amount of that and arrowroot.  Powdered roses and sandalwood are also big favorites of mine.  Some other choices are chamomile, calendula, orange flowers, lavender or just about anything you can manage to grind up.  I buy some things already ground (roses, orris root, sandalwood) and other things I grind myself in a coffee grinder I use specifically for herbs.

Swan's down is the traditional material used for making powder puffs.  I'm opposed to animal cruelty and I'm not sure what the effect is for the swan.  Another alternative is lambswool.  Far less expensive than down and quite a bit larger, you get quite a whomp of powder from one of these beauties.  Otherwise it's synthetic polyester, not even an option in my book.  There are also vintage down puffs available on Etsy and Ebay, some are quite beautiful.  

We have a bit of summer left before the cool autumn blows in.  Pamper your heatstricken self with a little fragrant dusting.

Time Again to Tincture

Colognes and tinctures brewing in my studio

I don't know what it is about summer but it's then that I start trying to capture the fragrances around me in tinctured form.  Maybe it's because I prefer lighter fragrances in the summer, when I switch from heavy perfumes to a splash of cologne instead.  There's something old fashioned about an after bath splash and I thought so even as a teenager in the 70's with the lilac cologne I liberally applied after each nightly bath.

Last summer I had some very good luck tincturing some of the dried herbs, flowers, roots, barks and berries that I've been collecting.  Over the past year I've collected quite a bit more plant material to experiment with.  I've not only collected plants in the park and from my community garden but also collected some from a couple of reputable herb companies.  The first was Dandelion Botanical Company.  My original intent with this order was the accumulation of the necessary ingredients for making bitters.  Not surprisingly I couldn't resist ordering a few other scented materials such as osmanthus flowers and sarasparilla bark.  Recently I received another order of herbs from Mountain Rose Herbs, a package I waited anxiously for which included such luxuries as tonka beans and meadowsweet blossoms.

Another heat wave had me conjuring up cooling and fragrant elixirs to calm the heat-addled spirits.  My new materials had me quite inspired and I made a list of them categorizing them by top, middle and bottom note, just as I would if I were making a perfume.  From there I jotted down some ideas and began blending.  My mortar and pestle were put to good use (that always makes me feel like a real apothecary).  They've been brewing for a month now and today they're being strained off and I'll soon be bottling them up for sale.

My favorite so far is Swamp Water which I dreamt up thinking about the bayou and tall grasses, night air thick with heady florals and sweet tea.  I also made a fougere, my latest obsession, using sweet woodruff, tonka beans, patchouli, jasmine, cassia and lavender.  Eau de la Who is inspired by my guitar hero, Pete Townshend, who I learned wore the classic 4711 when he went onstage.  I plan on sending him some.

It's a Good Thing: A Little Mention in Martha Stewart Weddings

This put a smile on my face!  A few months ago I got an email from someone at MS Weddings asking me for information about fragrance parties for brides.  They were writing a feature about alternatives to traditional bachelorette parties and wanted to include ideas for classes.  It's really a great idea.  I'd much prefer making jewelry, cheese, perfume or pretty much just about anything than drink too much and watch some smarmy guy undress!

To learn more or book a party click here.

Perfume Organs

A perfume organ is how a perfumer organizes her fragrant materials. separating the oils between top, middle and bottom.

I've recently revamped my organ, creating a new inventory and labeling everything more clearly.  In the process I researched and looked at photos of many organs for inspiration.  Considering the limited space of a New York apartment I'm very happy with mine but desperately wish for a larger and more expansive version.

I've had the great privilege of taking courses with the fabulously talented Mandy Aftel and creating perfumes from her fantastic scent organ.  Where I might have a mere 1/8 of an ounce of a rare and precious oil, Mandy has a large ground glass stoppered bottle full!  It's really something to aspire to.

I also fell in love with a few other images of perfume organs that I found online.  Some are more extensive with room for lots of perfume ingredients.  Others are more up my alley, making do with a small space - and having to be creative in how the space is used.  I love the images and long for room to grow and create.  In the meantime I'm happy with my collection, it's where I create new formulas and do consultations with clients, enabling them to create their own custom perfume.  It's my happy place.

I particularly like this creative use of space

This is a photo I took of the organ at the Fragonard Museum in Paris.

More Cologne Experiments

I had such a great time making colognes this summer, and the results were so successful, that I tried my hand at a couple more.  The new brews, Fresh Mown Hay and Bay Rum, did not disappoint.

