David Mark to Speak in Private Perfume Class on Ancient Egyptian incense Kyphi and its fragrance properties

David Mark of Renaissance Aromas (website TBA shortly) and an Associate Member of the Natural Perfumers Guild will be a Guest Expert in my online Natural Perfumery class. David's topic will be Kyphi incense, the ancient Egyptian blend whose mystique and legend persists to this day. There are many "recipes" for Kyphi and for the Module 1 History section of my class, I give the students the option of choosing an ancient perfume or scent formula to recreate so that they get a hint of what was fashionable then. Overwhelmingly, they choose Kyphi. David has conducted scholarly research into Kyphi and graciously offered his services to me. I'm very thankful for his generosity, as it will give my students access to a great repository of information.

Here's how I broke the good news of David's schedule being firmed up in our class:

Well, guess why David can't meet with us this Saturday? Because he's going to a fabulous Egyptologist convention in Seattle! How cool is that?! Our Kyphi expert is right in the thick of it and I'm sure will be brimming with incredible facts and recipes to share.

So I've booked him for Saturday, May 3, 6PM Eastern US, 5PM Central US (his time) and late night in the EU and early morning the next day on "the other side of the world"  for our far-flung student body. David says he's longwinded, and will stay on board as long as you want him. ;-)

I think he might prepare a written outline for y'all before the class, and I'll post it here if he does. Then the questions will all be open freeform style.

Sounds great!

Anya
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Here's a quick Kyphi recipe I googled:

Kyphi is a mixture composed 
            of sixteen ingredients; of honey and wine, raisins and galingale, (pine) resin and myrrh, aspalathos and seseli; moreover, of mastic and bitumen, bulrush and sorrel, together with the two kinds of juniper berries (of which one is called major and the other minor), cardamom and sweet flag. And these ingredients
are not mixed by chance, but according to instructions cited in holy books, that are read to the incense makers while they mix them. Plutarch

yet another recipe:

"[Take 273 g each of mastic, pine resin, sweet flag, aspalathos, camel grass, mint and cinnamon.] Place the items in a mortar and grind them. Two-fifths of this will {turn out to} be in the form of liquid to be discarded. There remain three-fifths in the form of ground powder. [Take 1.5 lb each of cyperus, juniper berries, pine kernels and peker (unidentified)] Reduce the ingredients to powder. Moisten all these dry ingredients with [2.5 lb] wine in a copper vessel. Half of this wine will be absorbed by the powder [the rest is to be discarded].

Leave overnight. Moisten the [3.3 lb] raisins with [2.5 lb] oasis wine. Mix everything in a vessel and leave for five days. Boil to reduce by one-fifth. Place [3.3 lb] honey and [1,213 g] frankincense in a cauldron and reduce volume by one-fifth. Add to the honey and frankincense the kyphi macerated in wine. Leave overnight. Grind the [1,155 g] myrrh and add to the kyphi".

(Lise Manniche, Sacred luxuries, p. 51. See also Lise Manniche, An ancient Egyptian herbal, pp. 57-58.)

I'm so very pleased to be able to offer a glimpse into an ancient fragrant incense recipe from an expert in the field. These classes are so exciting!

Patchouli in Rwanda - perfume industry safety net? Economic safety net for Rwandans?

The price of patchouli essential oil has skyrocketed in the past year. An crucial and historic scent in perfume and body care products, various issues have conspired to create a shortage and suppliers and formulators are scrambling to control cost increases in their products.

I know I'm an eternal optimist. I also have a strong background in ethnobotany, economic botany and agriculture. I specialized in tropical and subtropical agriculture in my studies, keep this in mind when you check out the You Tube link, below.

In 2005, a team from Haiti met with the President of Rwanda to propose a Patchouli project. There is a series of five videos on You Tube recording the process of establishing a patchouli essential oil industry in Rwanda by the movers and shakers of this project. The videos are educational and uplifting. I am very aware of he political and military turmoils of Rwanda, having several close friends who traveled there in the aftermath and are helping with the rebuilding. Relative stability has returned, more so in some areas than others. When poverty is addressed in a forthright and productive way, all may prosper. Perhaps patchouli is one economic way to move forward.

Patchouli essential oil prices have skyrocketed recently due to many factors in the countries producing the heady oil. A few years ago environmental and political maladies struck the vanilla absolute industry, and those with vision took cuttings to India and Indonesia and now vanilla prices - for the beans, not the absolute as it appears the extractors have kept the price artificially high - have come back to a reasonable level.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XgA1bD4h8Q

I love the methodical way in which the questions about establishing and distilling the oil are addressed. Distillation units in place - at this time for geranium - appear in videos # 4 and 5.

