The arrival of winter brings to mind old memories of my childhood spent in Eastern Europe, precisely in Slovakia, in a small village surrounded by changes and woods.
​The days were cold, wet and short. When evening approached, my grandmother, a woman already old and consumed by work, even when she was young, used to prepare strong black tea with spices. with just a drop of honey. She made us sit around the table telling us fairy tales. I vividly remember those moments: the wood crackling in the old stove, the smell of the cast iron top heated by the flame. Grandmother used to put on the stove some oranges or mandarins that perfumed the room and grains of incense, which slowly melted creating an olfactory background to the stories. Along with the love for roses, my grandmother also transmitted to me the love for these smells that for me are always associated with the traditions that revolved around the winter solstice, the day I was born.
Many years later I had the opportunity to meet a person who travels the world in search of new and special raw materials. I call him the Indiana Jones of incense. In addition to researching these raw materials, he teaches indigenous peoples how to extract them to create a sustainable production cycle. Together with him and through his acquaintances, I had the opportunity to discover new essences.

Returning to us, I have always been fascinated by this mix of aromas that accompanied my childhood. I've always looked for the best way to catch them.
Living part of the time in the country house, the most used material to heat it is wood. Some of the essences have strongly perfumed woods, while others, after a period of seasoning, acquire particular aromatic nuances. Among my favorites that I often use in alcohol extractions are lime, acacia, pine, larch, magnolia. They are woods that are easy to manipulate and shred or you can buy shavings or sawdust as waste material in sawmills. The wooden material (small pieces, sawdust, shavings, twigs) I let them dry then I proceed with extraction with alcohol in the form of dye. I leave the material to macerate for several weeks, sometimes for months because from my personal experience, the aroma of the final extract is richer and fuller.

There are two other kinds of wood that I love to use: two species of oak Quercus Petraea and Quercus Robur
Both are easy to find. I collect the fallen branches, let them dry, grind them and then I toast them in the oven to enhance their woody, smoky and spicy aspects.
Resins such as various types of incense, myrrh, balms are readily available. They are odorous substances of vegetable origin, insoluble in water but often fat-soluble and of high molecular weight. Some of them are exudates, while others are an integral part of the tissues of the plant itself. They have various chemical compositions and can occur spontaneously or due to stress.
They have very distinct olfactory profiles and can add warm or cold aspects to a blend depending on the raw material used. They give depth, sometimes a dark and mysterious character, they can serve to anchor the other essences in a blend. The resins may be extracted by distillation, extraction with solvents such as, for example, alcohol that is easy to perform even at home. A very particular extraction process is to capture the smell emanating from a resin if burned or heated. 
To discover this method and others, I invite you to enrol in the raw material extraction course where different techniques and different raw materials are dealt with.

Prepare an Interior Christmas Perfume
Different spices are also part of our daily life. I must confess that I don't extract most of them directly, only some particular spices such as certain types of pepper, wild carrot seeds and mace, the shell that covers the nutmeg seed.
In the winter I prepare an alcohol-based Interior Christmas Perfume, a mixture composed of:
20g of cloves
10g part of cinnamon
Zest of an orange
Some eucalyptus leaves
3/4 bay leaves
1 sprig of rosemary
1 nutmeg
1 tonka bean
10 drops of fir essential oil
All the dry material is crushed in a mortar, poured into a glass container and covered with 300 ml of alcohol. The container is left to rest for 2 weeks, shaking it frequently. After two weeks, the content is filtered and is ready to be used to perfume the rooms, Christmas decorations or doormats in front of the house. It is an old recipe from my grandmother who instead of alcohol boiled all the material together but for easy storage, the formula was reworked with an alcohol base and with the addition of some raw materials.

