Just in Time for Mother's Day

I just got some cute little perfume bottles and I have been playing around with some blends.  So I thought why not have a giveaway and let my readers have a chance to win some!  You could win a 10ml spray bottle of pefume to keep for yourself or to give your Mom for Mother's Day.  All perfumes are made with pure essential oils and/or absolutes in perfumers grade alcohol with a fixative added.  I'll let you choose:

EAU DE COLOGNE is a classic light blend with citrus oils and Neroli.  I love it but it contains all top notes-so I added orange blossom absolute instead of Neroli, which gives it much more staying power.  I also added lemon petitgrain (from the leaves and twigs of the Lemon tree) to lift the blend.  Other oils include bergamot, lemon, petitgrain (from the bitter orange tree) and a touch of orange and lavender.  This is a gorgeous Spring/Summer scent-light and uplifting.

LAVENDER made with French Lavender EO and Lavender Absolute.  This reminds me of the little bottle of lavender perfume I bought in Paris.  No one does Lavender better than the French!

JOY my best selling aroma-perfume in an alcohol base.  This blend includes bergamot, pink grapefruit, ylang ylang, jasmine, vetiver and oakmoss absolute.  My customers love this!

SOFT PATCHOULI is mainly Petitgrain with enough patchouli to add some earthiness and tons of staying power.  Don't let the name fool you-it's made with an aged patchouli which is soft and mellow.  Patchouli can be hard to take if you smell it straight but it completely transforms when it's blended with other oils.  This is my favorite Patchouli blend and I get tons of compliments when I wear it.

This giveaway will end at midnight eastern time on April 30th.  I will notify the winner on May 1st so we will have plenty of time for transit in case you want it for Mother's Day.  This giveaway is open to US residents only!  Just leave a comment to be eligible.

Hyacinth-Flower Essences

I made my first flower essence of the year yesterday.  For those of you who are not familiar with them they are similar to homeopathic remedies.  The flowers are floated on Spring water and infused in the sun for a few hours and then preserved with Brandy.  A dose is a few drops in water and you can dose pretty much as often as you feel you need to.

Some people believe there is a transfer of vibrational energy from the flower to the water.  Since we are still talking about an actual infusion with plant material I believe there is a more scientific, physical explanation for the action.  Science just doesn't know how to see it.  I believe the action is related to cellular memories-maybe it's just a different wording for the same phenomena, I don't know.  I believe essential oils operate this way too, at least partially.  Anyhow, they work.  The reason I believe in them is that they work with animals so there is no placebo effect there could be with humans.  I know my dog trusts me implicitly with my plant medecines-because she knows she will feel better.  That's all I need to know!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/71340429/hyacinth-flower-essence.  There is the new listing and I also have Borage available and I will be adding many more as plant material becomes available.

I am considering some other experiments like combining flower essences and essential oils in sprays and possibly some homeopathic doses of essential oils.  Watch for further posts as I may seek out volunteers for these.  If you think you might be interested in being a test subject for me go ahead and leave a comment and I will contact you.

Happy Thursday!

I am enjoying a peaceful lunch hour, inside where it's nice and cool. It has been very hot and humid in Kentucky already and it's not even Summer yet! However, it was like this last June then we had the COLDEST July I have ever seen in my life! It was really nice but the trade off seems to be big ice storms in January and I don't want that.

I have officially run out of St. John's Wort oil but I have several of the salves made up. Fear not-my plants have already started blooming so I have more oil going already. It should be ready in 2 weeks and I have until about mid-August to keep harvesting flowers.

I will probably do a video on this wonderful plant and post it this weekend. If you haven't looked at any of my videos you can check me out on youtube. I have a link under my favorites on this blog. Don't forget to subscribe-this is a BUSY BUSY time of the year for the herbalist! I generally don't make an appearance on the videos because I am filming on my cell phone early on Sunday mornings while my neighbors are asleep and I haven't gotten dressed or even brushed my hair yet. I am not used to this but they are getting better. I may also post about echinacea soon because my coneflowers are big and bushy and I am getting TONS of flowers!

I will talk to y'all on youtube on Sunday!