In my never-ending struggle to live life naturally (and, oh, the struggle is real, y’all), one of the things I’ve given up has been perfumes.
It wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be. In fact, it was harder on my husband than it was me. You see, he likes it when I smell good. I mean, come on—what guy doesn’t like nice smelling women? Thankfully, good hygiene and some natural perfumes are enough to keep him happy (meaning… I don’t stink even though I don’t wear perfume). And, as we’re both learning more about the negative effects toxins have on our health, making the switch to healthier things isn’t as hard.
A while ago I wrote about my favorite botanical perfume company—Illuminated Perfumes, and while Roxanne and her nature-inspired creations are still my go-to when I want a high-quality botanical perfume, I am intrigued by the process of creating them myself.
Now, Roxanne offers a course for beginners on creating botanical perfumes, and I’ve been tempted to take it in the past. (I’m an e-course junkie if you didn’t know.) However, in the beginning of 2017, I committed to not taking any courses until I finished my Advanced studies over at the Herbal Academy. I’ve only broken that commitment three times this year so I’m doing okay. Anyway, the point is, I’ve reined myself in a time or two and have yet to take Roxanne’s course. Hopefully, I’ll finish up my herbal studies and maybe delve more into the world of aromatherapy then. We’ll see.
Until then, I’ll have to rely on my limited essential oil blending skills or the skills of others, and that’s where today’s blog post comes into play.
Thoughtful Gifts For Christmas
I always try to make something handmade for the ladies in my family at Christmas. Just a little something to let them know I’ve been thinking of them. This year, I’ve decided to make everyone a botanical perfume along with a couple other body care goodies.
My plan is to make three different goodies to give to each person and put them in little muslin drawstring bags with a stamped… something or another… on the front. Maybe I’ll tie some sort of conifer sprig in instead of stamping. We’ll see.
Today, I’d like to share the recipe I used for the botanical perfume. It’s called Winter Forest, and I adapted the recipe from one I found in an old Mountain Rose Herbs catalog. They have lots of great recipes in their catalogs, and all of this year’s handmade Christmas gifts were inspired by their recipes.
Winter Forest: A Woodland Botanical Perfume
This perfume sets up with a soft consistency and has a musky forest scent to it. If you’re not into earthy smells, you probably won’t like this one. You could always decrease the amount of vetiver to minimize that scent a little, but I think it smells lovely! It’s kinda dark, sexy, and mysterious, in my opinion. This recipe will make 28-30 half-ounce (.5 oz.) tins.
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups apricot kernel oil
- 1/2 cup almond oil
- 1 teaspoon vitamin E oil
- 1/2 cup beeswax pastilles
- 25 drops of pine needle (Pinus sylvestris) essential oil
- 25 drops of sweet orange (Citrus sinensis) essential oil
- 20 drops of vetiver (Vetiveria zizanioides) essential oil
- 10 drops of juniper berry (Juniperus communis) essential oil
Directions:
- Gently warm oils and beeswax together in a glass bowl or stainless steel saucepan until beeswax is completely melted. Stir well.
- Turn heat off and add essential oils. Mix well.
- Pour into tins and let them sit until cool.
- Cap, label, and enjoy!
So there you go. A quick and easy solid woodland botanical perfume recipe that will make you feel like your standing in the middle of the woods taking deep breaths of rich, black dirt mingled with conifers and a hint of moss!
I bought four little tiny mini jars and fill them up with herbs I dried from my garden. I also gave a tiny pkg of bay leaf from bulk herbs store and told them how to use it. Like put a leaf in flour, sugar, to keep out bugs.. also cook with it when making bone broth.. i gave a pkg of dried elderberry and stevia to each sibling and told them, Rosemary Gladstar has the recipes in the book. I got them all a beginner book on Rosemary Gladstar and told them, if they are interested to using herbs.
One brother has diabetes, hoping he’ll realize this stevia can help him, of course he needs to go back and forth with the medical and check it out.
It’s a slow process for them to pick up using the herbs…but I’m getting better results from them, instead of getting upset using what I made for them. I found they didn’t follow directions or they forgot what I said.. so I hand them the beginners book for them to do for themselves. Some of them relie on medical help for what they can do for themselves. Soon as I pray they will have a wake up call, like I did. I want them to be prepared, but I can only do so much.like the saying,.you can’t lead a horse to water if he doesn’t want to drink.. so I’m learning to be more patience with them, this is my Christmas gift to them, hopefully they all will see the light. God gave us herbs for our food and medicine..we must protect our herbs and use them as God has intended.
This sounds amazing ! I have spent quite a bit of time looking for a woodsy perfume or scent that doesn’t smell masculine. Do you think it would be ok to use lemon essential oil instead of orange ? Or do you think the orange would make it more feminine ? Thank you Meagan, for posting this.
Hmm, I’m not sure. Maybe you could mix up a small sample size of the essential oil portion before making the whole recipe to see if you like the scent. Just divide the number of drops by 5 to get a smaller drop size. You should end up with 5, 5, 4, and 2 drops. Hope that helps, and I’d love to know if you try the lemon and how it works for you!