There’s a Facebook page for the book Elise Pearlstine and I are writing: Perfume From Your Garden! Click here to join us there, and please also visit our holding homepage for the book by clicking here. We’re going to have giveaways of the book when it is published, and you’ll want to be in the drawing for this!
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I’m here as usual for your perfumery questions this Sunday, until 10PM ET USA. Let’s see what has been on your mind this week.
Anya, wow I am excited for this book!!
What’s the fastest way to buy a copy?
I’ve been thinking about your advice to get some essential oils for my chemistry class, and I’ve decided to start the course right there. Thank you!!
So, first we’ll do some combining, and then we’ll try some separating, most of it fragrant.
For combining: I’ll bring in several EOs that I think are likely to be popular with students and not too expensive. I’ll also provide water, a carrier oil, some form of alcohol, possibly glycerine, and possibly some form of wax. I’ll ask the students to pick their favorite EO from the bunch, and then we will work on figuring out the best ways to combine the EO with carrier materials. With luck, this will provoke good questions about solubility, volatility, possibly melting points, and perhaps other issues.
Later, I think we can revisit all of these same chemistry topics by looking at separating — in other words, taking raw materials and pulling out a part that can be used in a perfume. (So, expression, tinctures and infusions, maybe enfleurage of some sort — all the stuff I’ve been asking you about so far.)
I bought a simple distillation apparatus from Home Science Tools, and I will play around with that. Unfortunately my classroom has only one sink, so I would also have to invest in water pumps (and get big buckets with a fair amount of ice for each class period) to allow students to do their own distillation. This might end up being over-budget, so I’m also looking into other methods.
So my questions are:
1. If we can do steam distillation, what raw material would be the most fun (and accessible) to start our work with?
2. If can only do tinctures and/or infusions, what raw materials would be the most fun (and accessible) to start our work with?
3. Is there a classroom-friendly method of expression? For instance, could I use some kind of sharp-pointed brush (maybe like the kind that is made for carding wool or currying horses) to express oil from orange skins? And/or a method involving sponges?
Thank you a million times.
All the best,
Annie
Hi Annie:
1. Probably lavender
2. Vanilla beans, lavender
3. I’m reluctant to advise about sharp implements in the classroom. Expressing citrus rinds is hard labor, also, and isn’t done manually anymore.
HTH,
Anya
Anya,
Thank you for the excellent guidance! I will start working with lavender and vanilla beans at home now, to see what I can produce.
You make a good point about sharp implements! Although, these are teens and expected to take some responsibility for basic common sense. 🙂 In any case I will focus on the other methods.
Thank you so much. I’m really looking forward to you and Elise’s upcoming book!
All the best,
Annie
Is there a way to find out all the chemical components of an aromatic? I know they’d generally have different percentages of the chemicals in each year’s harvest and even have different ratios according the type of growing season they had but wouldn’t they generally be the same components from year to year? This is the information I would be excited to have. Why? I’m not sure but when I see that an aromatic has a certain percentage of such and such chemical, then it’s like a little window into the mystery of how it all works. I guess I’d like to know this because I think sometime down the line it will all come in handy when making perfumes (ie, when x chemical blends with x chemical then consistently get an exalted scent.) Ha ha, I guess you know which module I’m on. Maybe such scientific detail is never required.
Thanks for any insight, Anya. And I’m so excited about your book with Elise!
Suzy
Hi Suzy:
Allured, a Guild member, publishes a great book that has a lot of GCs in it, and that reminds me to get a copy for review. I think they’re in the midst of reprinting it, so it might not be available right now.
About learning chemistry: My course is set up on Jean Carles method: you don’t have to know chemistry. When you create all of the iterations, you’ll have an inexpensive, quick way to see what works with what. Even if you knew chemistry, you might not be able to predict this.
HTH,
Anya
I just popped by Allured. I think the book you mean is: Identification of Essential Oil Components by Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry by Robert P. Adams. They are selling it for $299. I don’t understand all the options they provide that add $450 to the price. But no matter, even at $299 I think I’ll just let my nose do the walking/smelling for now via the Carles method which I happen to love. This book is definitely on my list though. I can’t wait to see what you have to say if you do a review.
Many thanks Anya,
Suzy
It’s $15 less on Amazon. However, if you order from Allured, don’t forget the sale – 30% off when you use the code anya30 at checkout!
xoxo,
Anya