Perfumers Workshop: The Art of Making Modern Tinctures + Enhance Your Olfactory Experience Fragrance Draw

ProvidencePerfume01lowres

"Raspberry, Peach, Jasmine Rice and Vanilla Tinctures at Providence Perfume Co Boutique, Rhode island

What’s on the perfumer’s palette today? With growing accessibility to a diminishing supply of natural essences there is a Catch-22 phenomenon impacting the production of fragrances rooted in nature. The horrific work-around can be witnessed in the fragrance industry’s synthetic reconstruction and reinvention of what is beautiful and what is natural for today’s urban consumer who has never taken the time to smell the real deal. The trend amongst Indie perfumers to reconnect to botanical essences is part of the resurgence of back-to-basics, we need to honor and make sustainable our planet and be one with nature..

Natural essences are created in many ways, using heat, chemical extraction and CO2 distillation being most common, but old-fashioned tincturing, throwing some herbs, resins, woods or flowers in with a batch of very strong alcohol is one of the most primeval yet currently popular forms of creating fragrance notes. It’s a bit of a crap shoot and great test of patience and devotion but modern perfumers are using tinctures to capture a really full olfactory profile of materials that lend themselves to this method. These essences can be so pure and life-like that they remind us of olfactory eidetics, perfect snapshots of the energetic imprint of the original natural material.

We spoke to three luminous perfumers, Charna Ethier of Providence PerfumesRoxana Villa of Roxana Illuminated Perfume  and Ellen Covey of Olympic Orchids  to find out what’s in their tincture pots and how they are making perfumes with these tinctures. All three are tincturing materials that are close to their homes and their heart while trying more offbeat possibilities as well in search of olfactory paydirt.

charna

Charna Ethier of Providence Perfume Co.


Let’s start with Charna and her cream-on-cream Moss Gown perfume. So rich it is hard to pry open but inside the floral heart is a tincture of lilies, growing abundant in her New England locale, which took her two years to collect and make strong enough to create fragrant impact. Dry materials tincture best, like a vanilla bean is the perfect item to tincture, but wet materials like florals yield but the tiniest trace of their essence and the flowers must be swapped out on a daily basis for the eidetic process to take root. We are basically hunter-gatherers and Charna fulfilled our fundamental human role with love and devotion.

muguet.tincture

Muguet tincture (lily of the valley)

Charna also uses sugars and starches in a unique fashion to pre-tincture her base alcohol. She finds that these infused alcohols have the ability to increase the longevity or “fix” a fragrance while also adding a subliminal note throughout the life cycle of the scent. Rice-based infusions add a lactonic quality to perfumes while she has found that pre-fixing a scent with various fruits will carry that fruit note throughout the fragrance from top to bottom. We found her work to be extremely vital without the use of traditional fixatives.

Bee'kRox5broxana villa to bee tinctureBeeTincture honey

Roxana Villa of Roxana Illuminated All Natural Perfume is a holistic beekeeper; Preparing honeycomb for tincturing

Roxana Villa’s To Bee is an attention getter. We all know that bees are confused these days and Roxana is deeply involved in rescuing feral bees in the Los Angeles area. She began tincturing feral bee comb and found “that after three months of melding, the tincture had the distinct aroma of a thriving feral hive.” The scent captures a far deeper spectrum than honey or beeswax absolute could ever offer. It smells busy in there, heathery and resonant. Modern tincturing can be like a fragrance time capsule and perhaps someday we will have the means to capture these natural essences forever, but today we live with the evanescent nature of nature. (Editor's Note: For a fascinating look into Roxana's To Bee project and more about holistic beekeeping click here)

roxana villa

Roxana Villa

Social consciousness informs all Roxana’s work starting with her first fragrance “Q” which is built on a tincture of oak leaves, as this grand tree of the American past is being replaced by palm trees in her surroundings.

