Sultry Perfume Recipe with Tonka Beans and Essential Oils
If you’ve had the opportunity to work with tonka beans (also called tonkin or tonquin beans), you know they have a heavenly aroma: a blend of vanilla-like essence with undertones of tobacco, pistachio, and musk. They are perfect for perfumery. The dilemma is how to get that delicious scent into a perfume. It turns out, a simple alcohol extraction is the key! Then add pure organic vetiver essential oil and a touch of sandalwood to this aromatic base, and you have a luscious, warm, sultry homemade perfume. Our three-ingredient tonka bean perfume blend is the perfect place to start exploring the wonders of this wondrous South American legume.
Citrus Essential Oils: How to Choose the Right Citrus Oil
Citrus essential oils are bright, sweet, and sour and are known to bring a smile to your face. They are energetically uplifting and engaging and pack a punch in DIY cleaning products. But which one should you use?
Organic citrus oils are cold-pressed from the fruit peel of various citrus trees. These lovely essential oils are mostly made up of the same constituents but vary in the amounts that they contain. (+)-Limonene is the primary monoterpene in all of them and contributes to their use in surface cleaners, room sprays, and soaps.
Tips and Recipes for a Fresh-Smelling Home
When throwing a party, the bulk of my planning revolves around three main things: the tasty foods and craft cocktails/mocktails I will be serving; the parts of my home that need deep cleaning before the big day; and how to make the space smell and feel fresh and inviting. On this list, my favorite part is choosing my home fragrance! People often underestimate the power of scent or just don’t know where to start. With that in mind, I’m sharing some of my favorite tricks and recipes for freshening up a space.
Chocolate Chip Mint Bath Truffles
The holidays are upon us, and this season we’re making luscious bath truffles! They’re less finicky than making bath bombs and they’re packed with rich, hydrating oils and butters so you can soak away the stress of the day and give your skin some extra love at the same time. We originally learned how to make these bath truffles from our friend Janice Cox, and we’re loving the myriad of ways we can customize her base recipe. We think this fresh, uplifting chocolate chip mint variation is perfect for winter 2022! Bonus: for the perfect gifts, you can make these balls of skin-loving goodness look like little chocolate chip-sprinkled ice cream scoops!
Best Essential Oils for Winter + Diffuser Blend
Now that winter is here, we’re all thinking about cozy comfort and holiday cheer. We love our fuzzy blankets and immune-supporting teas, of course, but we’re also big fans of the soothing comfort and gentle uplift that aromatherapy brings to our wintery days.
Buchu Leaf: A Complex Aroma That Herbalists Are Divided On
We all know some herbs that are good for us but don’t necessarily smell or taste appealing. Sometimes we have to get past an unpleasant smell to get the desired benefits we desire. We asked a few adventurous Mountain Rose Herbs Mercantile staff to take a quick break to smell one of our botanicals with a hard-to-describe aroma! Buchu leaf may not be anyone’s favorite smell, but it has a lot of uses. Around the world, you’ll find it in the perfume industry, as a component in artificial fruit flavors, and in alcoholic beverages, frozen dairy desserts, candy, condiments, and relishes. Buchu leaf can also be combined with other herbs and ingested as a healthful tea or tincture.
The Sacred Copal Tree + Ceremonial Uses for Día de Muertos
Copalli—the Nahuatl word for Copal—is a resin extracted from the Copal tree and has been used in Indigenous practices for thousands of years. In honor of Dia de Muertos, our friend Patricia Cortez has written a beautiful blog about her memories of how her Mamá Trini trained her in El Salvador to work with Copalli. We love the story of how she learned to befriend and honor the Protium Copal tree and the traditional way of using maguey cactus to harvest the copal. And did you know that in 2016 the Mexican government designated Dia de Muertos as a Cultural Heritage to the world? We all have Ancestors to honor and celebrate regardless of where we are from. What do you recall about your ancestors and how do you honor them?
Voiceover graciously provided by Patricia Cortez.
Patricia Cortez is a bilingual-bicultural holistic practitioner at Eugene Reiki Healing in Eugene, Oregon. Visit her here: www.eugenereikihealing.com.
Four Thieves® Multi-Purpose Spray Recipe
Versatility and effectiveness are two of the most important factors that we consider when it comes to green cleaning. That’s why we love this Thieves® multi-purpose household cleaner recipe! It cuts heavy grease, battles unwanted germs, smells wonderful, and is shelf stable for up to a year so we can make it in advance and have it ready whenever we need it. We think this super-easy Thieves® spray cleaner will become a staple in your natural cleaning supplies!
*Four Thieves® is a registered trademark of Young Living Essential Oils, LC. Mountain Rose Herbs is not affiliated with Young Living Essential Oils, LC in any way.
Hemp Essential Oil: What Is It, What Does It Smell Like, & Why Organic Certification Matters
Recently we had the opportunity to visit SunGold Botanicals in Philomath, Oregon. The brainchild of Isaac Daniel and Josh Gulliver, SunGold Botanicals was created to address the lack of infrastructure to process hemp into certified organic full spectrum oil and other products. Today SunGold Botanicals plays a central role in the organic hemp community here in our home state and is one of the first Demeter-certified Biodynamic hemp processing facilities in the nation. We love that they champion third-party certifications to promote transparency and integrity in an industry that was once the wild west. Turn on your diffuser, sit back, and take a trip to this organic farm to see the botanicals they grow and hear about the wonderful aromatic qualities of their certified organic hemp essential oil.