Last month’s newsletter article discussed three value-market fundamentals every business should practice in these very challenging times. Let’s expand on these basics starting with the first fundamental:
To develop a totally value-based business to differentiate you from the competition and persuade growing numbers of high value customers there is greater value in your products than that of other competitive products. 
A key word here is “differentiate.” 
​
To succeed against stronger, well-financed competition, businesses can attract more customers by giving them better choices (differentiation) for what they purchase. This is where value and value-added come in. Competition, by the way, is much stronger than most people think it is with budgets the way they are.
If you sell to consumers, you are competing with everything they need to purchase or want to purchase. That’s quite a list!
​
To attract and keep customers you will be needing every value-added tool available. Why should consumers purchase your perfume or essential oil instead of something else? Can you give them ten reasons why? Twenty?    
Establishing yourself as an expert in Natural Essences within your community is empowering because it gives you the capacity to help your community make the right choices for healthier and safer lifestyles.
Obviously, anyone who wishes to become and continue to be an expert in Natural Essences must have a great deal of accurate knowledge about Natural Essences, which is where the value of continuing education comes in. 
If you are a Natural Perfumer, you also need expertise as an aromatherapist, and the reverse is true for Natural Aromatherapists needing Natural Perfumery. Having knowledge of the history of perfume also has important benefits and needs to be studied. 
Continuing Natural Essences education along with effective messaging of the value of Natural Essences will lead to clear, positive distinctions between your up-to-date expertise and the lack of expertise from your competition.

Three Action Steps to Implement Beginning Today

1. Identify and include in your value proposition all the things you do that make you and the products you sell more valuable to consumers than competitive alternatives. Careful sourcing. Commitment to natural. School accreditations. Certifications. Experience.
2. Keep making yourself and your products more valuable by regularly adding value. Continuing education is a superb way to accomplish this.
3. Focus on being an expert within your local community. Use your continually growing value to effectively communicate your expertise to those who need to know. 

Perfume has always had a sacred meaning connecting man with the divine, but did you know that it had other more "therapeutic" roles such as protecting or even preserving the good health of the body?
The oldest knew it and they used essences, resins in various forms for this action. Fumigations, anointing, and also accessories for carrying perfume were used as early as ancient Egypt. This way of proceeding was then taken up again during ancient Rome and then came to Europe through the Crusades.
​This accessory diffused the scent of aromatics, animal raw materials and various resins thanks to the body heat. It is said then that he helped protect himself from the Black Death and other miasmas of the time. Far from being a tool or means of seduction, this perfume had above all a medicinal function above all.

Nostradamus Recipe
Michel de Nostredame had a similar method and formula but a rather different procedure. The "rose tablets" were made by soaking a pound of roses without the flower heads in deer musk water overnight. The water was then carefully wrung out and the roses crushed with seven ounces of benzoin, a quarter of ambergris and another of civet musk. This mixture was made into tablets, which were each sandwiched between rose petals and dried in a cool, dark place.  To form the final pomander, two ounces of the purest labdanum, one ounce each of styrax and benzoin resin, half an ounce of rose tablets, one ounce of violet powder, and half a dram each of ambergris and musk were ground into powder and kneaded with rose water from the manufacture of rose tablets. This produced "an aromatic ball of the most sublime and long-lasting scent that could be made anywhere in the world" it seems.

If you were to create a pomander today with existing raw materials, what would the formula be? 
Become a natural perfumer and discover how to formulate natural fragrances; discover the program and register quickly before November 8th. The French Natural perfumery program opens its doors for 8 exciting weeks!
And if you want to learn more about the history of pomanders don’t miss Creezy Courtoy’s World Perfume History MasterClass starting on December 6. ​

There are plants from which we are not surprised that essential oil or an absolute is extracted. Their use is understandable due to their aromatic properties: think of a rose, jasmine, basil, etc. They are "obvious" raw materials. They have now become fundamental in a perfumer's palette. But there are also those which we will not immediately think could be used. I love these, curious and sometimes even strange essences.

Follow a Natural Olfaction Training Course or a Raw Material Extraction Method Course with Pr. Andrej Babicky

Make no Mistake; Selling to Consumers Today is as Difficult as it Has Ever Been, and it Doesn’t Appear it Will be Easing up Anytime Soon. 
With competition so strong from large brick-and-mortar retailers as well as rapidly growing online retail activity, continued success for high value retailers will increasingly depend following these three basic value-marketing fundamentals:

1. Develop a totally value-based business to differentiate you from the competition and persuade growing numbers of high value customers there is greater value in your products than that of other competitive products. 
2. Target consumers who demand more value, will pay more for receiving value, and if satisfied will repurchase again and again.
3. Follow the New Luxury Code, the most important value-marketing fundamental. 

