Your first trip to the ocean. A dusty old book. Your mother’s silk scarf. An English rose garden. These are the fragrances you remember, have internalized and equate with a memory. Perfumes are nothing more than the scents that become a part of us, are at once an embodiment of these momentary memories.

Natural fragrances, those straight from nature like frankincense, orange blossom, jasmine and vanilla, reach deep into our core and storied biographies, conjuring to mind poignant memories that comfort us. Long before the Industrial Revolution such scents were all we knew.

“Up until the turn of the last century, perfumes, like Mille fragrances [worn by the ladies of Versailles], were blended in apothecaries for royalty from nothing but natural essences,” says renowned natural perfumer Mandy Aftel of Aftelier Perfumes.

“When synthetic chemicals were created in the 1880s, perfumes became a subconscious art,” says Aftel, referring to brands like Coty, Chanel (beginning with Chanel No° 5) and Guerlain. But, she says, their perfumes and all other synthetics lacked complexity, mystery and emotional depth.

“There is no romance in perfume without its close relationship to nature,” Aftel believes.

It’s a simple equation that seems to add up: humans, are natural beings craving the primitive and organic. Ayala Moriel, whose eponymous line of perfumes was originally inspired by Aftel’s book Essence & Alchemy, describes the attraction of scent and our ties to it.

“What’s really unusual, is that it’s not actually our nose that smells. Our sensory system is really part of the brain – part of our unconscious. Our nose is just a breathing organ connected to our olfactory bulbs [our sensory organ that detects smell] at the front part of our brain. That’s why smell is so immediate, and that’s why we have such a strong memory with scents. This is also where our most primal emotions and functions live, things like appetite, libido and fear,” says Moriel.

It’s no wonder that intrinsically, the journey lived by natural essences is entwined with our own. Aftel and Moriel agree that there is a truth to naturals, an authenticity that is connected to our past and even used by our ancestors to perfume their temples and to heal.

Amanda Walker of A Perfume Organic, who also studied with Aftel, takes a modern meets old age approach to perfumes.  She began her boutique and certified organic perfume house after working in the fragrance world with the likes of Victoria’s Secret.

“I have really bad allergies and asthma, and I realized it’s from these [conventional perfumeries] putting acetone and unnatural ingredients in their products,” says Walker.

According to an Investigation of Chemicals in Perfumes conducted by Greenpeace, of 36 unnatural eau de toilettes and eau de parfums, all but one contained phthalates and synthetic musks, linked to health concerns such as hormone disruption and lung restriction, along with environmental toxicity concerns.

Simple as it may sound, the realm of naturals is vast – from the variable types of ingredients to the way in which they are extracted. Some perfumiers like Walker, eschew alcohol or a chemical solvent known as hexane, widely used to extract the complete and complex plant essence. Others, like Aftel appreciate their depth.

“With a good absolute, you get the richness and rounded, voluptuous smell of lavender for instance, compared to the pointy, sharp top note of pure lavender essential [extracted via steam distillation—an age old method].  And, all traces of hexane are removed.”

For Aftel, she feels like a painter picking just the right color from her palette, knowing when to use a certain essence or isolate, like geraniol, one of more than 200 components in rose oil and also found in the geranium plant. Moriel advises the super natural at heart, “The purest form of perfume is to just take rose petals and rub them on your wrists.”

True to nature and the volatility of plants’ precious essential oils, natural perfumes tend to blend with the skin, fading from top note, to heart and base note without strong staying power.

Kate Growney, a former beauty magazine editor and now founder of Saffron James Parfum, also takes an “inspired by nature” approach to her line. While not a perfumer herself, she has a clear vision for her line of perfumes, based on exotic flowers like the treasured Pakalana from her native Hawaii. Growney says that her perfumes contain between 80 to 99 percent natural ingredients, depending upon the blend. The mixture of synthetics and naturals is discernable, with her more potent fragrances lasting for hours on end.

Dawn Spencer Hurwitz, of DSH Perfumes, offers both mixed media and 100 percent natural perfumes to her clients. As a painter, she also takes a unique approach to aromatic storytelling, pairing perfumes with wall art to create what she calls “aroma art expressions.”

Some, like Aftel, Moriel and Hurwitz, offer clients a bespoke fragrance experience. Each essence these perfumers create, like each wearer, has its own traveled journey. The art is in finding the perfect marriage between the two.

“We take you on an olfactory journey,” explains Moriel.

“We stroll along the different essences, starting with the top notes and moving through the heart and the base, and we select the ones that you really love. It’s really interesting to see people connect to a part of their life they might have left. And the perfume is yours. We will only re-blend it upon your request.”

Coco Chanel once said: “A woman who doesn’t wear perfume has no future,” these perfumiers might add or olfactory connection to their memory.

The post Creating Organic Perfume, One Memory at a Time appeared first on EcoSalon.

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.

The post Olfactory Heaven: Nectar Essences Debuts Organic Perfumes appeared first on EcoSalon.

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

The post It’s a Vase! It’s a Centerpiece! Ways to Recycle Old Perfume Bottles appeared first on EcoSalon.

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.

The post Reinventing Our Scents appeared first on EcoSalon.