Hello natural beauties how are you? I’ve been a bit slack with my posts but I am caring for my elderly parents and that takes up a lot of time. I was happy to escape to Paradise Botanical Garden last week to get some fresh air and help the garden. My job was cutting the lavender and it was a joyous, and cold morning. Avoiding the bees was my biggest challenge.
Buy my 100% natural and organic botanical perfumes, and paperback book here:
The garden on the Central Coast just north of Sydney will be having an open weekend with local businesses selling their wares, from refreshments to aromatherapy. Come and visiton the first weekend of August 2020.
Remember to treat yourself first, then everyone will benefit.
Hello natural beauties I hope you’re all well and happy. I had a fabulous weekend on the Gold Coast in Australia at the Aromatica Australia 2019 conference. Here’s my little movie so you get an idea of how energetic it was.
Buy my 100% natural and organic botanical perfumes, and paperback book here:
I barely had time to do any filming as I needed to shop (of course), chat and eat. The day’s agendas were jam packed, so stay tuned next time I’ll tell you about each presenter and their talk.
Please forgive all my “fantastics” and “amazings”.I was feeling inspiredand excited and tired and busy.
There is a bright future for aromatherapy and essential oils but we must look at sustainability and absolutely be more aware of where our money goes. Plant medicine and nutrition will always connect us to the earth. We must look after our planet.
Hello natural beauties! I hope you’re all well and fabulous. This week I had a stall at the first Sydney Vegan Market in Marrickville in Sydney. I loved meeting beautiful people and chatting about botanical perfumes, essential oils and being vegan. I had planned on doing some filming during the day to talk about my perfumes but it was so busy I didn’t get a chance.
I was happy to showcase my range of perfumes that correspond with my book Revelation! Most people who ventured into my “scent tent” were very receptive to new ideas about personal scent, and how it can be transformative. Yes!
I manage to talk about all the products I’ve brought with me EXCEPT my beautiful perfumes. Next month that will be my goal – a walk through of the perfume range. And here’s a link to my shop so you can buy the perfume of your dreams from the comfort of your couch
Until then, keep popping back to see me and next week I’ll post the link to a free ebook I’ve created.
Hello natural beauties! Do you ever wonder if a particular essential oil will blend with another essential oil? I feel you’re already really great at creating essential oil blends, because you’ve picked up so much information and hints and tips along the way. However, here’s a little video I did to show you how to create a bouquet of scent … and as I type the word “bouquet” a few times I realise what a quaint old-fashioned word it is. I’m reclaiming it as cool!
When a perfumer creates a perfume she will use scent strips to create her bouquet. But as you may not have them, use my little method to try out your blend as you are in the midst of creating. Here’s a pic from a perfume workshop I recently led. The attendees have their scent strips to put together in a type of bouquet. Then they can decide what combinations they like.
perfume workshop Sydney
So if you don’t have these scent strips just grab all your bottles and waft away …
What combinations have you recently created?
Jay and his sister-in-law Katrina after creating their own perfumes in Sydney
I’m so happy its getting warmer and the heady, intoxicating scent of gardenias is everywhere. So fragile, so pretty and oh what a scent! And the good news is you can buy gardenia absolute – it’s more expensive like the other floral extractions of rose, jasmine and neroli – but worth every scent (get it? cent/scent). What can you do with gardenia absolute?
Because this floral scent is so special and so unique, you don’t need to mix it up too much. You could treat it in the way you use jasmine oil, as it has an exotic white floral scent indicative of summer evenings somewhere delightful.
Here a a couple of recipes you try with this precious oil, and my general rules for making an anointing perfume:
Pure Pulse Point Perfume
In a little dish mix these oils and anoint your pulse points or chakras – 3 drops of essential oils and dilute with a few drops of carrier oil – always patch test first!
The classic Duralex glass dish is handy to make oil blends and quick perfumes in
“An Evening by the River”
gardenia absolute 1 drop
cedarwood Atlas 1 drop
palmarosa 1 drop
” Being”
gardenia absolute 2 drops
bergamot 1 drop
“La Verite”
gardenia absolute 1 drop
jasmine absolute 1 drop
orange 1 drop
“Tropicana”
gardenia absolute 1 drop
lime 1 drop
ginger 1 drop
mixed into some coconut oil
“Femme Fatale”
gardenia absolute 2 drops
sandalwood Mysore 1 drop
Billie Holliday with gardenias in her hair
“Holiday: Madonna vs Billie”
gardenia absolute 1 drop
peru balsam 1 drop
patchouli 1 drop
Have you ever used gardenia absolute? I’d love to hear from you!
Remember to treat yourself first, then everyone will benefit.
Hello natural beauties everywhere. I am doing a live Q & A with The Mothership International on Facebook, this Friday (November 11 2016), 10am local Sydney time. If you can’t pop in because of the time difference the video will remain on the Mothership Facebook page.
As I prepare for this live chat I realise I haven’t written very much on this topic so I’ll try and follow up with some recipes and articles in the next couple of months.
Here’s a quick look at a quick tech run I did today so I could work out what was going on. Hopefully it will be much better on the day with some real people asking questions!