EllenwithSeaweedsmall

Ellen Covey, perfumer for Olympic Orchids  preparing a seaweed tincture

Ellen Covey is a tincturer after our own heart. She’ll try anything including soy sauce and sesame oil. Her Devil Scent series uses tinctured myrrh and she muses, “A good tincture of myrrh is powerfully aromatic without the industrial-oil notes one gets in the distilled oil.” We loved it and were ready to throw out our essential oil/absolute blend of myrrh for this stuff that really smells like…you guessed it, real myrrh. There’s a damp earth smell to this one that Ellen surmises comes from the black truffle fungus tincture that also inhabits this Luciferian brew.  The seaweed tincture in Ellen’s Kingston Ferry perfume is close to our own heart as we also live near this ferry. Ellen says she loves the smell of seaweed because it reminds her of the algae-like smell of swimming in a pond.

Perception is very personal, we get a different vibe from the seaweed than the perfumer does but by using high quality tinctures perfumers share with us a very close proximity to the original scent profile of the natural material. They also bring us into their lives, their passions and their surroundings. Perfumers have found subtler ways to put the chemistry of tinctures to work in enhancing and expanding the olfactory experience. At a crossroads where ersatz food, sim cards and social media scream for our full devotion, perfumers are getting real and reminding us that we too can embrace our primeval sense of scent and better embrace our place in the world.

David Falsberg, Guest Contributor and Perfumer for Phoenicia Perfumes

Editor's Note:  David, Charna, Roxana and Ellen  have taken part in our CaFleureBon Profiles in American Perfumery Series which features many of the country's most innovative indie perfumers

Thanks to our three luminous ladies, Charna, Roxana and Ellen we have  one  artisan perfume  set containing Moss Gown 100 percent Natural Perfume, To BeeOrganic Perfume and Kingston Ferry for one of our U.S. Reader. To be eligible please leave a comment with what you learned about tincturing with natural essences by October 14, 2013.

Please support American Perfumery and LIKE CaFleureBon Profiles in American Perfumery on Facebook

We announce the winners on our site and on our Facebook Page Like Cafleurebon and use our RSS option…or your dream prize wil be just spilled perfume

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


49 comments

  • What a great article! I really enjoyed Charna’s idea about prefixing the tincture, and I will be reading more about bee product tincturing – something I have wanted to do for a while. I am in the US and enjoy any product from these brilliant women.

  • I was lucky enough to take classes from Charna and am so inspired by all 3 of these wonderful perfumers!
    As a natural perfumer I love to tincture plant material. Right now I am tincturing osmanthus fragrans from my 20ft ‘bush’.

  • I learned that wet materials like flowers must be swapped out on a daily basis.
    ToBee has been pn my to-try list for a while and I would like to sample the others also. I am in the US.

  • I had no idea you could tincture with soy sauce! Never would have occurred to me to experiment like that (which is why I am a consumer and not a perfumer). I am in the US.

  • I hope that when they read the reactions to the article that they’ll be encouraged to keep doing their work, which might sometimes be lonely and difficult, even if sometimes the results are not what one might expect. I wouldn’t want to try to choose just one.

  • I am in the US, and I was surprised by the creativity of the perfumers. I was also surprised at how long it takes to make some of the tinctures.

  • I’m in the US and I learned all kinds of things, how long it takes to tincture florals, that you can pre tincture alcohol and alter a scent. I didn’t know about feral bees, either! Thanks for the draw.

  • What an inspiring article for all natural perfumers…there are so many ways to create tinctures of fragrances we cherish growing right outside our doorstep to items within our cupboards! I learned you can make a tincture from oak leaves!! Also, to keep my eyes & nose open to the possibilities…

  • Wendy Caudle says:

    What a very interesting article. It seems that each perfumer has their own way to follow “the recipe” if you will. And like a chef, the masterpieces come from the perfumers tinkering with the recipe. I wasn’t aware of the full range of items that could be tinctured, and i am surprised. As a child tincture of myrrh was useh to treat toothache, and i hated it, however, as a perfume ingredient, i would be very fond of it 🙂

  • I never thought about using rice! Charna is always so creative with tinctures, I used to read her blog about the diff ones she made.

    I am in the US, and wow to that draw!

  • Us here, and I just learned about the concept of prefixing the tincture. I also learned that apparently, feral honeycomb smells different to domesticated ones.

  • I learned about tincture and leaned that flowers need to be swapped out on a daily basis. Mostly i learned i need to take the time to smell the real deal. They really are luminous ladies!

