On Sunday I took a couple hours off work to make my annual pilgrimage to Russian River Roses to sniff the field of Kazanlak perfume roses and to choose a new rose bush to bring home. The owner told me that they imported the original Kazanlak bush from Bulgaria and she has propagated a whole field from cuttings of the Bulgarian stock. She doesn’t sell Kazanlak now but might in the future, and I’d be very tempted to grow one despite the once-only annual bloom. They really smell heavenly!
Back on the blending front, I added some rectified cade oil to Fireside Intense for more smoke. Cade is an oil from Juniperus oxycedrus that is used in perfume for leather and smoky notes, and it’s also used in some skin care products. It has a very smoky scent and is so strong it’s used in very tiny amounts (well diluted). I’ll run this by a few testers to see how the smoke level seems with the cade, guaiacwood, nagarmotha, and birch tar blended with cedar, sandal, leather, and incense.
I’m also working on the new woodsy floral, a tweak of Jour Ensoleille, and I need to get back to the rose scent soon. I’ll post a list of the new scents and updated scents when I’m done.
And last week we were excited to see Bois Epices reviewed on the Now Smell This blog: Review of Bois Epices
7 comments
Hmmm. Perhaps I’ll check the place out next year, too.
I also want a lavender rose that one of my coworkers has. It has a very spicy scent. He is not sure what variety it is as it was present when he bought his home three years ago. He brought a huge bouquet to work a week ago. All I could say was “wow.” He must have had at least ten varieties in that bouquet and all of them came from his yard.
I’ve found lavender roses to be more disease prone, but I do grow a small one called Angel Face. It’s very fragrant but has more citrus nuance than spice. Your friend’s lavender rose sounds nice!
I’m bringing in armloads of cut roses right now each day. The house is full of vases — the spring bloom is always fun like this. 🙂 Roses are pretty tough and easy if you pick varieties that grow well in your area.
Abraham Darby (apricot) and William Shakespeare 2000 (red) are a couple very fragrant David Austin roses I enjoy growing. Double Delight is a lovely fragrant hybrid tea we grow, and Souv. de Claudius Denoyel is a fabulous richly fragrant red climber.
I’m putting various clematis varieties with the roses and that’s fun too (no scent but beautiful).
Laurie
That’s a nice review on Bois Epices, Laurie!
Aaaah, roses – I love roses, both to look at and smell. Also, chocolate, which I have on my brain these days. I’m dreaming of roses and chocolate 😉 Do you still have a chocolate scent?
The Raspberry Chocolate scent was pretty good. 🙂
I bought a “Julia Child” rose this weekend. It’s a bright yellow with a wonderful fragrance, a little spicy, a bit fruity. With all the roses I have been seeing lately, I could not resist. I went to the nursery to buy Roma tomato plants and marigolds and came back with “Julia Child” (how appropriate with the tomatoes)!!!
Enjoy your new rose! Sounds lovely! I saw a photo of that one online and it looks pretty. Good luck with the tomatoes too.
I’m offering some of the foodier scents, like Black Raspberry Cocoa, just in lotion right now but can make them in fragrance too by special request (prices on most of them are at the lower end). The Black Raspberry Cocoa has been popular. 🙂
I need to update the lotion page to add descriptions for the lotion-only scents and to add the new lighter summer lotion (the new lotion should be ready in a few weeks, after a delay on the containers we want to use for it).
Black Raspberry Cocoa – I’m starting to drool!