Saturday, September 20, 2014

In Sync with the Seasons



Living in harmony with Nature -
that is our credo at Rain

When nature whispers - we listen, when she floods the air with her volatile aromas, we rush to capture them. 
Our jasmine is in full bloom - filling the evening with a sweet floral melody - one which we want to capture for our perfumes. 

We are hard at work each evening , picking the delicate open flowers in order to lay them in palm butter , to perform the ancient french perfumery technique of enfleurage - used to capture the essence of flowers



This is a time consuming task and the flowers need to be replaced every single day for at least 8-12 days. One has to be very sure of a good supply of flowers before beginning 


The Yesterday ,Today and Tomorrow is also blooming at just the same time. this bush is extremely generous with its glorious fragrance and abundant flowers 

The flowers start off deep purple today, then turn lilac tomorrow and are white by the next day


The Palm Butter gently coaxes the aromas from the flowers over time . It is a lesson in patience , respecting time and nature as it gently yields its perfume to the fat medium. 


After loading the fat for as many days as you are able to repeat the process without the fat growing nasty moulds, the fat is scraped into jars to be washed for three weeks with natural sugar cane alcohol.
This washing process entails daily shaking of the bottle to transfer  the fragrance molecules from the fat to the alcohol.
After more than 6 weeks, of daily interaction , this will be ready for use.
No wonder natural perfumes are costly and precious.


Winter essential: Wild harvested Baobab oil

There is a beautiful African folklore story about how the Baobab tree came to be African and also known as ‘the upside-down tree’. ...