Sustainable agriculture, and opportunistic agriculture to replace the fields that may be disappearing due to urban development, desertification or other reasons will always exist, so I do not despair very much when I hear of problems (such as the vanilla crisis of teh early 2000's.)

I find the videos very uplifting and relaxing -- and realistic in what may occur.

Natural Perfumers Guild Blog announced by Anya McCoy

The Natural Perfumers Guild blog debuted yesterday, April 11, 2008 and you can click here to visit it.

The blog will replace the Guild newsletter as a place to share press releases, post ads, inform the public about Guild news and give higher visibility to Guild Perfumers, Associates and Suppliers. It will be managed by Guild Assistant Gisele.

I'll continue to blog here occasionally, but everyone who knows me knows that the Guild has a special place in my heart, as it was given to me by Mandy Aftel because she liked the way I was hosting the huge Natural Perfumery group on Yahoo - which now has more than 1500 members! There were only 550 members three years ago when Mandy and I first became friends, so we - the natural perfumers and myself - are doing something right in the eyes of the public. That's an incredible growth rate and it shows no signs of abating.

Natural perfumery as defined by the Guild has ethics, goals and communication as cornerstones of our art and the keywords chosen for the new blog to supplement our slogan of Slow Scent reflect that:

AUTHENTIC + ARTISAN + HONEST + GREEN

We demand those qualities in ourselves when we source our raw materials and put hundreds of hours into creating a perfume from our artistic gifts. Our products are authentic artisan creations, we disclose our ingredients and we strive to be as green a company as possible.

Bookmark the Guild blog as you'll find a lot of sales advertised there first, and that will give you the chance to pick up on perfumes, raw materials, perfume making kits, classes and more.

Bob Marley's Mother, Cedella has passed

This photo was taken at the press party for the 10th Annual Bob Marley Caribbean Music Festival. It was the last year I worked as the PR person for the event, as perfumery business took more and more of my time. You can read more about Mother B here on Myspace I wish I knew how to work Myspace to leave a message, but I don't so I'll write here. Mother B was like a second mother to me and probably thousands of others. She spread her joy and wisdom and kindness to every soul she met, and she will be sorely missed. As I call friends today to tell them the news, and even as I told my own mother, I choked up and couldn't speak.

I put a page up 10 years ago that hosts a photo I took of Mother B the night I met her in 1996. It remains one of my favorite photos of her, regal on her birthday throne, radiating her love out.

Peace and joy and rest Mother B, now you are in Zion with Bob and Anthony.

A Bedtime Story for Natural Perfumers

The following is the Module 1 assignment submitted by Annie O'Sullivan, a student in my Spring 2008 class in Natural Perfumery. You can read more about it here and here, but I suggest you skip the hard facts about the class for now, and instead read this blog first. For their first assignment, just to loosen them up, I allow the students free rein on any of the four subjects we cover that Module: safety, history of perfumery, how to define natural perfumery and workspace organization and equipment.

It is enjoyable and eye-opening to see their creative responses, from poems to essays, Power Point illustrated presentations, Excel charts, mathematical conversion charts for old measurements -- well, the list goes on. This submittal, however, caused me to laugh out loud, and I immediately forwarded it to Mandy Aftel. Mandy called it creative and adorable. Who knew someone would weave the stories of Mandy and myself into a bedtime story that is witty and fun?

Some background for the references in the story: Mandy's daughter is named Chloe, Mandy is from Detroit, is a psychologist, wrote a book on Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones. I did create (for the time) Rebel Perfumes on South Beach, the first of their kind AFAIK, Mandy has a perfume named Tango, I have one named Temple. The puns in this story are really so much fun! The story of how Mandy and I met is quite different, and maybe someday the story of the Evil Angry Witch of the West with a wart on the tip of her nose will be told, and how Mandy contacted Annie-ya and a friendship was born and thus the Guild was reopened. Sure, some facts are a bit off, but heck, myths and fables do sometimes veer off course from reality.

Enjoy. (Note: unedited for punctuation, etc.)

The Modern History of Natural Perfumery

Anne O’Sullivan – Spring 2008 NP101 Course – Module 1 submittal

April 5, 2008

It was well past bedtime, and Chloe and her husband would soon be in. Mandy didn’t want the kids to be up still when they pulled up. Thankful for another incredibly fun day, Mandy was exhausted.