The New Luxury Code is about recognizing and acknowledging the value of ourselves and the world surrounding us. 
It is a continuing reminder of what is important to respect and why; and because of its importance, the New Luxury Code should be part of the value proposition of everyone involved in the high value essential oil distribution chain community from seeds to consumers.

How Can High Value Retailers Express Their Respect for Consumers?

1. Understand what represents value to them and then provide that value. Consumers want natural products, free from GMO and synthetic chemicals. They also want to know more about who produced their products and whether they were produced sustainably.
2. Always treat customers courteously and professionally, even if you disagree with them. Angry customers tell more of their friends about their negative experiences, as opposed to loyal customers sharing positive stories.
3. Establish yourself as an expert in your community. Education empowers retailers by differentiating them from large, powerful competitors, so educate yourself and then educate the community or communities you serve. 

Make sure your customers and the rest of the high value essential oil distribution chain community get the respect they deserve by following the New Luxury Code.
 
Terry Johnson will be teaching marketing starting February 2022

​As we enter months of fall season, we can feel the cooler dryer weather. Nature is busy trying to shake off the leaves off trees, so the dead leaves can decompose and provide nutrients for the soil that plants and trees feed on. I also look for what I can use from nature in this season to feed my dry skin and to keep warm.
I decided to make bath salts that I can use in body and foot baths. I pulled off petals from two Marigold and blended the fresh flower petals with Epsom salts. Marigold is very soothing for the skin and colored the salts a beautiful soft yellow. The petals completely disappeared into the salts.

​I sprinkled a little Safflower petals as Safflowers helps with circulation. To prevent itchy dry skin, I added my red infused Gromwell oil and grated a little coco butter into the bath salts. For scents, I sprinkled some dried orange peel grains that I saved for my tea. I also added little bit of black pepper and ginger essential oils. Ginger, black pepper and a hint of orange warm the body and increase blood circulation. 
​​This is definitely Fall inspired bath salts using colors of fall and scents to warm the soul and body.

Nefertum (Nefertem, Nefertemu) was an ancient god, the God of Perfumers and Aromatherapists ( at this time perfumers were all aromatherapists ) mentioned in the Pyramid Texts (c. 2350 BC), but became more prominent during the New Kingdom (1539 - c. 1075 BC) and later.

Nefertum was the son of Ptah and Sekhmet.
Ptah, his father, was the creator God and the Patron of artisans.
His mother, Sekhmet, was the Goddess with a dragon head who protected Egypt from its enemies but she was also the Goddess of plants and herbs and the Patron of medical and alchemist distillation.  Nefertum ruled over ointments and perfumed oils.

In Ancient Egypt, fragrances were considered as the essence of materialization of all things. Nefertum was thus considered the spirit of life. 
He represented beauty in its perfection and was associated with purification and youthfulness. His symbol and representation was the blue lotus flower, the sacred flower of Egypt through which the sun rose. 
Nefertum was the god of the lotus blossom who emerged from the primeaval waters at the beginning of time, and a god of perfume and aromatherapy. 
Nefertum was the god of healing, medicine and beauty and strongly associated with the lotus and often depicted in Egyptian art with a large lotus blossom forming his crown. The lotus was the only flowering plant in Egypt that bloomed nonstop throughout the year. Held by gods and goddesses near the nose of royal kings, queens and pharaohs as its scent, this flower was believed to be restorative and protective. 

Nefertum was seen as the sun god and the grandson of the sun god.
He was not originally worshipped in temples, but was an important aspect of the sun god, who was later discovered as the grandson of the sun god.
For the people in Egypt, he was their protector and their healer. 
Nefertum was linked both to the pleasant scent of the lotus flower and to its medical properties which were well known to the ancient Egyptians.
​He was also associated with a number of the Egyptians favorite flowers, such as rose, geranium and cornflower. In fact, he could be described as the archetypal aromatherapist.
According to one legend, he brought a bouquet of beautiful lotuses to the aging Ra to ease his suffering. As a result, he was described in the Pyramid Texts as "the lotus blossom which is before the nose of Ra".  He may have originally been considered to be an aspect of Atum. According to one version of the creation story of the Ennead in Heliopolis, Nefertum (translated as beautiful Atum, or perfect Atum) was born from a blue lotus bud which emerged from the waters of Nun at the beginning of creation.
Atum represented the sun and so Nefertum represented the sunrise. He cried because he was alone and his tears created humanity. It was thought that he was born with every sunrise, matured into Atum during the day before passing into the world of the dead every sunset. The cycle of birth in the morning and death every evening (as the sun travelled through the underworld) represented the daily struggle between Chaos and Order (Ma´at).  When Atum was absorbed by Ra (Atum-Ra), Nefertum came to be considered as a seperate deity, still closely associated with the newborn sun. Then Ptah was promoted to the chief national god and proclaimed the ultimate creator, and Nefertum was described as his son by either Sekhmet or Bast (both "Daughters of Ra"). However, as the son of Ptah, he also became patron of the perfume and healing arts derived from flowers. Thus, Nefertum was seen as both an aspect of the sun god, and also his grandson.  He was also linked to rebirth, both as a personification of the newborn sun and as the patron of many of the necessary ingredients of the mummification process. A passage of the Book of the Dead says the blessed dead will 

