Living in harmony with Nature –

When nature whispers – we listen, when she floods the air with her volatile aromas, we rush to capture them. 

Our jasmine at home ,is in full bloom – filling the evening with a sweet floral melody – one which I want to capture for my perfumes. I plan to create an oil masceration in Jojoba oil.

My mom and I are hard at work each evening , picking the delicate open flowers in order to lay them in palm butter , to perform the ancient french perfumery technique of enfleurage – used to capture the essence of flowers, and laying them into the jojoba oil to soak out the precious fragrant essence of the flower.

This is a time consuming task and the flowers need to be replaced every single day for at least 8-12 days. One has to be very sure of a good supply of flowers before beginning 

The Yesterday ,Today and Tomorrow is also blooming at just the same time. this bush is extremely generous with its glorious fragrance and abundant flowers 

The flowers start off deep purple today, then turn lilac tomorrow and are white by the next day

The Palm Butter gently coaxes the aromas from the flowers over time . It is a lesson in patience , respecting time and nature as it gently yields its perfume to the fat medium. 

After loading the fat for as many days as you are able to repeat the process without the fat growing nasty moulds, the fat is scraped into jars to be washed for three weeks with natural sugar cane alcohol.

This washing process entails daily shaking of the bottle to transfer  the fragrance molecules from the fat to the alcohol.

After more than 6 weeks, of daily interaction , this will be ready for use.

No wonder natural perfumes are costly and precious.