Alba Rose Enfleurage.

Alba Rose Enfleurage is a solid perfume made by the simple but labor intensive process of cold enfleurage. The only ingredients are fresh, highly fragrant alba rose flowers grown in my organic garden, avocado butter, and very raw beeswax. It is organic, and handmade. The scent is exquisite, delicate, and true to Rosa alba: clean and austere. This is a cool rose, with a brush of anisette and apple skin. Neoclassical Neapolitan for the nose. Originally cultivated as a white rose, the name is somewhat of a misnomer now since the alba rose comes in red, pink, and yellow too. Its lineage goes back to ancient Europe, where it was bred for its fragrance. The species is very cold hardy, surviving in subarctic climates, and it exhibits a singular sweet scent.

In my opinion, enfleurage is the best process to capture all of the aromatic nuances of a flower in bloom. This "pommade" (highly scented solid perfume-- not to be confused with pomade for hair) consists of hundreds of individual organic alba rose flowers that I gathered from my perfume gardens, laid onto an emulsion of organic avocado butter and raw beeswax. Daily, I clean the enfleurage and repeat the process to reach a degree of fragrance saturation. In my enfleurage, the Rosa alba scent is clear, bell-like, linear, and classical. A rose of restraint, it is very much the opposite of the shrill, overpowering version of a synthetic rose you find at the fragrance counter. Only you and those closest to you will be able to smell it. Apply to well hydrated skin without rubbing in.

 Suggested fixatives: Amber, Animalic, Ferns, Gourmand, Henna, Hive, Leather, Meadow, Mossy, Powdery, Tea, Woolen. Wild Veil's natural perfume fixatives act as primers for the skin. Applied prior to perfumes, they can extend the longevity of your fragrance.

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.

Animalic fixative features stunningly intense musk base notes. If you are looking to enhance the tenacity of your natural perfumes, and to fix volatile florals and top notes, this is a fixative worth investing in. Luxurious and powerful, its sleek fur coat undresses to warm amber powder underneath.

Gourmand fixative contains gourmand, or edible, base notes of vanilla Madagascar, cocoa, and frangipane. It is not overly sweet, but rather dark and sultry, with a hint of sugar. The compounds used to scent the paste include my handmade absolute of raw, wild cacao beans (Theobroma cacao) from Peru, and my absolutes of bourbon vanilla Madagascar (Vanilla planifolia) and Vanilla tahitensis (Tahitian vanilla). The bourbon is from vanilla beans that I grew at home on my vanilla orchid vines by hand pollinating the flowers. I then cured and tinctured the beans in high proof organic alcohol, producing a completely organic absolute.

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.

Mossy fixative contains mossy base notes. It is wet and lush, with whispers of roots and earth.

Powdery fixative contains powdery base notes. With notes of tonka, sweet myrrh, balsam, and ambrette musk, it tends toward dry and warm and will complement fragrances across a wide variety of scent families.

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.

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: alba roses in my garden of old roses; alba rose enfleurage, the enfleurage in 5ml and 10ml black violet glass jars.

PLEASE READ:
**Although the floral perfume produced by enfleurage is osmically balanced (meaning it contains sufficiently complex interplay of top through base notes to be considered a perfume in itself), it is a subtle creation. It must be given time to breathe on the skin. When cold, it may not smell much at all. Allow it to breathe and warm on a pulse point before inhaling deeply. Most noses love the aroma of my enfleurage but, a small percent of my clients are anosmic to enfleurage and therefore cannot smell the floral fragrance. This has to do with natural differences in nasal receptors and is not due to an issue with the product. I always recommend ordering a sample before committing to a larger size for this reason.**

A B O U T • W I L D • V E I L • E N F L E U R A G E

Enfleurage is a beautiful process whereby odorless fats that are solid at room temperature are used to capture the fragrant compounds exuded by plants. Enfleurage is by far one of the oldest methods of fragrance extraction, and it is nearly extinct. Only a handful of artisans still practice it today as it is no longer used in the manufacture of perfumes on a mass scale. A voluptuous art, enfleurage is quite the labor of love, consuming time, labor, and expense. Historically enfleurage was done by women, or maidens, in the fields of Grasse, France. Although far rarer to find enfleurage products in the market today, it is still largely practiced by women.

There are two types of enfleurage: "cold" and "hot." Wild Veil exclusively uses cold enfleurage:

In cold enfleurage, a large framed plate of glass, called a chassis, is smeared with a layer of fat, traditionally unscented animal fat rendered from lard or tallow, and allowed to set. Wild Veil does not use any animal fat whatsoever! My enfleurage products are organic and botanical; I choose fats from a variety of nut and plant butters such as shea, jojoba, avocado, fair trade palm, and mango. Botanical matter, usually petals or whole flowers, is then placed on the fat and its scent is allowed to diffuse into the fat over the course of 1-3 days. The process is then repeated (up to 36 times depending on the fat and the botanical matter) by replacing the spent botanicals with fresh ones until the fat has reached a desired degree of fragrance saturation. The cold fat process was developed in southern France in the 18th century for the production of high-grade concentrates.

In hot enfleurage, solid fats are heated and botanical matter is stirred into the fat. Spent botanicals are repeatedly strained from the fat and replaced with fresh material until the fat is saturated with fragrance. This method is considered the oldest known procedure for preserving plant fragrance substances. So far Wild Veil only incorporates cold enfleurage into products.

In both instances, once the fat is saturated with fragrance, it is then called the "enfleurage pommade." This is a highly perfumed solid fat, not to be confused with pomade used for styling hair. Historically, this enfleurage pommade was either sold as it was,* or it could be further washed or soaked in ethyl alcohol to draw the fragrant molecules into the alcohol. When the alcohol was separated from the fat and allowed to evaporate, it would leave behind the absolute of the botanical matter. The spent fat would typically be used to make soaps since it is still fairly fragrant. *This listing is for an organic pommade.

The advent of modern perfumery ushered in the ease and relative inexpense of commercial solvent-based extraction of natural materials along with mass production of synthetic compounds, making the art of enfleurage seem highly inefficient and costly in comparison. The method is now superseded by more efficient techniques such as solvent extraction or supercritical fluid extraction using liquid carbon dioxide (CO2) or similar compressed gases. Enfleurage had been the sole method of extracting the fragrant compounds (containing thousands of aromachemicals) from delicate floral botanical such as jasmine and tuberose, which are be destroyed or denatured by the high temperatures required by cheaper methods of fragrance extraction such as steam distillation. It is still believed by some perfumers that enfleurage remains the only way to capture and preserve the full range of complexity of certain scents, particularly of flowers.

s i z i n g ☽•☾
I offer enfleurage in sizes of 1ml (a sample of approximately 20-25 drops, or one fifth of a teaspoon), 5ml and 10ml. 1ml (sample size) comes in a hinge top pod. 5ml comes in a clear glass jar. 10ml is available in a glass jar or a round tin.

Please make your selection from the menu.

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 ☽•☾