The Egyptian pantheon is particularly huge and fluid, with a wide variety of deities entering and exiting each other's myths.
Nefertum used to be depicted as a beautiful young man wearing a lotus headdress, sometimes standing on the back of a lion.
Occasionally he wears a headdress with two feathers and two necklace weights that were fertility symbols associated with Hathor (who in turn was closely associated with the two goddesses described as his mother, Sekhmet and Bast).
He was sometimes depicted as a man with the head of a lion or as a reclining lion or cat. In this form, he was associated with the lion god Maahes, who may have been his brother, but may also have been an aspect of Nefertum. Like the newborn sun, he was generally depicted as a beautiful baby sitting on a lotus bud. Sometimes his body was shown wrapped like a mummy, with his arms and face unbound. He also had a lion or cat shape, attributed to his mother. He was also depicted as a human head emerging from a large water lily.

The lotus flower flourishes on the banks of the Nile. It opens its large petals with the rising of the sun. To the ancient Egyptians it represented the sun because it banished darkness. Blue Lotus played a unique and important role in Ancient Egyptian culture. The plant was widely popular for its mood enhancing and mild psychedelic properties. Used both recreational and for spiritual effects, they often made a concoction out of Blue Lotus and wine. 

This flower has even been placed alongside the deceased in ancient tombs. The plant is often depicted on walls and paintings as well, often depicted together with wine. 
The Blue Lotus was even the symbol for the union of Upper and Lower Egypt. Commonly used in art as a symbol of Upper Egypt. It was often shown with its long stems intertwined with papyrus reeds (a symbol of Lower Egypt) as a representation of the unification of the two lands.

For the Ancient Egyptians, The Blue Lotus represented how the sky greeted the sun. Just as the sun rises above the horizon to start the day, the flower opens in the morning. Then just when the sun is setting, the flower closes itself at dusk. And because of this, the Egyptians coined the Blue Lotus the sacred flower of the sun and sun gods. 

As this symbol means also the creation and rebirth, the lotus is a fixed part of tomb and coffin decoration, often in combination with the scarab, which has similar symbolic meaning. 

If you want to learn more about national flowers visit my blog 
powerfulflower.blogspot.com

Aromatic Journal of an Olfaction Trainer
by Maria Rodriguez Genna

​One of the exercises during Creezy Courtoy’s olfactory training course was to be fully conscious of our sense of smell and to note our progression everyday. It was an interesting experience being purposely smelling everything to train my nose. 
  
First day: What I recognized is the smell of skin. Clean skin, dirty skin, also my little daughter received a vaccine so I smelled her arm and I noticed a change in her natural scent, not long afterwards, but it was more noticeable the next day. On the street I smelled the salty air, the fresh green aroma of the trees, the gasoline obnoxious scents from the traffic.

Second day: I tried smelling ice, although it just smells like water, practically inodorous, the cool feeling has an effect on the nose. This cold scent is difficult to describe. It’s fresh, cold, sharp, almost metallic or even gassy like smelling nitrogen or helium. I didn’t go out for many days because my daughter became ill with fever for days due to the vaccine and I had to stay home to take care of her. So I did experiments with what I had around me at home, like laundry, cleaning items, medicines, etc.
                 
