What, pray tell, is juicier than love? Let’s give ourselves the benefit of the doubt that may be creeping around the corners of our hearts. Let’s think about juicy love, and embark on a ‘scentimental’ adventure. Most of us know about the olfactory response to aphrodisiacs, and where that pathway goes, so I trust we are already on the path together. We go willingly down this path, as we are huntresses and hunters of scent. We nod to Saint Valentine, now the day of highest scent and flower sales. We love days where scent is exalted, don’t we? Here we go…
“Love”, Valentina said, stumbling slightly on the river rock beneath her, “is as elusive as this river trickle that disappears and reappears at random strike.” The natural beauty of the riverside trail made it hard to keep her eye on the path. She turned her head from side to side, taking in the peripheral expanse of the forest. Greens of every hue pushed at her as the branches above and along side secreted the path in folds of flora.
Her ears picked up the long jazzy note of the river flow and the muted susurrus of the leafy cathedral around her. There was a green thing going on, a color seduction of her thoughts. She took in the color around her, expanding her lungs with a lick of moist forest air.
Quite by accident, Valentina broke one of these branches as she bent over to cup a handful of black spruce needles. The resin from the wounded branch sent out shrieks of scent that had a pronounced effect on her nostrils. Her head reeled backward at her inhale, and yet she brought the branch end to her nose. She inhaled slowly. Forest sap, an ancient exudation of life force, the mana, the sheer power of spruce juice reverberated as waves of scent rolled over her.
Valentina walked up to the spruce, put her arms around it and rubbed her face over the bark. As she stood there, broken branch in hand, embracing the tree, her senses alerted her to something new in the air. Looking down at her feet, she realized the stone studded floor had become more a fir and cedar carpeted path. She had macerated the essential oils, the plants’ protective force, out of the fallen flora under foot. Valentina inhaled the full scent of the path and felt a charge of life force bolt through her.
This was the kind of experience that would reward her with a formula. The notes that sang to her now were Cedar, Spruce, Fir and Cypress, ten drops each in four ounces of grape seed oil, a blend to address the respiratory system and to use as bath oil and a chest rub. Valentina acknowledged the wisdom of the trees surrounding her, and continued on her way.
It was a long time ago that she had first come to value the tricks and proclivities of her olfactory perceptions. Yes, she had a big nose, and it was made fun of in many ways. Even she made fun of it, often walking around snorting and sniffing with her long nose as high in the air as she could.
It was a nose with character, a nose with attitude, and a nose that knows. Her nose had some other stories. Long before she knew that her senses would lead her to the perfumers’ life, she had a passionate pastime.
As a child she spent many delighted hours hosting flower feasts with friends, both real and imaginary, in tree forts she and her father had built. Her family home was on the beach and the friendly Sea Heliotrope trees lent themselves to spatial palaces that were all linked by intertwining branches and a few planks.
The preparations for her tree fests were adventures that took her down the beach and into forsaken and sometimes forbidden jungles of overgrowth. It was in the overgrown thickets of Honeysuckle that she collected floral desserts: a most delicate supping on their flower stamens. Red Hibiscus flowers became petal salad, served with Sea Grapes on the round green plate leaves of the Sea Grape tree. The creamy whites of Jasmine, Gardenias, Wax flowers, Plumerias and Stephanotis, became the scented walls and ceiling of her eyre, and like an eagle she could see far out to the oceanic horizon.
She wasn’t aware that flower feasting was anything more than play. She dreamed of other things. In fact, it was more like a daily meditation, in child form. Valentina looked out to sea, imagining a great sailing ship coming up over the horizon and straight toward her point on the beach, directly to her, in order to take her off with them to the magical traveling circus life that they wanted to share with her. She did actually have a short stint in acrobatic training, and had a European trapeze in her back yard, but life had other ambitions for her to follow.
Valentina looked up to see that she had been walking along blindly, as though just following her nose, and drew her attention back to her present surroundings. She had many good memories, scent memories. It was from this early scent awareness, from her appreciation of the language of scent, that Valentina fashioned her life mission. Her work with plants – their essential oils included – is to help people discover their own unique rhythm with nature, and through that relationship, act with compassion and appreciation for all of life.
Scent was strong on her trail as she rounded a bend in the woods. Green notes melded with a whiff of animal/leather/smoke and drew her attention to a grassy spot just off the trail. Walking to the spot Valentina realized it had recently been a deer bed. She kneeled down on the matted grass and sniffed some more. Not understanding what her nose was receiving, she curled up on the spot and closed her eyes.
Slowly the air revealed its message: two drops of New Mown Hay, a most precious exudation, five drops of Vetiver grass, three drops of Lemongrass, and two drops of Labdanum, the base note to compliment the musky deer scent beneath her. “This,” she announced to the animal lair, “is a blend to stir the Pan in any man!”
She imagined her lover slowly anointing her with this elixir. She could feel her skin drawing in the oils and their sensual appeal. His own breath, steady but shallow, was fresh and cool, like sweet grass on a Native American plain. Valentina loved to stand close to his face and breathe the same air he breathed, believing that some of his essence would enter her. She was enrobed in the scented warmth of primal and uninhibited pleasures. Leaning up against him was pheromone fantasy unleashed, whether he was showered and dressed in his pink tuxedo shirt or grunged from the garden and sweating dirt clods from his pores.
“Just follow your nose!” Valentina laughed at this favorite retort of his, and she had made this a way of living, as she was doing now. Just thinking about him made her feel full, juicy, ripe with desire, and her thoughts stole to the things she would do to him on this grassy deer bed, exactly how she would celebrate his inner Pan. It incited other thoughts too, and why would you be surprised that of these erotic entertainings a blend was born?
Yes, Valentine turned on her back, and looking into the leaf laced sky, dictated from the ground beneath her, “To love divine with juicy hearts, make this blend for secret parts: 60 drops Bergamot, 40 drops Sandalwood, 10 drops Patchouli, 10 drops Storax or Ladbanum oil, 10 drops Lavender, 5 drops Turkish or Bulgarian Rose.”
With that, she rose, changed direction, and retraced her steps homeward. Valentina was following her nose all right, right to her own lovely lair, stopping only to grab her Pan.
Valentina’s Blends:
ExhaultedForest Exudation
Cedar, Spruce, Fir and Cypress, ten drops each in four ounces of Grape seed oil will address the respiratory system as bath oil and a chest rub. Blend the essential oils without adding a carrier oil, and rub unscented candles for a winter treat. Use 5 drops in a footbath to warm the soul. A few drops on your vacuum filter will scent the room as you clean.
Come Hither Pan
Two drops of New Mown Hay, a most precious exudation, five drops of Vetiver grass, three drops of Lemongrass, and two drops of Labdanum. Cover with grain alcohol to desired strength. Use as a pulse point anoint and an aftershave to draw out the Pan in any man.
Love Rub
To love divine with juicy hearts, make this blend for private parts:
60 drops Bergamot, 40 drops Sandalwood, 10 drops Patchouli, 10 drops Storax or Ladbanum oil, 10 drops Lavender, 5 drops Turkish or Bulgarian Rose. Add 4 ounces of your favorite carrier oil. I suggest Macadamia nut oil, Grape seed oil, Sweet Almond oil, Shea butter and Coconut oil 50/50 for a personal lubricant, Coconut cream.
For Your Valentine’s Day Preparation:
Rose Bath Soak
2 pounds Epsom salts
1 pound sea salt
10 drops Moroccan Rose Essential oil
20 drops Rose Geranium Essential oil
5 drops Patchouli Essential oil
Sprinkle two handfuls into bath just as you step in. Step out a Goddess!