Fresh Mown Hay is a maceration of sweet woodruff (which is left to rest after harvesting in order to bring out it's distinctive hay like scent), orris root, benzoin, roses, vanilla, lemon verbena, linden blossoms and jasmine flowers.  The woodruff not only gives it it's signature scent but also considerable tenacity.  It is a rich, lush fragrance with an almost edible quality to it and conjures images of rolling in meadows.

Bay Rum was definitely inspired by the vast bay bushes lining most of the coastal areas in the New York area. I've been gathering them and cooking with them for many years and finally came around to making a fragrance. Over the summer I gathered leaves and dried them (I read they yield a better fragrance dried) and did my research on formulary and then started to experiment. Using the rinds of some mandarin oranges and freshly ground cinnamon, allspice and cloves I was able to replicate and expand on the traditional scent.

Cologne Experiment Results

The results are in!  My experiments macerating dried flowers, roost, rinds and herbs are completed and I have detailed notes on the results.  After a month's time the liquor was strained off and clarified and then some were matched with hydrosols.  Certain recipes didn't work at all and were discarded but most of them yielded results.  I was really surprised by the tenacity of the different brews, some of them will last days on a tester strip. 

Summer Splash came as a real surprise.  The floral note that resulted from roses and lavender macerating with vetiver, sweet annie and orange peel was astonishing.  It was blended with lemon balm hydrosol to create a summery splash.  This one changes over time in a most interesting way.

Florida Water epitomizes summer for me. There is a large Latino community intermingled in my Brooklyn neighborhood and a lot of the pharmacies cater to this clientelle so are stocked with Florida Water. I have memories of my first years in Brooklyn discovering the pleasures of an evening shower followed with a splash of Florida Water. Orange blossom and clove are the distinctive notes in the cologne so I decided orange blossom hydrosol would be used with a maceration of meyer lemon rind, sweet woodruff, lavender, benzoin, cinnamon and clove. The results smell surprisingly like the water I used all those years ago, and I think it could be considered suitable for men as well as women.

Verbena Water is the result of macerating fresh lemon verbena and sweet woodruff from my garden, dried jasmine, linden blossoms and vanilla pods and then mixed with verbena hydrosol.  It's as fresh as it sounds, the softness of the woodruff and vanilla pared with lemon verbena counterbalance each other beautifully.

Rose Garden is a blend of dried roses, angelica root, jasmine, vanilla pods and lemon verbena which was then mixed with rosewater to create a veritable rose garden in a bottle.

Violet Water is the result of orris root, sweet woodruff, benzoin and jasmine marrying beautifully to create a woodland violet sort of fragrance which was then blended with cornflower water.  Violets contain a chemical called ionones which give them their characteristic fragrance.  Orris root, the dried and aged rhizome of the Iris pallida, also contains ionones but also has a woodland quality to it.  There are no violets in this blend so the name is merely a suggestion.

Each cologne is bottled in a one of a kind vintage glass bottle collected from the beaches of Brooklyn, NY. They've been scrubbed clean and sterilized but they're old and scratched to different degrees. Expect some wear from tumbling in the ocean for who knows how long.

Cologne Experiments

I'm having way too much fun riding out the heatwave researching old forumlary on the internet in search of cologne and toilet water recipes.  After years of collecting fragrant herbs, dried flowers, roots, powdered gums, tree resins, barks, citrus rinds and spices I wanted to see if macerating in vodka would produce results.  All of the old recipes I found used essential oils, absolutes and tinctures but I wanted to see what I could come up with with just the raw ingredients.

I've started two traditional cologne recipes, a violet water, something akin to 4711 and a Florida Water, as well as one true experiment.  It's been about ten days and I can already tell which ones have promise and staying power.  My plan is to let them sit for 30 days and then strain them off, filter them and let them settle.  Then I'll pour off the clear liquor and blend it with hydrosol.

When deciding on what to use for each experiment I'm still thinking like a perfumer and making sure I have top, middle and bottom notes.  I've been aging some orris root powder for a number of years now and it's developing a subtle sweetness that I hope the tincuring will release.  I also have powdered benzoin, cedar bark, vanilla pods and vetiver roots to play with.  Dried roses and lavender make up the bulk of the heart note but I'm also using a generous supply of jasmine sambac flowers that I've dried over the past year.  The linden blossoms that I collected last year have found their way into one as well.  For top notes I have citrus rinds that I dried over last winter including mineola tangerine and meyer lemon.  From my herb garden I've added sweet woodruff, lemon verbena, lavender, basil, sweet annie and rosemary.