I’l do my best to limit the um and ahs …….. It’s actually quite difficult speaking live without a lot of direction.
Wish me luck!
Is there anything you’d like to know about essential oils in pregnancy? Ask me on Friday or leave a question here.
Hi aromatic geniuses! I was making a perfume today and a few drops of myrrh is in the recipe. I realised last week I’d run out, and had to rush to the shop to buy a little bottle, late Friday afternoon. Anyway, patience is a virtue when it comes to myrrh.
Here’s the thing….. myrrh is a resin that’s tapped from the tree. It is then steam distilled into an essential oil for us to use in our healing lotions and potions.
But the older the little bottle of myrrh gets, the thicker and more gooey the oil gets.
myrrh resin – pic via Pinterest
Initially the deep red oil, distilled from the deep red resin, is thin and easy to use.
Then, in all its power, it starts to harden up. Commiphora myrrha (or Commiphora molmol), really just wants to be a resin. So when I was making my perfume I had to take the plastic dropper out of the bottle, soak it in boiling water to clear the resin from it, and use an eye dropper to get a couple of drops. (This is after waiting for about 5 minutes for one drop to comes out of the bottle – ugh!).
Check out my video on myrrh, and how I feel about The Man with Two Brains:
the resin of myrrh
It is related to frankincense, as they belong to the same family, Burseraceae, but they really behave differently, Frankincense is quite happy being an oil thank you very much.
Myrrh is the healer of wounds. This makes sense when we look at its strength and its overwhelming desire to get back to its natural state. By healing a wound (whether emotional, spiritual or physical), we are returning to our natural state of health.
Do you use myrrh oil? Or do you prefer to burn the resin as an incense?
Remember to treat yourself first, then everyone will benefit.
Hello friends! I missed a post last week all caught up in summer in Sydney, parties with visiting DJ’s and singers, and the beach. This week I share a moment in time on the cruise ship the Celebrity Solstice, where I was excited to discover a eucalyptus infused steam room and sauna, sailing home from New Caledonia.
The theme of this little video is “aromatherapy is easy” …
And just to prove it here is a pic of my good friend DJ Wayne G (DJ WAYNE G) from San Francisco, playing tunes on New Years Day:
Me and Wayne at the start of a party
And me with other incredibly talented friends, singer and recording artist Peyton (Peyton Music) and travel writer and blogger Amanda (Adventures All Round). It was dark so I had to do a few little adjustments including some stars and fireworks too …
Friends
Thanks for your time! Have you been to a spa on a cruise? I’d love to hear about it.
Remember to treat yourself first, then everyone will benefit.
A vanilla wedding in the South Pacific? How about hundreds of them every year? Forge on to discover how organic vanilla is grown on the tropical island of Lifou in New Caledonia, with my mini movie and gorgeous pics!
On my recent trip to New Caledonia I found a small organic vanilla plantation in the Botanic Garden on the island of Lifou. Watch the story unfold ….
In a nutshell:
Mexican vanilla was introduced by the missionaries in the 1800’s
The plantation is growing each year as more vines are planted – cuttings are taken from the original vines
It takes about 7 years from planting to produce beans
The plant flowers in October to November
The flowers are not scented
This is the beautiful vanilla flower
As the plants are an introduced species the local insects and birds do not pollinate the flower – this has to be done by hand
The male organ in the flower is gently touched to the female organ – this is the pollinating process
Pollinating must be done in the morning as the flowers close in the afternoon
Once the flower has dried and died, the vanilla beans grow
The young vanilla bean
When the time is right the beans are picked and plunged into boiling water for 3 minutes
The beans are dried in both sun and shade for 3 months then placed into aging boxes to develop – just like wine
Lifou currently sends all its harvest to Noumea but is aspiring to export worldwide when the crops are more bountiful
My wonderful guide
It was so hot and the tour continued onto other beautiful sights, like a tribal hut and he Cliffs of Jokin. I wish I had asked a few more questions but the tour party pressed on. And I can’t believe I forgot my guide’s name. The heat got into my brain!
The Cliffs of Jokin
The picture does not do the water justice – it was a stunning turquoise blue. We also spotted a shark swimming around.
Remember to treat yourself first, then everyone will benefit.
and many other stores worldwide as a Kindle and Paperback
Do Gay People Have a Favourite Essential Oil? (Last Week on YouTube)
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I recently accompanied my very good friend DJ Wayne G on an Atlantis Cruise from Auckland to Sydney. These cruises are predominantly gay men, a few lesbians, a straight couple or two and a few straight girls. When a blog reader asked “what is gay peoples’ favourite essential oil” I laughed out loud (really). What a perfect place to ask a few people this interesting question.
Of course I imagined I would ask 500 people, like a vox pop, and ended up actually having a holiday and asking 5 people! Here is the result.
There is one clip with (another DJ) friend of mine Shigeki, filmed on a train. Clearly NOT a ship. This was shot on a beautiful wooden train that took us up through the Taieri Gorge from Dunedin in New Zealand – a beautiful day through spectacular scenery.
Thanks so much for your continued support and please let me know if there is anything you’d like me to write about.
Remember to treat yourself first, then everyone will benefit.
suzannerbanks 