Third day: I did a different exercise, I used imagery to recall or remember how a scent smelled. Like the sea and the beach, or for example amber notes, how a cake would smell,etc.
 I also used images like paintings and tried to imagine how colors would relate to scents, for examples amber notes, the color already tells us of possibly resinous, heavy notes or even honeyed, white can be powdery, heady aromas, narcotic. So it was like trying to smell a painting.
                 
Fourth day: I tried imagining what notes would have a perfume I’d like to create, and if they would harmonize. When I imagined the notes, the scents came to mind, like a faint sketch of a drawing, with colors and scents. I would need materia prima for experimenting with these notes and to corroborate if my imagination was correct and they are harmonious or not.
                 
Fifth day: I quickly went to pick a package to the post office but with masks it’s difficult to smell much, only this cottony artificial scent it has, very unpleasant. They smell a lot like hospital sanitizer. It’s an interesting observation, how if we are very distracted with chores or if we go out but are thinking about something while we walk, we tend to lose the scents, because our attention is overpowered by thoughts and our other senses. This is something I’m trying to train myself to, because very easily my other senses overpower my nose, unless of course I close my eyes or try to consciously smell, with intention and full attention.

Last day: Noses can get accustomed to some smells, that is an observation.
I need to focus on something different for a few minutes, then I can revisit certain smells to be able to analyze them. My dry allergic nose doesn’t help either. So much pollen in the air, it can be smelled and it makes the throat and nose powdery and itchy. I will keep training because I’m very used to daily scents, that they disappear into the background. Usually opening a window helps, I notice it moves scents around and that makes my brain perceive them better.
I’m trying to train my nose to human skin odor. Just like I can recognize my little daughter’s natural skin scent, I’m trying to consciously remember or discreetly smell people close to me,to see if I can learn their unique aroma. It would be like taking an aromatic photograph to remember them.  So far, I’m being successful with people that are very close to me. 
The challenge is to smell different people and without them noticing -hahaha- but it’s an interesting anthropologic experiment. There’s someone I know, a really good friend, that smells incredibly good and it’s not perfume but natural scent. So all this research made by Creezy Courtoy about gorillas is starting to make sense, how they can recognize each other by scent, chose healthy future partners, etc.  For someone in this field it is normal musings, but for the rest of the world it is politically incorrect so I have to be cautious if I will be training with human species. Gorillas would appreciate me getting to know them by scent much more!

For years I worked in the culinary world- as a server, a sommelier, as a manager. One thing that has always been a professional standard is that you don’t wear perfume while working near food and wine.  In fact, if you wear scent during your sommelier exam you automatically fail the service portion of your test.

What grows together grows together
One spring I was lucky enough to have a Barolo tasting that changed my life. It was spring and the patio we were tasting on was covered in jasmine- that pink sweet jasmine that takes over my home town of Venice Beach at certain times a year. The Barolo just seemed to taste and smell with more beauty  and nuance with that aromatic addition of (the jasmine) nature!
Especially notable since jasmine grows so beautifully in Italy where the Nebbiolo grapes of Barolo grow.
​It was an aha moment for me because I realized that if you follow the guiding principles of wine pairing you understand that what grows together grows together. So why do we not do perfume and wine pairings? Often that is because synthetic scents don’t grow with nebbiolo grapes, pinot noir grapes or anything else. They are isolated in a lab even if they had a natural beginning. They no longer contain that beating heart of nature but there is also a more assertive sillage to molecules made in a lab (even “natural” isolates) that prevents ones ability to fully smell and taste food and wine to its fullest capacity. 

