- image by Diana Rajchel of Magickal Realism Perfume Arts.I'm a very DIY kind of girl. This is partly because my own perfumery is a bootstrap effort - no debts, no loans, no credit cards used ever. And this means that fancy things like tuberose and ottos come by way of gifts, and are sparse. Nope, my perfumes have a garden feel to them because often, major components of them come from someone's garden.
So, even as I advance my art form from the familiar safety of oil based mixtures to complex things like tinctures, I have to resort to a sort of guerilla harvesting from time to time and I am a girl who relies on the kindness of trusted friends.
This year's treats have been generous indeed: scores of lilac flowers, moving me into year three of the seven year tincture I'm working on. Tomato leaves, thanks to a dear friend's garden going completely bonkers. And, to my delight...roses.
Unfortunately, I had no idea roses were so uncooperative in tincture. I'm sure someone could have told me if I'd asked, but I do like to learn things the hard way. That said their stems and leaves behave very nicely, and I've got some lovely herbal greens to play with this winter as a result. As for the petals...well, the alcohol is very strangely pink/brown now. I might be able to do something with that...
