Peach and Apricot Tincture
My obsession has returned. Sometimes, it's pushed aside for other important daily tasks, but it never dissipates. I LOVE making tinctures for perfume! When teaching perfume courses, my students favorite part of the class is when we create a tincture. I've decided this is due to my overwhelming passion and tinctures benefits to perfumery I outline to the students. In addition, students feedback indicates they find making tinctures manageable and fun. Tinctures are easy to make, utilize imagination (can I tincture seaweed, and if so what will it smell like?) and easy to understand whereas blending accords and remembering which botanicals are base notes are decidedly less "fun" to many Introductory students.
The benefits to using tinctures as the alcohol base for botanical perfumes are numerous. Notice I stated "as the alcohol base." I recommend using tinctures as the perfumers alcohol for blending a perfume. I stress to the students that we are not creating a tincture to replace an essential oil or absolute (although one can tincture vanilla beans very successfully and use them as a replacement for vanilla absolute) we are more creating a subtle back note for the perfume by using the tinctured alcohol to blend.
The benefits to using tinctures in perfumes are as follows:
1. ORIGINALITY By using a tincture in your perfume you can put a highly original spin on your scent. Will anyone else be blending with your homemade squash blossom tincture? Doubtful. That unplaceable irresistible note you detect? Why it's my own New England blackberry leaf tincture!
2. FIXATION Many tinctures are created from botanical matter containing sugars and starches. These ingredients actually help a natural perfume last longer as they help trap scent molecules to the skin and slow evaporation. In addition, by using a tinctured alcohol to blend perfume we help extend a note throughout the drydown of the perfume. For example, it is notoriously hard to create a long lasting natural citrus perfume as citrus oils are top notes and evaporate quickly. If formulating a perfume using an orange tincture we are able to pull the citrus note through the length of the perfume and we can help extend the orange note through the mid and even base notes of the perfume as it dries down. I find this incredibly exciting.
3. PALETTE EXTENSION While we may not be able to source a natural blackberry essence, we can create one by tincturing freeze dried blackberries. The ability to create new aromas allows us to expand our perfumers palette.
Lilac Tincture
22 comments
Llewellyn, I do prefer to use unbleached coffee filters for a quick filtering job. I don’t see any reason to use the bleached version. I don’t see the need to use filters that have undergone the bleaching process, just more chemical processing if you know what I mean.
Sara, I do recommend using freeze dried strawberries. You can experiment with lots of freeze dried fruits, but remember they need to be fragrant. Sometimes I run across a bag of not-so-fragrant raspberries or peaches for example. It’s too bad you can’t open them and sniff before buying to make sure they’re fragrant!
Re: Coffee Filters
I thought I read a post somewhere that coffee filters should be non-bleached? They were washed or something like that, I think it had to do with additives or impurities that even a coffee filter might have? I rarely shop for coffee filters so I am not sure how hard they might be to find etc. Can anyone speak to this issue. I don’t know anymore where I saw the original post for this. thanks
Llewellyn
Dear Charna
I found this blog most inspiring. I have made tinctures for medicine most of my life and have recently began distilling oils from native plants to try and make some exquisite perfume. I don’t know why exactly, must be some previous life thing.:}
However the fixative thing kept being a problem because the civets wont be still and too many bombs where the frankincense and myrrh so I being my self reliant fanatical as I am kept getting stuck on the fixative. SOmehow the study led me to your point. I am strongly believing the answer lies in tincturing some plants like Bugleweed (Lycopus) which is highly resinous. Wow unexplored ground. Thank you for this inspiration.
Your friend Darrell
Would a tincture of dried figs work out nicely, do you think? And would it be skin-safe? I read something about the IFRA banning fig absolute, so would a fig tincture similarly be a cause for concern? Thanks, Charna!