The Perfumer’s Walk
The air is full of butterflies on the Perfumer’s walk
A living breathing thing, this “space” called air
It is not a vacuum, it is not empty
The air is alive with butterflies on the perfumers walk
Along the path
Blooms pink hibiscus
billowy blousy flowers like frilly summer dresses
stamens yellow and powdery
dropping grains of pollen
the Perfumer leans down to take a snip of pungent clary sage
pressing her fingers together she crushes a single flower
then inhales
the peppery burst ….imagining…
she plucks an unripe citrus fruit from the mandarin tree and scrapes
the peel with her fingernail
bringing her hands together she again inhales
the clary sage and green mandarin together
she is pleased
underfoot the spongy California earth is made from brown fir needles
thinking “green” she looks up and with her fertile olfactory memory
blends the fir balsam with what she has in her hands…
clary sage, green mandarin, and fir….yes!
walking back through the garden she rubs an oil rich lavender blossom
thinking of
a musky lavender absolute- softer than the distilled and full of color
like Spanish lavender waving pink flag petals
at the edge of the garden heart shaped violet leaves grow green and lush in the dappled shade
green edges…she pauses and picks a violet leaf turning it in her hand…musing
looking over the golden cliffs toward the sea she watches the whales go by
reminding her of ambergris
the mermaids treasure, a wild scent to enhance the sirens sex
creatures half human half fish
beautiful, colorful
haunting in their song.
Back home she gathers spanish labdanum and aged Indian patchouli
And with skilled precision adds the animal pull of African stone tincture, vanillic benzoin and buttery opoponax (sweet myrrh)
Finishing the herbaceous floral, musky scent
The Green Queen, the verdant beauty, Verdigris
Elise Pearlstine’s of Bellyflowers Perfumes submission for the Natural Perfumers Guild Mystery of Musk Project is an herbaceous green floral drifting slowly through the herb “garden” to a base of the animalic african stone tincture, ambergris, labdanum and a beautiful aged patchouli. Being an herbalist I was naturally drawn to the potpourri of herbs present in this formula. The fir balsam, the clary sage and green mandarin greets the nose with a rainbow of bright flavors, the complexity and depth of the natural plant essences matched equally with the animalic drydown. Verdigris is dirty, it is green, it is as rich and sexy as it was meant to be. I was almost embarrassed by its frank sexuality as if Eve was indeed approaching Adam in the Garden and I… the voyeur…
A drop of Verdigris lasted all night on the back of my hand so I would say longevity favorable. The sillage average to low, a personal and very lovely scent.
Monica Skye Miller, Natural Perfume Editor and Sr. Editor
Verdigris
Musky and green, rich and sexy, Verdigris is inspired by fertile, verdant vegetation and the erotic smells of life. The unusual mating of green scents from lavender, clary sage and violet leaf absolutes with opoponax in the heart complement the herbal green top notes and soften as the musky, earthy base unfolds.
Top notes:
Fir balsam absolute, green mandarin essential oil, clary sage essential oil and ylang ylang essential oil
Heart notes:
Lavender absolute, clary sage absolute, violet leaf absolute and
opoponax absolute
Base notes:
Patchouli essential oil, ambergris tincture, labdanum absolute, African stone tincture and benzoin
Reminder: Alexandra Balahaoutis of Strange Invisble Perfumes Temple of Musk is the bottle we are giving away at CaFleureBon. We will draw from among all comments on The Mystery of Musk articles at the end of the project.