Kathi KevilleRudyard Kipling wrote of the “wind-bit thyme that smells like the perfume of the dawn in paradise.” Ancient Greeks complimented each other as “smelling like thymbra”; their word thymain meant “to burn as incense,”...
Originally from the Middle East and northeast African, Myrrh has been an important trade item for more than a thousand years. Myrrh still has many medicinal, cosmetic, and emotional benefits.
The Biblical Queen Esther changed her name to Hadassah, after the Hebrew word hadas, for “myrtle.” This small, attractive North African tree now makes itself at home throughout the Mediterranean, and was a favorite in the ancient gardens...
This lichen (a combination of a fungus and algae), which hangs from trees like Spanish moss, was found in Egyptian royal tombs. It is a fixative in chypre-type perfumes (named after Cyprus, the home of this moss) and was a popular 16th-century...
The familiar sweet orange comes from Sicily, Israel, Spain and the United States, each offering a slightly different characteristic. Chu-lu, the first monograph describing the various citruses, was written in China in 1178. Extraction: Cold-pressed...
Once considered sacred, this herb was often used in purification practices. Hyssop comes from the Mediterranean. Most of the oil produced goes into expensive perfumes. Family: Lamiaceae (Labiatae) Extraction: Distilled from flowering tops. The odor...
This plant native to Asia and cultivated in many locales produces an essential oil that is strongly mucolytic. It is best dispensed from a diffuser for respiratory problems. Family: Asteraceae (Compositae) Extraction: Distilled from the root...
Probably an Iranian native, jasmine has captured the imagination for centuries. Forty-three different species are grown in East India, where women dress their hair with it and where it is poetically known as “moonlight of the grove.”...
The berries of this North American shrub flavor gin, named after geniŠvre, French for “juniper berry.” Traditionally the fragrance was thought to ward off contagious diseases. Native Americans living in the high deserts of the West still...
Regardless of its reputation as a love potion, the 14th-century nuns of St. Just included coriander in their Carmelite water, a scent and complexion product that remained popular for the next four centuries. Coriander dominated Eau de Carnes...
