My Favorite Botanical Perfume

I’ll be honest with ya. Making the switch from store-bought perfumes to natural ones wasn’t the easiest thing for me to do when it came to cleaning up the toxins in my life. 

I mean, I like to smell good… and my man likes it when I smell good. Enough said.

However, clearing the toxins out of your life, especially your skin care products, is serious business. You need determination, and you need to stick with your guns.

Toxic Fragrances & Procrastinating

Anyway, I knew that chemical fragrances were a big no-no and that they were bad for your health. Like B.A.D. kinda bad. I didn’t know the specifics (you can learn some of those in this Joyous Health post), but I knew that my skin was absorbing a good bit of what I put on it and I was breathing in the smells too.

So what did I do? 

Well, I tried to put off what I really needed to do by taking some shortcuts.

First, I stopped spraying perfume on my skin. Instead, I sprayed it on my clothes. Good, but not good enough.

Next, I stopped spraying as much as I had been. Instead, I used one spray and that was it. Better, but not best.

It wasn’t until I started learning more about essential oils and aromatherapy that I finally made the decision to pull the plug on my perfume habit.

You see, essential oils, when inhaled are supposed to make it into your bloodstream in around 20 seconds. Yes, 20 seconds! That’s fast folks! I’m not sure how long after they hit your bloodstream that the body responds to their chemicals, but it can’t be long.

Once I realized how quickly this happened and that the body really does react (positively and negatively) to smells, I knew I had to make a clean break.

Making The Switch

I decided to make my own perfumes using essential oils. I began by researching how to blend essential oils together to create the smells I wanted.

I wrote a popular post called Blending Essential Oils for Beginners that detailed the process. I’ll save you a click by telling you it’s all about blending essential oils together based on their notes (top, middle, and base) and then following a simple blending formula (the 30, 50, 20 rule).

Once I had the blend I liked, I would mix them with some carrier oil (sweet almond is my favorite) and store them in my bathroom to put on when I needed them.

That worked for a while, but let me tell you… my perfume blends were fairly simple and basic. And even though patchouli and sweet orange was my favorite (and still is), I realized that I wanted something more. Something slightly complex and well-rounded. Something that I couldn’t do myself without more training in perfumery.

Enter Etsy & Illuminated Perfume

Growing Up Herbal grew its roots on Etsy (that was 4 years ago… holy cow!), and during that time, I participated in some serious treasury teams to promote my products and the handcrafted products of others. Being on treasury teams meant that you were constantly scouring shops to find great products to put in your treasuries, and that’s how I stumbled upon Illuminated Perfume.

Roxana is from LA, and she’s a serious botanical perfumer. She takes all sorts of objects from nature and uses them in her botanical perfume blends to create deep, layered scents that smell great. Not only do they stimulate your mind and body, but they aren’t toxic or bad for you in any way.

So if you browse through her shop, you’ll find that she has a way with words when it comes to describing her scents. In fact, after reading through all she had to offer, I simply couldn’t decide what I wanted… so I bought a sample set. From there, I’ll pick and choose my favorites and buy refills in the scents I like for my locket. (This is the one I have.) You can see some of my favorite scents so far in the next photo.

So, if you too are looking to ditch your toxic perfumes for more natural options like I was, check out Roxana’s shop on Etsy. I’m sure you’ll find something you’ll love. I know I have.

(And no, I have not received payment to promote this shop. I simply love her products and like to support small, handcrafted, natural businesses.)