  • outstanding article, I truly enjoyed reading this! I learned several years back how to make medicinal tinctures for home health; I was surprised and delighted to learn that similar methods–adjusted for a different end use–could result in beautiful and practical natural materials for perfumery! One of my favorite perfumers, Laurie Erickson of Sonoma Scent Studio, shared on her blog that she is currently tincturing several different natural ambergris and I cannot wait to see what she does with them.

    I am in the US.

  • I did not know that dry material works better than wet for making tinctures. I am also very concerned about protecting our bees and it upsets me when people try to kill them. I have never once been stung by a bee, but I sure have been stung by wasps. Anyway, I live in Medina, Ohio that was founded by a beekeeper and his A.I. Root candle company still perfumes our town. I love what these talented perfumers are doing. Thank you.

  • I loved reading about the various things in the Olympic Orchids mixtures- soy sauce and sesame oil? Black truffle fungus?
    I’m in the US.

  • I love to tincture! I think my favorite is rock hyrax poop. Glad to know about the jasmine rice, I might have to try that myself. I’m in the US.

  • Wow! What an awesome glimpse into some of the hard behind-the-scenes work that gets done for some of our favorite niche scents! Soy sauce tincturing? Pre-fixing tinctures with sugars and starches? Infusing rice for lactobacillus note along tincture’s subject? Tinctures of black truffles (I am a WHORE for black truffles! Must try this) and feral bees?! This is amazing work. Keep doing it. I’m impressed by Charna’s dedication to muguet tincture that took 2 years to get what she wanted. I’m blown away! I’m in the US and thank you for this snapshot and draw!

  • I really enjoyed reading about Roxana’s work with feral bees and the differences in the smell with her tincture vs. commercially available honey or beeswax absolutes. I’m in the US and thank you for the draw!

  • wefadetogray says:

    Well I didnt know a single thing about tinctures so this was an excellent article to inform myself. The rice based infusions really blew my mind off. I love rice and I love lactonic notes. Thanks for this draw.
    I am in the US.

  • helical gnome says:

    Ellen Covey uses sesame oil and soy sauce? That is unexpected and intriguing and Charna’s use of sugars and starches is also amazing. The world of perfume is just incredible! I am in the US.

  • So fascinating! What patience these perfumers must have…Charna Ethier’s lily tincture takes two years to become fragrant enough to use, wow.

  • This article is wonderful. I have a soft spot for Charna and her Providence Perfume Co. I am impressed with Roxana who is tincturing feral bee hives! How incredible and scary at the same time. I want to smell the feral smell it must be intoxicating . I am in the US

  • Elizabeth T. says:

    Lovely article on the work these women are doing! I especially found fascinating the “pre-tincturing” of the alcohol base with rice. How creative!

  • Ruby Silvestrini says:

    There’s a lot of interesting information here. I am familiar with tincturing of medicinal plants so I guess I assumed that essential oils for fragrance are made the same way, I had no idea that botanical fragrance could be extracted via CO2 or chemical extraction. All of these perfumes sound incredible! Thank you for this draw.

  • Interesting that Charna “tinctures” the base alcohol — layering scent on scent. Also, I didn’t know that bees could be feral. Intrepid perfumers need skill AND patience, obviously! Thanks for the draw.

  • Chris Schaefer says:

    Pre-tincturing the base alcohol. What a concept! I love the creativity that these amazing perfumers possess. Thanks for the draw and I am in the U.S.

  • leathermountain says:

    I, too, am fascinated by the idea of preparing the base alcohol with sugars and starches.

  • I was familiar with tincturing, but I had no idea that it was as complex as this. It’s particularly interesting how difficult it is to create a floral tincture. I also didn’t know that each of these three creates tinctures and uses them in their work…that’s fabulous! Thank you for the draw!

  • julesinrose says:

    I had no idea that tinctures produced scents. Where I live, people who make tinctures make them for medicinal purposes. Now I am totally inspired and wondering if I can try my hand at it, just to see what happens. I so want to smell this feral honey tincture!! Thanks for the draw.

