The Nature of Natural Perfumery

in the center, a small heart
changing, growing
for ages


...life force
...the circle.
Nature is our cloak.

The Creativity of Natural Perfumery

While I am creating perfumes I find my brain slips into alpha mode. My imagination runs riot and I feel myself becoming totally and completely absorbed in my work. Like meditating and making love it makes me forget myself. I know when I am in the zone because I can no longer feel my seat under me, and in a way I am no longer in my body. I am floating up high on wafts of sweet florals and shiny resins, of warm ambers and animalic musks and honey. Time ceases to have any meaning. I am in the habit of having my pen and notebook at my side and making a note of everything I do. If I add one more drop of an essence to a blend I will write it down. At intervals I will put the dropper down and close the bottles and write perfumes like poetry on the pages.

While I am getting to know each of my essences I smell and close my eyes. I will often see a face or hear a voice. I meet a character somewhere in the aroma I am chasing, I make a new friend.
Recently I was getting to know Champaca, at first I thought the character was female. A bit like seeing a persons back and guessing that you are looking at a girl, then they turn around and you realise you were wrong. Champaca is a pre-pubesent boy, at that age when a boys facial features are still soft and skin has a translucent glow to it. In my mind I heard his voice, not yet broken, he said softly "Hi, I'm Champaca". He tells me his life story, he tells me he is the son of Jasmine Grandiflorum, I tell him I know his father well.

Natural perfumery materials are as complex and unique as individual people, they interact with each other in a similar way. Sometimes they dance and sing and sometimes the fight and clash.

More Expose - Page 10 to 17

By this stage I am sure that the author of the primer, Ms McCoy will have recruited a few individuals to feel sorry for her. I say to those individuals, stop and think for a moment. What I am doing needs to be done. What I am saying needs to be said. Would any one of them be feeling sympathy for her had they forked out 800.00 USD for what was supposed to be an educational document?
I think not. The world is full of charlatans, people willing to lie and cheat to make a fast buck. It is down to me now to expose the author of the so called Natural Perfumery Primer.

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The Balance of Natural Perfumery

There was a fine balance in everything she did.
Her laughter was filled with tears.
She made stones her pillows and her walls from cloth.
Her eyes were ancient and her face was young.
Half the time she was my friend and the other half my enemy.
_______________________________________________

Loyalty and feelings of allegiance

• Keeping the faith.

• Staying true to the cause.

• Saying no when everyone else is saying yes.

• Loyalty in the face of temptation
  

These are all expressions of loyalty, but how do they relate to natural perfumery?
There is an important word word which encapsulates it all, and that's the word "integrity". A natural perfumery must have integrity. I mean, it's just the perfumer alone at her organ blending. It's up to her what goes into the perfume she is creating. What happens when she suspects that the little sample somebody sent to her is synthetic? Does she try it out? Does she use it and think "just a tad won't hurt anybody"? Or does she throw it away and not even entertain the thought of ever using a synthetic material.

Loyalty allows for something very precious to develop in the hands of the natural perfumer, and that is trust, trust is an integral part of the art and the business. It means that any person who uses your perfume knows that it is 100% natural, no compromises, ever!

..and what's love got to do with it?

A love of Natural Perfumery is a *warm attachment, enthusiasm, or devotion.

It can be a love of creating natural perfumes and a love of natural perfumes already created. It can be a love of the materials and love of what the materials do to one another.

It is a real feeling!

The first time I felt that feeling I wished I had an extra lifetime to live so I could devote it entirely to natural perfumery and learn all there is to learn, because one lifetime is too short.

It's similar to that feeling one gets when one discovers a gem of a book and wishes it would never come to the end.

Is there anything you love like this?

* Definition 2 of Love from the Miriam-Webster online dictionary.

...the dedication to natural perfumery

dedication - the act of binding yourself (intellectually or emotionally) to a course of action

The Dedication of the Perfumer to Becoming a Master at Her Craft

Remember this: there is nothing that was ever mastered without dedication.

I remember when I was a child and I mastered the hula hoop, and riding a bicycle with no hands. I was so dedicated, I mastered them and made them look easy. How did I master them? Through dedication, through time. Hours and hours of time spent on twisting the hula hoop around and around. Failing and then doing it again. I was able to twist that hula hoop from my neck all the way down to one ankle and then the other and back up again without stopping.
On my bike I was able to ride with no hands all the way to school and even stop and start without using my hands. It took hours and hours of practice until I mastered it.

I got a game boy, and I mastered Tetris and Space Invaders. I mean I really mastered them. I discovered levels that I didn't even know existed. Levels that didn't seem to be there when I started. I had all the violin players out when I got the fastest time in the highest level of Tetris.

Dedication can be a sort of border line addiction. : )

It's about never giving up.

My mother used to say to me, "Ruth, whatever you set your mind to you can master", and you know something it's true. The same is true for anybody who wants to master natural perfumery, give it time, patience and dedication and remember to practice everyday, any chance you get.