Damascena, Centifolia, Bourbonia, Moschatus, and how!

May had me in the planning stages of a project based around roses, and June has seen that to completion, sort of. We’re still blending and reblending and aging and tweaking, but I think that the rosy end of the tunnel is approaching!

The rose is one of the longest-cultivated flowers. It is traditionally known as the Queen of flowers, where Jasmine is King. And there are so many aromatic species being used in perfumery. And then the species vary geographically, in hue and shading.

Rosa damascena from Turkey varies from that grown in Bulgaria, for example. My bottle of Turkish rose has a bright shrillness reminiscent of tea roses and lemon, of all things. But the Bulgarian rose is faintly warm and almost edible in its sweetness.

And the various species and extractions vary greatly in consistency. I have phytonic extractions of the damascena and moschatus species, which tend to be waxier, resembling a thick pectin-laden jam. Traditional solvent-extractions tend to be closer to an oil in consistency, the exception being the bourbonia species which tends to produce waxy extractions.

Rose otto, a steam-distillation of the petals, crystallizes just below room temperature.

And though it is an exercise in filtering and possibly futility, I still try to work w/ rose concrete, despite its waxy and hard texture. I have Rosa bourbonia and Rosa damascena in concrete form. The best possible thing is dissolving and aging for an eternity, and then using the tincture drop by drop, I’m starting to think.

I’m hoping to write about white water lily and blue lotus (both of them phytonic extractions) in the next entry, depending on how much blending I get done this week!

Demeter and Hekate are still available. I’ve about 10 bottles of each left, at present.

And after a couple months of procrastination, I’ve finally put up a page of perfumes from the various collections that work particularly well with male chemistry, available individually, and as samplers.