BODY AND SOUL
Herbal Body Fragrances
June/July 2001
By Theresa Loe
Capture plant essences from the garden for long-lasting
enjoyment.
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Since ancient times, scented body products have
been used to seduce, entice, influence, and heal. The queen of
Sheba reportedly used aromatics to seduce King Solomon. Cleopatra
used scents to influence the Greeks and Romans. People of many
different cultures wore plant essences in an effort to prevent
illness and plague. Even Napoleon enjoyed herbal scents; he
reportedly used up to sixty bottles of rosemary cologne a
month!
For me, making herbal perfumes, powders, and oils is a way of
capturing a little bit of my garden to be enjoyed later. Fragrance
is the very heart and soul of my patch of herbs, and wearing that
fragrance is a way of keeping my garden close by throughout the
day.
Even if you don’t have a garden of your own, there are many ways
to capture and wear herbal fragrances. Essential oils and a few
ingredients found at the local supermarket can be combined to
create very effective perfumes, powders, and body sprays. You can
use just one fragrance note at a time, such as lavender, rose, or
peppermint, or you can combine two or more essential oils to create
your own personal signature fragrance.
The recipes here are very basic, but if you crave more
information on perfumery, several books teach the fine art of
blending natural perfumes. As you try the different recipes,
remember that you can always experiment and substitute different
oils to suit your taste. That’s part of the fun.
Making your own fragrant products gives you great freedom of
choice. Using the principles of aromatherapy, you can decide how
you want your fragrances to affect you and those around you. For
example, you may want to wear lavender for its calming, refreshing
effects, sweet orange because it is uplifting, or rosemary for
mental stimulation. However, you must use pure essential oils
(distilled using water and steam) or absolutes (essences extracted
with the use of a solvent such as alcohol) in order to reap these
benefits. Synthetic fragrance oils do not offer the same
results.
Some pure essential oils can be very expensive or hard to find.
Attar of roses and oil of neroli can cost about $200 per ounce.
(You may choose to simply omit the neroli from the solid perfume
recipe). Other essences, such as vanilla, are hard to find in a
pure absolute. From such natural products, however, come superior
fragrance and less chance of an allergic reaction. Expensive
essential oils are often available in very small quantities, such
as 1/16 oz. or .5 g. These tiny amounts are perfectly adequate,
however, because you only need a few drops per recipe.
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