“Grammy Mandy, could you tell me my favorite bedtime story?” Little Jasmine begged.

“Well, once upon a time, oh, say, around the 10th century BC a Kingdom named Media existed in what today is called Iran. There was a mixture of both the snazzy community of Chaldea and the more savage one of Parthia. The Medes loved the good things in life and fighting together with the Assyrians.”

(kids start hitting each other)

“No, dears, I said that the two groups fought WITH each other. When King Astyage kicked the bucket in 550 BC it was kaput for the Medan kings. Enter the Persian king Cyrus II the Great. The Medes, who had been these ferocious fighters, began mimicking the Persians.

And that’s why it is always important for me to bore you with details about them in my bedtime story of perfume. As soon as the Persian dynasty was on its feet, its people indulged in crazy luxury!”

(kids fake snooze really loud)

“Now, even though you may read that these people were very smelly,”

“PHEW!” They all hold their noses.

“the kings and queens used special waters, lotions that had lovely aromas, and kohl on their face every day.”

“The kings looked like women.” Patchouli instigated. (giggles all around)

“Well, without this culture….”

“We know - roses wouldn’t be here.” The children say together.

“Could you please tell us our real favorite beddy story? Not the school-like one.” Little Jasmine requests politely.

Grammy senses the gentle little soul’s passion and straightens up.

“Well, legend or lore, here we go.”

(All of the children cuddle around next to her and look up wide-eyed)

“Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Amanda. She was a very unique young one, a little like you. (Points to Jasmine) Amanda‘s family was a very old-fashioned one. Amanda thought that this meant she had to go to college and do something extremely boring for a living. When she started to get older, she knew she always had a way with words so she decided to write a book. But, you can’t always get what you want. Amanda didn’t get no satisfaction from thinking about writing anymore.

So, she thought and she thought. ‘Sanctuary, a spa, is hiring right here in Detroit. Maybe, they’ll hire me to be a receptionist.’

Amanda journeyed to Sanctuary and her intuition felt something was amiss. She tried to shake it, but it weighed on her like a heavy brick. Once inside Sanctuary, Amanda began to choke. Pervading the air was an odor that smelled familiar, something like vanilla. Of course, Amanda became a distinguished receptionist. Contemplating this as the rest of her life, Amanda went to school to become a psychotherapist.”

“How are you kids feeling?”

Tango doesn’t even blink. “Grammy!” Tango groans.

Grammy Mandy continues, “Synthetica, the owner of Sanctuary, secretly disliked Amanda silly. No one who had ever worked at Sanctuary abandoned the company. That is, if anyone left, they left emotionally bereft. So, Synthetica began to plan how she was going to torment the unsuspecting Amanda. Meanwhile, Amanda’s headaches and rashes and allergies all began when she commenced her job. Upon graduation, Amanda went back to Sanctuary, to give her notice.”

Boronia began to look really scared.

Grammy hugged him tightly, “I’ll make it not so scary, okay?”

Boronia just nodded.

Grammy went on, “When Amanda went back, Synthetica laughed her wicked laugh and told her that she would never truly leave Sanctuary. The scent that pervaded the air was filled with synthetics. The headaches and rashes and allergies would be a part of her forever. Synthetica laughed her wicked laugh again. Amanda ran off to her therapy practice and cried it off.

Hungry and thirsty, Amanda relished her therapy practice, but it wasn’t enough. She had a little girl….

Kids at once, “Chloe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Grammy continued, “Yes, Chloe. Her angel Chloe suggested she take a day off and go to this fun event. Amanda did just that. She spent a day learning how to make solid natural perfumes and blew everyone away with her mix. Rejuvenated, Amanda read and read and collected every single book on perfume she could. As one who respected nature, Amanda wanted to make sure that she would only make perfumes that were made without synthetics. She continued to be a therapist to support herself as she learned.

At the same time, there was a young woman dabbling with all natural perfumes in South Beach, Florida. Annie-ya was just starting to sell her Rebel Essences, which were a hybrid between aromatherapy and natural perfumes. She was working with Kaufman’s contrast/comparison chart, but it just needed time to meld.”

Tango,”Grammy…”

Grammy - “Sorry. Meanwhile, Amanda wrote a book on Natural Perfumery. Annie-ya got her hands on it and it all came together. She started making only Natural Perfumes. Anytime someone would bug her and say, ‘That’s really aromatherapy.’ Annie-ya could help them understand the differences.”

