Fragrant Tinctures: A Bride's Perfume

As you may know from earlier this month, I've been tincturing like crazy:

Geranium and Rose Tinctures

A good friend is getting married in a month, and for a present, I made bespoke perfumes for bride and groom. The bride wanted something very soft and subtle, hinting of red roses, her favorite flower, and with a green edge rather than something sweet. So I created a perfume with the tinctures shown above, red rose petals, and scented geranium. I added tincture of Madagascar vanilla beans, a few other bits and bobs, some golden mica powder, and ta da! A Bride's Perfume is born....

The swirls of gold appear when the perfume is held in sunlight; you can't see it in a static photo (I might make a video at some point). I've been using such "swirls" in several colors for about 3 years now, and I've actually seen them in one commercial perfume (last year), so I think that's a good thing. Not every perfume needs to be transparent and clear. I left a few rose petals at the bottom of the bottle, cuz' that's romantic! I really enjoy making new things from my garden. What are your favorite things to make from your garden?

If It's Autumn, It's Time To Tincture

Here in the subtropics, it's still the growing season. We never really stop growing stuff down here, close to the equator. But it is harvest time for many annuals, and I do like my smelly plants, so...what do I do with them?

My scented geranium is a perennial, but had grown so hugely huge by October that I had to cut large branches off to keep it from toppling and crushing the rest of my garden (OK, the hyperbole meter just spiked)!

I've already grown many daughter plants from this one, and I really don't need more. I decided to dry and tincture the leaves from the trimmed branches. I bundled up some of the branches, then hung them in a dry, somewhat dark place for a week:

Once the leaves were thoroughly dry, I crumbled them into glass bottles and added perfumer's alcohol. Vodka works just fine if you don't want to use, or can't find, perfumer's alcohol. I should add that if you are making tinctures for medicinal purposes, of course you won't want perfumer's alcohol. If the tincture is for perfumes or colognes, perfumer's alcohol is absolutely scentless, and cannot be ingested. Before any plant material is used for tinctures, it's a good idea to research it to make sure there are no issues with toxicity or allergies. Safety first!

I tincture all kinds of things, from petrified rock hyrax poop to chrysanthemums and vanilla beans. Each tincture takes a different length of time to mature. It's good to test your tincture with a little mouillette or square of cotton rag once a week until you feel it's at its peak of delicious scent. Then strain the liquid, pour it into a new bottle, and label it (I write the date, also). The tincture will last a long time, and be a wonderfully fragrant memory of your summer garden. I use mine in various colognes and perfumes that I make. The geranium tincture is used in my rose/peppermint/geranium cologne I call "The Thing From Planet Peppermint". Not very romantic, but refreshing!

Here are two of the tinctures I use for Planet Peppermint, geranium and rose petals:

Any other tincture-makers out there? What do you tincture, and what's something that you really want to tincture, but haven't yet? I'm thinking about fresh patchouli, but I can't locate any plants. Someday, though!

A Gardener's Delight: The Scent Library

I feel like we gardeners can never have too much of the Plant Kingdom in our lives. In addition to actual plants, including many smelly plants, I keep a scent library of essential oils, absolutes, tinctures, and CO2 extracts.

A Page From My Smelly Library

I have about 350 of these bottles/vials in my collection at this point. And I love to tincture. Tinctures are made from the actual plants (generally dried), plant parts, or resins, soaked in perfumer's alcohol and aged. They are lighter cousins to essential oils, which are distillations, and absolutes, which are solvent-extracted in a multi-step process to yield a denser, more complex product. CO2 extracts use no solvents like hexane, only carbon dioxide under high pressure (where it becomes supercritical, something between a gas and a liquid).

I use these items for my hobby of perfumery, and also for health reasons. For example, if anyone in the house shows signs of developing a respiratory infection, they get a nice steaming with Oregon Peppermint and Austrian Silver Fir, with a little Red Thyme thrown in.

Basically, collecting these extractions helps me learn more about many plants that I grow, and many others I don't or can't. And playing with them, and sharing them with friends, is a never-ending delight.

So for this blog, I may, from time to time, extol the virtues of a particular extract, or give a recipe, or some such thing. Any other gardeners out there who do likewise? You are welcome to share!