Perfume Camp Level III:The Tincturing Perfume Process

Hi Everyone, I just wanted to give you an update on what I've been up to these months of the Covid-19 Lockdown. Building the Perfume Camp Tincture Library~that's what. (and of course major gardening, planting, harvesting, expansion of our vegetable beds to include everything being gopher caged. More now on the tincturing efforts...

When I moved the garden from Davenport (2018-2019) (55 feet x 30 feet) to Pescadero (1/3rd of an acre)  I began tincturing all of our botanicals individually. Before that I had made our Reserve Parfums for years using the Tincturing Process. All the botanicals were intuitively tinctured in the same container: a ball mason wide mouthed jar. The precious aspect of each of the Reserve Parfums is that they are impossible to re-create.  They are pricey because of this aspect.  In prior years I did not have the time or the space to create a tincture library. The beauty of these last few months is that I have been able to expand the library that was started 18 months ago in our Pescadero Scent Garden.

This is a direct result of starting Perfume Camp which is a relatively new endeavor where I teach my process to fellow human beings who are interested in perfume making. This is Level III ( Level I and Level II are prerequisites before taking this class).

I have a mini barn in the 1/3 acre garden which is where I tincture. The garden expanded to 30 rows of 55 feet each x 5 feet. I have been able to add more flowers, more botanicals, and that process is ever expanding. This is year two for this garden and it is looking great. The tinctures are also looking and smelling amazing. Happy now that I have each tincture as an individual ingredient. All formulas going forward can be made over and over again, making their prices more affordable.

I used to love the idea of making something that could never be reproduced again, hence the ganging of botanicals all together in the tincture jar. I just loved the idea of capturing a moment in time that would just be forever memorialized once. However, my clients who fall in love with one of the scents want to be able to buy it again, and again, with a certain consistency of smell.

When I opened my shop in Pescadero two years ago this is what I learned from my customers. They want to be able to call this their scent over time. While making Luxe Wild Raw Scent for LPO my clients realize the process is much like creating fine wine where different seasons and different years produce unique results based on the terroir (sun, weather, land etc) to be able to re-create a scent for long term purchase is a goal that the Tincture Library will help bolster.

My Life Coach who I have worked with since 2005 has been encouraging me for the past two years not to analyze, just do. This is how the Tincture Library came to be. I am just following my nose here, and creating something for the LPO Perfume Camp teaching process, as well as for the LPO Reserve Parfums.

Now, the reason I began this method of making perfumes is because of the regenerative aspect. I recognized that it takes far less botanical material to tincture, than to use essential oils. There is a superb subtly also in tinctured botanicals. As I age I am drawn to much more subtle scents, and my client base also matches this preference for a regenerative practice.

While I have some "home run" scents in my range (scents that throw a loud sillage) most of my scents are much more subtle. I always include essential oils in these tinctured parfums but with the quantum neuroscience botanical alchemy in each plant, much less is needed. You get all the health benefits of the full aspects of each plant.  We have some esoteric tinctures, and some combinations that are lovely too. Like our passionflower + strawberry, our white sage + helichrysum. Some pairings are delightful.

This all grew out of my Soliflore Collection

Over the past eight years I introduced a Soliflore Collection of scents into my range that are a basic universal language. With people traveling the world, flowers speak a language that when you can not understand each other: the flower can bridge that gap. My intention with the soliflore collection is that people can mix and match these to create their very own signature scents. That is the basis behind of Level I Perfume Camp class. The soliflore collection is our bestselling, is the best price wise, and allows full creativity to the client while collecting different scents to mix and match together.

Back to the Garden

We expanded an area for vegetables this year. Last year we planted vegetables in between all our herbs and flowers. This year we wanted to gopher cage all the vulnerable  vegetables since we lost many last year to gophers mid season. There is nothing more heartbreaking than witnessing the take down of a big giant zucchini that is in mid season with gorgeous harvests. We planted more sunflowers, more dahlias this season also in our rows, and everything has grown in our perennial herb beds over the past year.

Summer Solstice Event

We are planning a New Moon June 21st Summer Solstice Garden Event  as a fundraiser for the Scent Garden. Please watch our twitter space at @libbypatterson and Instagram at @libbypattersonorganics for details. Also: The Tincture Library is going to be available to shop on our PerfumeCamp.com website. We are still adding, building that but you can check it out as some things are already live there.

Flower Bouquets
We offer Flower Bouquets on the weekends at the shop. If you would like to pre-order a bouquet please send us a direct message on instagram or twitter. Give us advance heads up. Thanks. We will send you an invoice in advance and then provide Curbside Pick Up.

Thanks so much for reading this post, for being supportive, being a valued client, and I look forward to being able to start doing Perfume Camp classes again. Thanks everyone.

Love,

Libby

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