Tango jumps in, “Natural Perfume uses concretes and tinctures and infusions and absolutes!!”

Ambergris purges, “Some Natural Perfumers use animal essences, but there aren’t any that test on animals. Aromatherapists don’t even use animal essences at all or test on them.

Rose blooms, “Natural Perfumery can be realllllllly expensive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Temple offers, “Natural Perfumery is an art. The perfumes evolve and morph into different experiences on different people. Aromatherapy is perfume that has a specific healing purpose for that person; it could be their mind or their body.”

Jasmine grandly mentions, “Aromatherapists are very cautious with their creations. They usually dilute the essences into oil, maybe 3-5% max. Natural Perfumers will use alcohol to dilute aromatics, as well as oils. They also raise the ratio of aromatics to oil/alcohol.”

Patchouli pushes, “Natural Perfumery is an artisan experience. Annie-ya sometimes labels her bottles by hand. Natural Perfumers don’t use recipes. They can be nice recipes: top, middle, and base notes. Nice, but simple.”

Grammy helps, “Aromatherapy has its place. It has certainly helped Natural Perfumers find such lavish and exotic aromatics. And in aromatherapy, well, Jeanne Rose and Robert Tisserand, Valerie Wormwood, among others, would emphasize that healing role that Temple mentioned. Anyway, back to the story….Annie-ya and Amanda met by accident. They were at a Gardening Festival and Annie-ya recognized Amanda and went up to her. By this point…”

Patchouli, “Natural Perfumery was blossoming.”

Grammy, “Well, yes. So, the ladies had lunch and discussed how synthetic perfume, “

Rose, “Is cheap.”

Tango, “Stinks forever and ever.”

Temple, “These synthetic perfumes are possibly causing harm to people and the environment due to their use of …”

Patchouli, “Possibly!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That’s what caused Mommy to get hurt! Those corporations don’t have any heart.”

Jasmine, “Take a breath, Patch. Synthetic perfumes are cheap and uniform; not so with Natural Perfumery. The aromatics can be so expensive and they vary from batch to batch. Who can control the climate? Sometimes, the extraction methods are even different.”

Grammy continued, “Yes, yes. The ladies discussed all of this and more. Annie-ya mentioned how she can’t stand the sillage that synthetics leave and Amanda agreed. Annie-ya laughed and relayed a story about a client who was upset that her custom perfume couldn’t be detected from several miles away and that when Annie-ya added some natural isolates to her next bottle, the client still complained. Amanda giggled and knew right away. It wasn’t exactly the same. She had a client like that, too. At the end of their lunch, Amanda gave Annie-ya the perfumes she carries in her purse to make her happy when people get her upset and Annie-ya did the same. Before Amanda went to volunteer to teach a class to people in jail and Annie-ya went to take care of her mother, they exchanged emails, Amanda gave Annie-ya the Natural Perfumers Guild, and they were like sisters for the rest of their lives. Now hop into your beds, quick!”

Patchouli, “Grammy, I’m not going anywhere until I hear the final part.”

Grammy, “Okay, but this ending is quicker because your parents are pulling up! Here we go, Amanda went back near Sanctuary and called. She asked the receptionist to have Synthetica step outside. Amanda saw Synthetica and Amanda felt pity, instead of rage. Amanda gave Synthetica all of Amanda’s solid perfumes in her purse and urged her to contact Annie-ya at the Guild. Synthetica contacted her and became a changed woman! Sanctuary became a place for homeless people needing shelter. It truly was a sanctuary.

Now hurry!”

Patchouli, “But, you forgot the organ and that it takes a long time to learn to be a Natural Perfumer and create a perfume and…”

And the children’s parents arrived home to ask the normal questions. Grammy Mandy always says the children were wonderful, knowing that Chloe hears the giggling upstairs.

“I love you, Mom.” Chloe hugs her mother.

“You’ll always be my baby, Chloe.” Grammy Mandy holds on with tears in her eyes.

I love lavender - and new study says you should, too

One of my earliest scent memories is the fresh, uplifting scent of lavender soap. I know I liberally splashed on Yardley English Lavender cologne from about age 10 or so, when I got my first bottle. Always floral, herbal and clean, it's always has made me smile. It's one of the few "unisex" scents meaning men and women use it with no thought associations that it is more relevant to the opposite sex. For example, many men may balk at wearing a rose scent, but not lavender.

