One of the things that I love crafting the most is all natural perfumes. I think perfumery is linked to my love of aromatherapy: when I craft something I not only pay attention to an ingredient’s properties but also its scent as well (aromatherapy is much more than just ‘aroma’, most essential oils have cosmetic, spiritual, emotional, and other uses too). Since I craft with only natural ingredients, to me perfumery goes beyond making something that smells good. I view natural perfumery as a connection to the internal self; I believe natural fragrances can influence the mind, emotions, and soul, as well as the body.
Every perfume I create has a theme, depending on the perfume. Sometimes the theme is around a single note, such as rose or jasmine (my favorite notes in perfumery are definitely the floral notes!). Often my perfumes are built around accords; I’ll make an accord (a blend of three or more essential oils, absolutes, co2 extracts, etc) and will use that accord as my middle note, and build the rest of the scent around it. I also like creating scents around a concept: what scent combinations captures the essence of sunshine or a tropical island, or if the soul is like a garden then what plants would grow in my soul-garden?
I sometimes look at fragrance families too, both traditional and the classics: I especially like making single floral perfumes and floral bouquet perfumes. I have been experimenting with vegan amber and oriental perfumes (historically these were made with many animal ingredients but there are so many wonderful veggie subs for musky and amber notes available nowadays). I once made a modern day chypre before I even knew what scents went into chypres (I had crafted it intuitively and then later found out that that many of the essential oils I used were the ones used in modern type chypres!). In addition I love citrus, almost as much as I love florals. I like gourmand perfumes too now (dessert like scents. Related note: my chocolate blends for my Dreams and also my Buttercremes are simple gourmand blends. But these are blends, not perfumes, which are different).
I like to make spiritual or emotional perfumes (and also blends). When making emotional or spiritual perfumes (and blends), I’ll research all of the scents that are helpful for those uses, and then create a perfume using only those scents. I do the same with esoteric perfumes. Two of my current perfumes, Hu and Tuzi, are perfumes I created that represent the essences of those born in the Years of the Tiger (Hu) and Rabbit (Tuzi). My Chinese astrology perfumes combine astrology with history, my culture, aromatherapy, as well as the emotions and spirit.
I am also experimenting with recreating perfumes from history. I look at different recipes of a historic perfume, and then will create my own version of it. 🙂
So I am proud to offer the Perfume Lover’s Sampler with my previously unreleased perfumes in them (only for a limited time, I introduced them in early August, and they will be here until at least mid September). Each sampler has four lovely, divine creations, packaged in petite sample vials. They are priced between 22-36% off of what the retail prices would be, so the Perfume Lover’s sampler kit is a very good way to try some exquisite creations at a great price. If you order more than 1 sampler, you will get different perfumes in each one: currrently I have enough to make three different samplers. All of the perfumes have not been released for sale before (though a few may have been sent to some customers during specials).
Some of the perfumes I have made:
Florida: this one is based on a historic classic. I have made an oil based formulation (traditionally it was made in an alcohol base), and made it at a stronger concentration (an eau de parfum concentration, instead of a cologne) so it lasts a bit longer than the traditional fragrance. I researched many different recipes for the types of ingredients that go into various versions of Florida, and then experimented with different ingredients (using my own proportions), to create my version of the classic. It is a citrus, rosemary based perfume. My version has neroli (orange blossom) essential oil in it, so my version of Florida is light, fresh, and heady. 🙂
Mei gui hua. This is the perfume that was the intuitive modern day chypre (I created it, using ingredients I thought would pair well with rose, and created a chypre without even realizing it). I originally made this for perfume swap. This is a rose perfume in the truest essence. Rose perfumes are often made with a blend of different rose scented ingredients since rose essential oil or rose absolute is so expensive (those perfumes are lovely, I’ve made several in the past). But Mei gui hua is different: when I made this I wanted this perfume to have only a heart note of pure rose, so the only rose scents I used were rose essential oil and rose absolute (I used several different kinds, from different areas and different species of roses). I have been thinking about making this one into an Earth Alkemie product, but because of the very high cost of the ingredients for my rose middle accord, I have not (each rose ingredient I used costs up to $1-2 wholesale for a single drop so if I bring this one out, it will be pretty expensive to keep all the ingredients in stock). But I am looking for new perfume packaging, and am considering making it an ephemeral (limited edition) product. I am still debating though, since I think it is truly one of the best perfumes I’ve ever made, but also one of the most expensive! ;P Mei gui hua means rose in Mandarin Chinese.
The Perfume Lover’s sampler will contain an assortment of perfumes (so some samplers will contain the above two perfumes and some won’t). But if there is an ingredient you are sensitive to, or are partial to, please email me after you place an order, and I will try my best to choose scents that you will enjoy. 🙂 Li@earthalkemie.com
I love all of my perfumes but because of the high concentrations (and cost) of essential oils, absolutes, co2 extracts used in all natural perfumes (I use a lot of rare and very expensive essential oils, absolutes, co2 extracts in my perfumes, and make perfumes at the eau de parfum concentration), I will only be able to release a few of my perfumes as regular products. I would love more feedback on these perfumes, so please let me know what you think about each perfume; help me choose which perfumes you would like to see as regular Earth Alkemie products! 🙂