  • Wonderful to see this ancient process being brought to light. It is true there is a patient devotion to this craft. Watching Roxana (I am her husband) and her daily ritual of removing individual Jasmine sambac blossoms, violets and other blossoms from their stems, then placing handfuls of this harvest into her jars of pure grain alcohal, seems to slow down time. This simple task has a gentle, timeless quality that for a few moments brings a calm to my modern fast paced lifestyle.

  • Fazal Cheema says:

    it’s unbelievable how much patience tincturing requires, often years but it is also good to know that they are going back to basics because synthetics can never truly replicate natural essences, at least in the near future …reading the article reminded me of several scenes in ‘Perfume – The Story of a Murder’ movie which i watched during summer of 2007 yet still can’t forget certain scenes.

    I am in the U.S.

  • I never knew dry ingredients are easier to tincture than wet ones and that flowers have to be swapped out on a daily basis to get the eidetic process to take root. A lot or hard work goes into making natural perfumes. I am in the US. Thanks for the draw!

  • I live in the US and learned of the extensive time it takes to make some tinctures. Seems like patience and devotion is needed for this craft.

  • I found out that pre-fixing a scent with various fruits will carry that fruit note throughout the fragrance from top to bottom. US
    TY

  • Wow, there is so much to learn here! I think one of the most interesting things was about Charna’s work: “Rice-based infusions add a lactonic quality to perfumes while she has found that pre-fixing a scent with various fruits will carry that fruit note throughout the fragrance from top to bottom.” This is fascinating. Thanks for such an informative article. I am in the U.S.

  • These ladies are magic alchemists, adding such unusual ingredients to their tinctures. I am fascinated by how they make their perfumes! I am in the US

  • I loved reading about tincturing fresh flowers. I’ve tried this before, but I’m sure I don’t do enough re-charges, and hence I end up disappointed with the scent intensity of my tinctures. Lovely to hear that the correct way to do it is with persistence, and plenty of fresh flowers, to the point that actual, real muguet tincture can be achieved! I’ve never been that persistent, but now I’m inspired to try. I also enjoyed hearing about pre-fixing alcohol with fruit — so clever! I’m in the US, and thank you for the draw.

  • What a lovely draw. I have to say I am in love with Roxana’s To Bee perfume. It is stunning! It has a depth and warmth that is amazing with outstanding longevity. Charna’s “fixing” with alcohol seems counter intuitive because when I think of alcohol I think of evaporation not prolonging a scent. I have experienced her Moss Gown perfume and it has amazing longevity and It is a beautiful perfume too!! I am very interested in the seaweed tincture for Kingston Ferry. I am a sucker for ocean scents, they are a favorite of mine. Thank you for the draw!

  • Wonderful article, David! I was interested to learn how Charna uses sugars and starches to increase the longevity of her scents. I love Moss Gown and Kingston Ferry, but would love to smell To Bee, which sounds absolutely bee-autiful! Thanks for the draw, and I live in the U.S.

  • David Falsberg says:

    Wow, glad so many people enjoyed this article. I get the feeling people gained greater perspective on the work of these modern alchemists and I too am astounded by their dedication to creating new scent profiles out of the oldest materials around. Thanks to the readership and to the perfumers. I look forward to sharing more technical insights in future articles.

  • I liked learning about Charna Ethier’s pre-tincturing and about capturing the full olfactory profile…I also really liked the pictures especially the lily of the valley tincture–I so want to try that!
    The bees–knew about hive collapse but not about rescuing feral bees. I want to learn more now.
    Also, Dr. Covey tincturing truffle and seaweed and soy sauce! Sounds delicious. I want to tincture rice and green tea now….
    I’m in the US, thanks for the draw!

  • Wow Roxana! feral bee comb thats so abstract yet so pertinent. I never would have thought that, a great fact to learn. I love the idea that anything is possible to tincture. Seaweed is a big fave of mine. I loved reading this and thanks to the 3 talented women here, plus the author:) I have a US address

  • Love to hear all the positive feedback and that all the hard work we artisan perfumers put into our fragrances is appreciated! Unique methods, rare notes and unlimited creative freedom is where artisan perfumery excels. Thanks to David for writing an incredible article and to all the perfumers who continue to create beautiful original works.