Archive for January, 2010
-
ABOUT PERFUME AND ESSENTIAL OILS
Monday, January 25th, 2010
Perfumes are very popular.
The natural sensory enjoyment of perfumes out in the garden provides us with delightful olfactory experiences when we are out in the open air. However, through the sophisticated art of the perfumier we are now able to enjoy perfumes at any time we choose.
We enjoy a perfume lover’s heaven in modern times, with consumers able to access some of the finest produce from the famous perfume houses of the world. In this regard our current affluence would be beyond the comprehension of those people back in our history who valued aromatic substances as much as gold.
Wonderful scents and perfumes are now easily available in toiletries and body perfumes.Although the costs are relatively high, products based on purely natural oils are best.
Demand for these has increased with the growth of new professions such as aromatherapy which depends upon products untainted by chemicals in order to offer healing and give clients relief from suffering.
Aromas provide a very pleasant and effective therapy. We have experienced a fascinating development in the use of aromatics and the emerging science of osmics. This newly recognized science is attracting attention of physical therapists as well as psychologists.
Perfume represents a special cultural refinement and almost a personal necessity for women, but there are also many scents and essential oils available for men to use and enjoy. As consumers, we are offered a bewildering range of different perfume labels from which to choose. For decision making we must rely upon our intuitive reaction to a product and in its use, remind ourselves that subtlety is best.
Incense sticks provide a means of perfuming through fumes arising from burning aromatic material. This is where our word for perfume originated.
In a variety of ways we seek to indulge our sense of olfaction as we continue to increase the use of perfumes in our lives. And of course, regardless of personal wealth, we all share the freedom to enjoy the perfumes in nature in our walks in the wild, in our enjoyment of our garden, or in the delicate scent of a rose.
Our sole method of appreciation of any perfume is by inhaling it through respiration.
Mail this post
-
ALL ABOUT ROSES
Sunday, January 24th, 2010
Roses are unquestionably the most elite of flowers and considered as the Queen of Flowers with good reason.
Ancient fossils show that the rose has existed since prehistoric times over 35,000,000 years. Evidence has been found in pictures of the rose found from ancient Crete dating back to the 16th century BC and earlier in coinage from the Island of Rhodes when it was used on its official coinage.
The life of a rose bush can be extremely long. There are many that were planted by settlers in earliest times and that survive for over a hundred years. Others such as Glastonbury Cathedral by legend claim an age dating far longer. It is no wonder that the oil of rose is a trusted rejuvenator.
Throughout history roses have been grown for ornamental value. Many people have developed excessive fondness for this flower, the most well documented perhaps being the Roman Emperor Nero who spent lavishly to ensure an endless supply of roses to satisfy his cravings for rose petal mattresses and pillows, rose perfume, rose scented finger bowls, petals in his food and many other more extravagant uses.
Above all, the rose is a universal symbol of beauty, love and harmony – qualities that are associated with the influence of the planet Venus and the human expressions of these properties. The different colours represent the different expressions with red being the most intense and passionate, yellow representing the more generalized, less personal emotions and white being the purest, quality of spiritual love and ideals. Roses take a pride of place in artwork and artistic design.
We can thank the Empress Josephine for accumulating hundreds of species from all over the world in her garden, with many surviving to allow their involvement in modern rose breeding. Various groups of rose types are recognized today.
Rose species and varieties include habits of climbing, scrambling, bush, or even ground cover with modern rose breeders claiming thousands of new creations, colours and forms. However it is the old species that possess the most suitable perfumed oil content for making essential oil of rose or attar of rose, that is then broken down for its various commercial products and uses. The main species cultivated for this purpose are Rosa gallica, R. centifolia, R. damascena and R. muscatta.
As1000 kilos of roses are required to produce 520 gms of essential rose oil, it is no wonder that it is renowned as the most expensive of the natural perfumed oils with a price that is prohibitive for the average person. Adulterants are used including Guaiac Wood oil from Bulneesia sarmienti and we are aware that most of us must compromise and settle for a good quality synthetic rose oil.
But we can drink rose hip tea, flavour our food with rose essences, crystallise rose petals as confection, include rose petals in our salads, use rose perfume in personal toilet, massage good quality synthetic rose oil into our bodies for healing through aromatherapy, burn it in our incense, and most importantly, best nourish our brain and our minds by inhaling the pure perfume directly from the garden flower.
Rosa gallica Mail this post
-
BREATHING FRAGRANCE
Saturday, January 23rd, 2010
The olfactory sense is designed to register the range of emanations that are components in our natural environment. These possess attendant properties that are either coarse and unattractive and can alert us to danger, or are of the positive, refined and attractive end of the spectrum, providing us with sensory enjoyment.
In our modern lifestyle we are not constantly surrounded by natural life in our environment and the myriad of complex emanations that issue from man-made material around us is apt to dominate the subtler and beautiful perfumes and aromas found in nature’s wilderness, gardens and forests. This is to our disadvantage. When deprived of the pure scents of flowers and plant life, our health of both body and mind suffers.
Whereas the ideal would seem to be to balance our lives by walking in the outdoors, roaming in bushland and forests, most of us have little time to devote to these pleasures and it is reasonable to bring Nature’s aromas to us as an alternative. This can be done by means of pure and adulterated essential oils that offer us exquisite concentrates. All we have to do is to consciously inhale them!
Mail this post