Why does that “beating heart of nature” matter when it comes to perfume and wine?
For me it goes back to the principals of Rudolph Steiner (who began the modern biodynamics movement in regenerative farming) and biodynamics.  As someone who tasted wine and also directed wine tastings and winemaker dinners for years I have experienced on so many occasions how the biodynamic calendar and its “fruit and flowers days” (which are based on the moon and the tides) can fully impact a tasting and how people experience scent and taste. Even the most hardened not natural seeming sommeliers will pull up the biodynamic calendar to see how their wine is going to show on a given day. 
This works with wine because it is still a living, evolving whole ingredient ageable aromatic of nature. These principals do not work with items or ingredients that are so processed they no longer belong to this living cycle- a traditional designer fragrance is the same day after day. It does not evolve in time nor does it have the energetic imprint that is offered with a truly natural perfume. For this reason I started doing perfume and wine pairings with natural perfume and ingredients to help demonstrate to people the living difference that is possible with truly natural perfume.
​
A society whose noses have been dulled by a false sense of smell
There is something remarkable that happens when you pair a hydrosdistilled jasmine with a rose wine that has a floral component. First you smell and then you taste so many different levels of what these incredible gifts of nature have to offer. It becomes crystal clear that something different is happening with a natural perfume than we have learned to expect from a synthetic when we allow it to be experienced with retronasal olfaction (nose and taste buds).  There are layers of scent and taste that are unlocked that can entirely bewitch and help shift ones appreciation of these natural beauties. 
So many products that people use are scented with synthetics that are louder than our natural environment. Before someone even applies a synthetic scent they have quite literally been nose blinded by all of the other products they have applied to their bodies (shampoo, body lotion, cleaning products, fabric softener). It has led to a society whose noses have been dulled by a false sense of smell. Many of us have forgotten what real flowers or soil smells like because the idea of the fake one has taken over.  

Go to the farmers market
So here is my pairing challenge!  Go to the farmers market (if you have one nearby) and pick out some fruit that is in season, your favorite whole ingredient natural perfume or essential oil and grab some rose wine. Sit down and breathe in each of the aromatics, drink the wine and eat that beautiful fruit.  I find it to be transcendent to experience these things together. From a sensory point of view this is a great tool of education on the possibilities of returning to the beauty that was one experienced with all perfume before they were taken from the earth and rebirthed in a lab. 
 All over the world people are finding ways to help combat global warming with regenerative farming but I think the natural perfume world has an opportunity to help people remember what it is we are fighting for: the native plants uncommonly utilized, the beauty of biodiversity, and the possibility of a rebirth of how we experience and share aromatics.

Black Tea and Rose Rose Sangria.
It’s rose (wine) season and so many are being released this time of year!
I recommend trying this with a deeper rose (think Bordeaux varietals, or an Italian, Spanish or Chilean rose).

• Take one glass of the bottle and tincture overnight with a loose organic black tea and then filter the leaves out.
• Add 4 ounces of natural red fruit juice (pomegranate works great in this), the rest of the wine and tea tincture and put over ice.
• Too with dried rose petals and enjoy! 

Sangria Verde.

• Make a punch of green guavas, white wine (a Malvasia or Riesling works beautifully for their aromatics), aromatic herbs from your garden or farmers market (and if you are daring a little chile works if the wine is sweeter).
• Soak over night and pour over ice.
• Top with organic marigolds or any organic edible flowers you have at your disposal! 

All sangrias or punches may work differently depending on wine choice - a little citrus like a splash of blood orange always works great!

 

APRIL 27-28 2019 (SATURDAY, SUNDAY)
NATURAL SKINCARE WORKSHOP Study of Creams & Lotions in Natural Skincare:
Learn the key components that go into making natural, organic and non-toxic creams/lotions for yourself, family and friends. Products used will be simple natural ingredients to make gentle, yet effective skincare moisturisers.  
​Cost: $280 ( non- member) $155 (member).

MAY 5 - 2019 (SUNDAY)
NATURAL SOY CANDLE & INCENSE WORKSHOPStudents will learn the basics of making soy tea-light candles and votive candles, using essential oils and natural plant dyes. In addition, students will learn to make cone incense using all plant materials.  
​Cost: $195 ( non-member) $100 ( IPF member)

MAY 19 - 2019 (SUNDAY)
INDIGO DYEING WORKSHOP, THE BASICSStudents will learn different ways of making Indigo Vats. Students will build a collection of Indigo dyed linen, wool and silk samples, including indigo over-dyed samples.
Each student will have a silk scarf to experiment simple Shibori techniques for dyeing. 
Cost: $195 ( non- member) $100 ( IPF member).

JUNE 22-23  2019  (SATURDAY AND SUNDAY)
SOAP MAKING WORKSHOP WITH NATURAL DYES:
This is an intensive soap making workshop. Students will learn to make bar soaps and various decorative techniques using Natural dyes. Different techniques including Hand Milling, Impression, Embedding, and Marbling. On Day 2, students will learn to make liquid and foam soap. Formulas will be provided that you can use to build your own soap recipes. 
​Cost: $345 (non-member) $225 (IPF member).