Re: Cucumber perfume

[Guest guest]

At 10:32 AM 9/18/2003 -0400, you wrote:

>Well, now that I am finally over the sinus issues, and have my sense of

>smell back, I got out the cucumber and started filtering again. First I

>mixed in some corn starch, then filtered several times until I got a

>mostly clear solution. I let that sit overnight, and will decant the

>supernatant off later today (there is still a /thin /layer of cornstarch

>on the bottom.that filtering will not resolve.)

>

>It smells most gloriously like a fresh cucumber!!

Hi Jen:

This sounds soooooo great. The group members are on the cutting edge of

'foodie' scents in Natural Perfumery, I tell you. I can just imagine your

cucumber extract/solution boosted by a touch of violet leaf absolute (which

has such a great cucumber scent.)

>

>Now, I'm really wanting to try with other things. I know someone on

>this group tried with a pineapple (care to share ? ) and was

>succesful, but what about the fresh apples that are everywhere now? Who

>wouldn't love an appley top note? I can see that with a german chamo

>CO2, (CO2 - not the oil) or even roman EO.

Someone on another group tried pineapple with great success. Apples are

cool, and I'm thinking mango....mmmmm. CSP has a newish scent out - Vanille

Banane, with a toasted sugar note, like Bananas . A trip to the

grocery store is in order! Today's Miami Herald has a huge article on the

boiled-down, hard-as-a-rock Latin sugars. They have all sorts of toasted

and deep, molassey scents. The stuff is formed into shapes, and needs to be

grated before use. I'll bet they tincuture out into some nice sugar base

notes.

I put a dab of chocolate absolute in my highly-scented organic virgin

coconut oil the other night, and of course, it made me want to eat my arm.

Gotta remember to have dinner before dabbing on the foodie scents :-)

Anya

http://member.newsguy.com/~herblady

©

[Guest guest]

> Hi Jen:

>

> This sounds soooooo great. The group members are on the cutting edge of

> 'foodie' scents in Natural Perfumery, I tell you. I can just

imagine your

> cucumber extract/solution boosted by a touch of violet leaf absolute

(which

> has such a great cucumber scent.)

I'm curious now, about all the glycerin based food/fruit extracts that

I see at the natural food store - I bought a cherry one the other day,

but it smells more like almond to me than anything. A little bit like

Serge Luten's Rahat Loukum. Drat, that reminds me I was to inquire

about the arabic - must do that....

The apple isn't going so well, but it's young so we'll see. I really

think that the everclear is essential to this, as fruit skin has so

much natural (and God knows what else store bought fruit has) bacteria

and yeast on it. I make sure to peel it all. I looked at some

Muscadines while out today, but was afraid I'd create a rather potent

wine with those. I'm on the tail end of peach season here, but

will look into that tomorrow.

We have a large hispanic community here, and I know about the sugar

you are speaking of, and oh! I wanna try that too.

Back to my tincturing....

JenB

[Guest guest]

Have been trying to follow the foodie tincturing but am way too busy

to play at the moment. Just a couple things to consider if you are

doing this, should improve your results:

Wash whatever you're using with mild soap/vegetable cleaner to take

the waxes off, then let your WHOLE, UNPEELED fruit or veg in a bath

of plain water with food grade hydrogen peroxide. You can buy it at

35% dilution by the gallon from most lab supply companies (

labs can get it for you)and you want the bath to be about 3 to 7 %

dilution. That will kill most of the surface bateria and mold.

The other thing to consider is actually using the peels, a lot of the

scent and flavor elements are concentrated there, and you'll get a

more complex scent, imagine eating a green apple with the peel, and

then without. With fruits and veg that have a high water content,

you could also consider using 200 proof alcohol, which has no water

at all, and thus gives much greater " lift " as a tincturing juice.

LOVE,LOVE,LOVE hearing about all your experiments!

[Guest guest]

> Now, I'm really wanting to try with other things. I know someone on

> this group tried with a pineapple (care to share ? ) and was

> succesful, but what about the fresh apples that are everywhere now? Who

> wouldn't love an appley top note?

I have a bottle of something called " Apple absolute " from one of the big

perfume raw materials companies (Pierre Chauvet). It is all natural, extracted

from apples - a dark brown, caramel like consistency and smells exactly like...

apples or fresh apple cider (NOT like that candy-apple-Jolly rancher smell).

My cucumber extracts always came out smelling kind of... I don't know...

" vegetabley " in a way that distracted from the delicate cuke aroma. (

[Guest guest]

>

> Anyway -- where in the heck can I find bamboo leaf EO? This is a new one

to

> me. Here's one scent I found that touts it:

> http://www.bathandbodyproducts.com/info/detailmaxpak1018b.htm

>

Is this a real natural raw material, or a synthetic scent, I wonder. I have

never

seen this listed as an essential oil in any catalog, including those of the big

guys like Chauvet, Charabot, etc.. Would be pretty nice if this was something

new to add to the repertoire, though. What does bamboo smell like?

I checked out the site you linked to. Unfortunately, to me, it looks like the

product NAME is " Bamboo Leaf " but this isn't listed as an ingredient. They are

saying the product/brand " Bamboo Leaf " is made with a mixture of essential

oils (from various plants) that are antidepressant.

[Guest guest]

>

> Hey Jen,

>

> How would this be done with a mango? I am highly

> interested in your project. Also once you are

> done with these, can they be used to make massage

> lotions?

>

> Cheryl

Hi Cheryl!

To do a mango, I would just puree (food processor) the flesh in some

everclear, put in a canning jar, shake everyday for - oh, until it

smelled strong enough or started to spoil. If it was a good

experiement, I would then strain it, and continue to filter with

cornstrach until it was clear. Then I'd let it sit for a few

days/weeks to make sure it didn't get cludy again (bacteria.) If all

went well, as it did with the cucumber, I'd consider it a success and

start making mango perfume!

As these are alcohol based, I'm not sure I'd want to put it in a

lotion, but what about those fruit/glycerin extracts found at the

natural store? I wonder if you could use those....

On to tincturing the hazelnuts....

JenB

[Guest guest]

>What the

> heck do they mean by 'neroli and orange tree flowers'. Bad

copywriting, eh?

>

They do that alot, and I'm not sure why. I've seen several MM

perfumes list two names for one ingrdient. OTTOMH, Winter Delice

lists labdanum and cistus and rock rose. Go figure.

I also suspect that they come up with aroma chemicals that don't smell

like anything in particular, but give an " impression " - hence bamboo

leaf maybe? That certainly is the case with some of the smoke/tar

aroma chemicals - there is even a " burned rubber " note for one

perfume. Gag!

JenB

[Guest guest]

> There are several new perfume lines, like Demeter that have 'weirdo'

> scents, like sushi, dirt (some people love that one), etc. All synthetic

> chemicals.

I did a natural spin on the " gin and tonic " one

10 gtt Pine needle

6 gtt Juniper

4 gtt Cypress

4 gtt Virginia Cedar

3 Amber base

4 Ambrette seed

Mine's a little earthier, darker, less sparkly. Ok ok, it's nothing

like Dememter's at all except the Juni. But I love it - it's

funky-good, and very perverse.

BTW Anya, I pick up a cone of darkdarkdark sugar at the mercado.

JenB