Today’s conscious perfume lover can now find beauty in a nature-based signature scent.

When Coco Chanel famously said, “Wear perfume wherever you want to be kissed,” she was no doubt planning herself a romantic February 14th. Sales of perfume always go up dramatically around Valentine’s Day, but beyond our desire to feel more attractive to others, why do we “wear” perfume?

Like our choice to wear certain clothes, we simply want to carry around something beautiful that reflects how we feel inside. Today’s conscious consumer, increasingly aware of the benefits of environmentally friendly and sustainable practices, can now find that beauty in a nature-based signature scent.

Jenny Pao, a San Francisco based holistic healer and founder of Nectar Essences has been developing homeopathic flower-essence sprays for her bespoke clients since 2007. “I had so many people ask for aromatic counterparts to our healing sprays.” So just in time for Valentine’s Day, Pao has launched three new organic perfumes. Made with 97% certified organic ingredients, they’re botanical and free of synthetic fragrances and chemicals.

Amethyst captures the scent of pink rose and scarlet rhododendron along with hints of cedar, nutmeg and cacao. Hints of amber and sandalwood underlie an aromatic bouquet of five different roses in Rose Quartz While Turquoise carries the scent of night blooming jasmine and Ylang Ylang balanced with a woodsy, equatorian Palo Santo.

“Organic perfume is more subtle than synthetic fragrance,” Pao says. “It is never overpowering and the scent has depth.” She recommends that the perfumes are reapplied on your pulse points every 3 hours.

In addition to providing a burst of olfactory heaven, each perfume is infused with gemstones for balancing emotional and mental well-being. The perfect way to start a romantic evening.

We may have mentioned that traditional perfumes are toxic. (Missed that? Why here it is!) Sometimes it seems like traditional fragrances can contain more hormone-disrupting cancer-causing chemicals than the bottom layer of the local dump. But organizations such as the Environmental Working Group have our backs, keeping us informed on what’s safe and what’s going to give us three eyes. Perfume (properly researched by Skin Deep, experts, and possibly eco aliens from Saturn) is safe for us once more!

So now, what to do with all your old perfume bottles? They are often comprised of delicate cut glass and make great flower or bud vases. This puts them to the front of the line for a myriad of uses. If the openings are large enough, you can use them for containers for small objects like jewelry. You can even use them for kitchen containers – imagine how pretty Tabasco sauce may be inside glass? You can use them to contain homemade room sprays. Better yet, consider refilling the bottles with organic perfumes, purchased or homemade. (Check out a simple recipe for homemade perfume here.)

Perfume bottles can use be used as centerpieces for weddings – check out this creative conglomeration of flowers here. Heck, you can even go onto eBay and resell them to artful crafters. But before you do, check to make sure the worth of your bottle. Some antique perfume bottles can catch a high price.

So how to prep your bottles for reuse? First off, you may have some bottles with old perfume still in them. Your first inclination may be to dump them down the sink, but we strongly discourage this. Anything you dump into the sink is ultimately returning to the water supply. Yes, we consider traditional perfumes THAT toxic – check out the rating Skin Deep gives to a certain “happy” perfume available at a department store near you. This product is linked to cancer, reproductive toxicity, allergies, neurotoxicity and more. Want to shower with that down the line? Didn’t think so.

But you can take your perfume to a hazardous waste disposal site. While running to the dump over a few ounces of perfume might seem ridiculous and anti-carbon footprinty, consider dumping the perfume into a container for your yearly or biyearly run to the site. That way you can bring your electronics, batteries and more at the same time.

So now you’ve got your pretty, empty vases. Rinse them with water and vinegar to clean, and allow the bottles to dry completely in the sun. Then use them as mentioned – or just slip them in the blue recycling bins for a new life!

Image: Stepheye

My husband is always first to note that if a perfume’s natural, why is it bottled?

“People like to smell what they can’t in their everyday,” I usually tell him.

After all, it’s not likely I’m going to pick vanilla beans today, wrangle up some sandalwood or score an overflow of Moroccan book bindings (a real scent).

But thanks to a handful of perfumeries here and there, people like you and me are able to smell similar to these scents we crave.

One of my new favorite perfume galleries is CB I Hate Perfume – an unlikely name for perfume you can only love.

Of all the scents I sniffed and rubbed not a one let me down and they really smell so true to their names: At The Beach 1966 (with hints of Coppertone, wet sand and driftwood), Wild Hunt (with a mélange of summer afternoon heat, leaves, fir and pine) and In The Library (a mixture of Russian and Moroccan leather bindings, worn cloth and a hint of wood polish).

These perfumes are derived from beet juice extract, water, hydrogenated castor oil and fragrance. No specially denatured alcohol is used in any CB perfume.

I knew I’d love this line but to be fair I did make it to a few other venues to sniff out some organic perfumes. Though nothing was that stand out, I did enjoy Lavanila’s Pure Vanilla, Pacifica Hawaiian’s Ruby Guava solid (with sweet pomelo, guava and a hint of coconut) and Karma Solid by Lush (with a spicy orange and patchouli base).

Let me know what you find for organic perfumes. I’ll add them to my sniff list.