So far I'm loving the process and the romance of it all.  When I was a child my grandmother bought me some cologne that I used as a kind of splash.  I have such fond memories of warm summer nights splashing on her cologne after a bath and going to sleep smelling sweetly.

I'm also enjoying using the fruits of my labor over the years, and feeling like a real apothecary.  I looked around during the process and thought that it looked like a film set of an apothecary at work, yet it wasn't contrived at all.  I find I'm repeating to myself, "oh, true apothecary".

A Little Love from CBS!

A perfumer's scent organ

I'm so proud to be listed as one of the four best places to make your own perfume in New York in the CBS blog by features editor Corey Whelan.  I'm not sure I'm as ethereal as the write up suggests, but I'm pleased to be included.

A consultation consists of a little getting to know you, an explanation of how perfumes are built using top, middle and bottom notes and then in a step by step process learn how to blend a selection of scents into your own personal perfume.  Choose from over one hundred essential oils and absolutes, some rare and exotic, to create a fragrance that is uniquely yours.

Consultations usually take about an hour and a half and are $125/hr and include a quarter ounce bottle of perfume.  By appointment only, (718)788-6480, info@herbalalchemy.net

Verbena Water

The newest hydrosol I've added to my collection is Verbena, Aloysia triphylla, also known as Vervain.  For those of you that don't know, a hydrosol is the water that's left over from the distillation process that creates essential oils.  They have microparticles of the original plant material and are scented, flavorful and have many therapeutic properties.

Verbena herb is known for it's effects in dispelling depression and countering nervous exhaustion and anxiety.  Great for headaches and migraines and is said to be one of the best palliatives for the onset of colds and flu.  It is reputed to be a good daily mouthwash as it's strong anti-inflammatory ability has a strong affinity for the mucus membranes of the mouth and nose.

Internally it will settle a nervous stomach and indigestion, as well as being very pleasant to drink.  A tablespoon of hydrosol in a liter of seltzer is wonderfully refreshing.  It could also be added to a pot of tea.  It's flavor is distinctly lemon but not citrusy, and much less potent.  Imagine it in desserts, or with seafood.

Verbena's pH is very close to that of the acid mantle of the skin making it a good clarifier.  It refines skin texture and may reduce pore size.  It seems to suit men as an aftershave since the scent is neither floral nor fruity.

Verbena Water by Herbal Alchemy can be bought here.

A New Perfume for Lunation: Art on the Moon

Observatory Room is hosting it's first ever group-curated show, Lunation:Art on the Moon. 

Artists and scientists have always been attracted to the moon…

Our closest celestial neighbor, the earth’s little sister, the moon creates the tides and illuminates the woods at night. For centuries, humanity believed the moon provided a key into the invisible realm: it called out the beast within us, freeing us to act as wolves, to run, to dance, to chant—and sometimes (as in Duncan Jones’ Moon) to split in two, to find our double, our changeling moon-self.

Is the moon home to life? Today we know it isn’t, but even as of 1830, speculation was rampant that the moon was inhabited by Christianized bat-people who worshiped in great ziggurats. (See The Sun and the Moon by Observatory alumnus Matthew Goodman for details.) Still, life comes to the moon. We know the moon contains frozen water, and we dream of using it as our jumping-off point for visiting even more alien vistas.

Down here, despite all the prowess and nuance of our latest telescopes, earthlings still look up naked-eyed with excitement at the full moon. Lovers and children gaze up at its slowly blinking façade in mute wonder. Artists portray the moon as a source of danger and power, and latter-day sorceresses and men of magic call up to that heavenly lamp, seeking to transcend the ordinary night. For them, the old myths have not changed so much: the moon is still a secret mirror, showing in pale light how the familiar contains always an element of the unexpected…

Herbal Alchemy will be participating in the show by offering up a new perfume for the occasion, Moonrise.  The Greek goddess, Artemis, who represents the new moon, is portrayed in this fragrance by the addition of wormwood (an artemesia) in the top note, supported by bergamot and petitgrain.  Luminous jasmine forms the basis of the heart along with honey and rose, and sandalwood and frankincense form the base chord.

Opening Party: Saturday, January 7th, 7–10 PM, FREE
Closing Party/Observatory’s 3rd Anniversary Fundraiser: Saturday, February 18th, 8 PM/$20
Show Viewing Hours: Thursday & Friday 3–6 PM, Saturday & Sunday 12–6 PM

I'll be serving two special cocktails at the opening party:  The Honeymoon, a sumptuous concoction of oat and honey vodka spiked with sandalwood, and Dark Side of the Moon, a chocolatey jasmine spiked libation.  Hope to see you there!