Ends of the Earth • Geranium Leaves Soliflore. Photos show my handmade Pelargonium leaves absolute, and my various scented geranium plants.
This is a single note Pelargonium solid perfume from 10 varieties of scented geranium. Smells so good, nothing like the essential oil from the same genus. The aroma is singular, somewhere between Lawudo incense, Indian agarwood, and pepper. Handmade with home tinctures of their leaves, infused and replaced with new material daily, for the entire summer. I then used old fashioned, non-industrial processing to naturally concentrate the extract into an absolute. This unique extract forms the essence of Ends of the Earth, and the technique reflects the perfume's name. Unlike the processing of fresh geranium tops by steam distillation, which produces geranium hydrosol and essential oil, I use the dead or dying leaves in my tinctures. The desiccated plant tissue or cellulose concentrates aromatic oils without being upstaged by competing leafy aromas. This state of decay actually amplifies the incense profile. With significantly less water content than the living leaves, the drying and dried leaves have no noticeable green-swampy scent. I love using ancient, non industrial techniques to extract scent. You don’t burn off the top notes during processing, it’s more sustainable (less plant matter used), and better for the environment (low waste, low manufacturing footprint, and the natural deadheading of the plants promotes flowering and higher output of oxygen into the atmosphere, and thereby consumption of co2 by our plant friends). The cultivars included in my Ends of the Earth perfume are:
• Black Flower (Pelargonium glaucifolium)
• Wildwood (P. quercifolium, P. panduriforme and/or P. pseudoglutinosum hybrid)
• Apple (Pelargonium odoratissimum)
• Apricot (Pelargonium scabrum)
• Grey Lady Plymouth (Pelargonium graveolens)
• Attar of Roses (Pelargonium capitatum)
• True Rose (Pelargonium roseum)
• Roger's Delight (Pelargonium domesticum)
• Ginger (Pelargonium torrento)
• Nutmeg (Pelargonium fragrans)
Ends of the Earth is sustainable, organic, and gender neutral. This solid fragrance is composed exclusively from whole plants and is set in organic plant butters and very raw beeswax. Color may vary.
Wild Veil's natural perfume fixatives act as primers for the skin. Applied prior to perfumes, they can extend the longevity of your fragrance. Suggested fixatives:
Amber fixative contains classically amber base notes from my handmade resinoids that I extracted from raw, wild resins using organic high proof alcohol. It is warm, powdery, and slightly boozy. Resinous with caramel undertones.
Botanical Musk fixative contains musky base notes. It is slightly dry and earthy, with intimate notes of skin, hair, and smoky roots.
Conifer fixative contains stirring and wintry evergreen base notes from my handmade tinctures and absolutes of wild Vermont conifers, with many boughs collected from wild stands in my old growth forest: blue, red, white, black, and Norway spruces; fir balsam; Northern white cedar; white pine; scotch pine; and Eastern hemlock. The blend is a complex, deep green and balsam thanks to the various tree parts I have extracted: bark, boughs, needles, and resin/sap. In the background is the cool, fresh, early spring of brisk forest air scented with sticky sap and the snap of firewood.
Dew fixative features light, springy, and dewy notes redolent of sunrise on sprouting blades, droplets cradled by meadows, and the brief post-dawn lingering of wet cobwebs in field grasses.
Dry fixative possesses dry base notes. It crackles with a warm, subtly smoky aroma, and smooth resins layered over a gently bracing botanical musk.
Earthy fixative contains earthy base notes. It is green and smoky, with the comforting aroma of wet musk from the depths of the earth.
Ferns fixative, made with mise en lieu tinctures of wild ferns from both the moist De Luz jungle and Vermont old growth forest. The scent is wet, damp, lush, and cool.
Hay fixative conjures the scents of sun-dried bales of hay, as well as warm, dry straw stored in a barn.
Henna fixative is centered around my homemade extraction of the henna plant: Lawsonia inermis. I first tinctured the plant material, then I evaporated the solution naturally to create a concentrated absolute. My henna absolute is inky and rich. Although I might say it is earthy, it is more metallic and dusty than dank soil smelling. It's unlike any other base note I have encountered, which is why I thought it deserved its own category of fixation.
Hive fixative primes your skin with the sweet and musky base notes characteristic of a honeybee hive. It features my handmade in-house absolutes of raw honey, beeswax, comb honey, propolis, royal jelly, bee bread and pollen, and as such, changes seasonally depending on which extracts are fresh and mature. Some of the ingredients may come from colonies that collected nectar from Apalachicola Tupelo gum trees, North Carolina and Midwestern wildflowers, wild blackberries, sweet clover, thistle, black locust, poplar, prickly pear cactus, goldenrod, asters, buckwheat, orange blossoms, purple sage, and avocado trees.
