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| 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.
Bay Rum and Florida Water also got a bit of a makeover. The Bay Rum is made with bayberry leaves and berries from the beaches of Brooklyn, as well as hand-dried orange peels and fresh herbs and spices. Florida Water is composed of my own grown sweet woodruff and lavender as well as freshly ground spices. Bay Rum is bottled in vintage amber apothecary bottles and Florida Water in green medicine bottles.