I have about 20 different extracts of lavender in my perfumer's organ: organic essential oils from South Africa, England and the United States; conventioanlly farmed essential oils from all over the world; high altitude from the French Alps; absolutes and concretes from several different countries and several different species other than the most common one I'm discussing here, which is Lavandula vera aka L. angustifolia. I dilute them out to evaluate them, and I find one emotional thread running through all of them - they relax and inspire me, they make me feel ten years old again, and I love them.

I have yet to use lavender in one of my perfumes, but I do plan to in the future. The fragrance will be set like a crown jewel in a mossy, tender background.

A report out of Japan bolsters lavender's use in aromatherapy. They found that sniffing lavender may enhance antioxidant levels in the body, and also may lower the dreaded hormone cortisol's levels. No wonder I feel young when I sniff it - that's just my unscientific anecdotal opinion to bolster my belief in the study ;-)

I cannot find the study cited on the RealAge site, and if anyone can, please let me know.

Robert Tisserand cites a study here, but it's not the same study. I have found other studies on infants and monkeys, but not the study on co-eds.

Just a soft little blog on a beautiful Monday morning, a love letter to lavender, and I'm off to sniff some now, maybe make a light massage oil.

Defining the word Natural

I recently attended an online webinar that addressed natural flavors and fragrances and one of the topics discussed was "developing realistic definitions of what is, and is not, natural." First, as a lead-in they talked about the various ins and outs of the word "organic", how it is defined and the legislation that governs that word. The various agencies that have a piece the action as far as defining "organic" is large, varied, international, and (typically) non-binding. I'm deliberately vague because that definition is a related, but different subject from what I wish to cover here. The term organic seems rather fluid at times to me, and to write about it would keep me blogging for days, so I will pass on that effort.

The word natural in the flavor and fragrance industries is unregulated at this time. That means that any company, for any reason, can label a product natural in an effort to market to the yoga moms and other marketing demographic that yearns to use a produce that comes from a "natural" source. At this time there are countless companies selling perfumes labeled natural that are composed of synthetic chemicals. For this reason, we in the Natural Perfumers Guild support the effort to define the term natural.

However, a problem came up when the speaker addressing the definition of what they consider a natural aromatic said that only distilled, extracted, tinctured, infused, CO2-extracted or otherwise innocuously derived aromatics would be considered natural in draft proposed legislative language they're working on. Concretes and absolutes were mentioned as not meeting this criteria, since they are extracted via solvents, such as hexane.

We in the Guild define a natural perfume as one that contains natural aromatics. This includes concretes and absolutes which are extracted via hexane, petroleum ether and other solvents. These solvents are typically carried over into the finished product in the ppm or ppb, and many, if not most, are considered so safe as to meet GRAS standards for food products.

If concretes and absolutes were left out of the definition of allowable aromatics that are natural, that could cripple the ability of natural perfumers to employ the full palette of aromatics, as we would not be able to call our products natural perfumes.

The speaker stated that the Natural Products Association is spearheading the Natural Personal Care Product Standard initiative and that the committee would be meeting the week of April 8th and that a copy of the initiative would be available on their site. I searched but could not find it.

So I put out a call on the Yahoo Natural Perfumery group and the Yahoo NPG groups I host asking for a volunteer with legislative experience who could dig deeper, since time was of the essence, and an old hand with such matters could cut to the chase.

I couldn't have gotten a better person to step up - Steve Earl of Glen Custom Perfumery immediately wrote me and offered his services. He worked on a lot of legislation in the past, and after an hour-long phone conversation, I knew I could have complete confidence in him to relay the concerns, wording and interest of the Natural Perfumers Guild to the proper sources.

Steve immediately drafted a letter to the folks we we needed to reach. The exchange between Steve and the other professionals was increasingly synergistic, the definitions and ideas flowed freely, and within a day he was in touch with the NPA rep in DC who will be at the initiative meeting next week. There will now be an investigation into OVI (Organic Volatile Impurities) levels and we'll need to get our ducks in a row to work through this process, but the quick and responsive communications are very, very encouraging for many reasons.

Thank you Steve! The Guild is tiny and we depend upon the volunteers to help us with our forays into legislation, technical areas, public relations, committees and all matters of opportunities and issues that come up. I will post here as more developments occur in the definition of naturals, especially as it relates to our ability to create natural perfumes.