Leather fixative contains leather base notes. Its smoky, sharp edges give way to a deep underlying warmth. Slightly furry, with notes of wood and musk.
Meadow fixative evokes yellow fields of prairie grass, wildflowers, drying husks still attached to the earth, and the sun in late August.
Monsoon fixative evokes the smell of wet earth, rain after a dry spell, geosmin, petrichor. It features my homemade absolutes of clays and soils I have tinctured for their unique aromas. These include: Multani Mitti clay from volcanic ash, Rhassoul clay from the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, and sod (topsoil from my Vermont gardens). The sod from my garden has a mysterious agarwood note that becomes prominent after the soil has been upturned and left in the sun, and which I like to think of as an earthworm musk.
Mossy fixative contains mossy base notes. It is wet and lush, with whispers of roots and earth.
Sage Scrub fixative features dry, desert herbs characteristic of southern California's coastline and the Baja California peninsula. It includes my handmade, organic absolutes: chaparral, and dried Salvia apiana (white sage), Salvia mellifera (black sage), and Salvia leucophylla (Baja sage), all grown in my gardens from open pollinated seed. Notes of tumbleweeds, dry rush, and Pacific bluffs. Earth crust amber, a dab of black and white sage honey, sun-activated trichomes sticky with sand and ocean salt. Baja California's version of a "fern" (fougère), crenulate and rough.
Spicy fixative contains spicy base notes from my handmade spice tinctures and absolutes: tulsi, ginger root, clove buds, true cinnamon, star anise, aniseed, and cardamom whole and hulled. Green herbs laced with anise, earth, and brown amber.
Tea fixative blends warm, malted, fermented yellow-orange-amber teas with notes of honey, cocoa, dark woods, savory earth, caramel, and Brazil nuts. This fixative includes my tinctured absolutes of Assam Marangi, fermented Mannong Pu-erh, yellow dragon, Oolong Eastern Beauty, and roasted Oolong. This is a mellow fixative that will work well beneath just about any type of fragrance.
Tobacco fixative features my organic handmade absolutes of organic cured leaf: American Virginia Flue, Burley, and Canadian Virginia Flue. I also infused the raw beeswax and propolis (used in the base) with my aged tabacum tinctures to deepen the husky warm qualities of the composition. Sweet, amber, blackberry and mulberry notes with the anticipation of hand rolled smoke. Depending on the season and availability, it may include extractions of my homegrown nicotiana leaves and flowers.
Woods fixative contains classically woody base notes. Dry and warm, white cedar mingles with lactonic, creamy Mysore sandalwood. Simple but exquisite.
Woolen fixative features funky sheep, meadow, and pasture notes from my handmade raw wool absolutes. These I concentrated by cold evaporation method from three types of unwashed sheep fleece that I had tinctured in high proof organic grain alcohol: Romeldale, Icelandic, and Churro. The unwashed Romeldale fleece is unbelievably soft. Romeldale-California Variegated Mutuant is an endangered breed of American sheep that produces high lanolin, very fine, multicolored wool. The resulting absolute has a creamy spring field and pasture scent. It’s sweet and reminds me of candlelight. The unwashed wool from a black Icelandic wether is funky and animalic. It is by far the oiliest and fattiest smelling of the three fleeces. Even with the barnyard leather overtones, it is warm and inviting. From another rare breed, the Navajo Churro wool has alfalfa notes amidst a southwestern desert profile. It's as if the heavy aroma of lanolin has been lightly dusted with sand and sage, and baked by the Arizona sun.
Photos: my scented geraniums; my single varietal organic geranium absolutes made from tincturing my plants; solid perfume in 5ml and 10ml black violet glass jars.
r a w ☽•☾ m a t t e r
Wild Veil natural perfumes are composed by me, Abby, using homemade, wildcrafted and organic aromatics in Vermont. These include my handmade enfleurage, tinctures, enfleurage extraits, absolutes, resinoids and concretes, and floral waxes. I spend as much time growing plants and foraging as I do composing perfumes.
h o w ☽•☾ t o ☽•☾ w e a r
The best way to experience a natural perfume is to apply it to well-moisturized skin, without rubbing in (absorption only shortens the wear time of fragrance) and without scrubbing off. Natural perfumes are dynamic and take a minimum of 2 hours to reach their final stage, or dry down. Enjoy the alchemical changes as they unfold from the initial intensity of top notes, to the warmth of the heart, to the depth of lower base notes.
☽•☾ Wild Veil ☽•☾ alchemy between earth and ether ☽•☾
☽•☾ All aesthetic material copyright Abby Hinsman 2019 ☽•☾