Almost everyone, it seems, loves the scent of pine, and this year I've gone a little overboard with it. A nine-foot tree sits in my living room, and my front doors are decorated with pine wreaths. There is also a brick alcove in my condo--where an opening to the factory floor used to be in the late 1800s when the building was a woolen mill--that has become the perfect spot for an old, heavy door that I display as a piece of art. That old door is also decorated with a pine wreath.
Essential oil of pine is widely used in aromatherapy as an inhalation treatment to combat mental fatigue, and to help in instances where one has bronchitis, the flu or laryngitis. It also has tremendous antiseptic and antiviral properties, which leads me to use it for my home cleaning chores. And let's face it: the natural scent of pine smells oh so much more lovely than the commercial cleaning preparations that are laced with who-knows-what kinds of chemicals.
However, for purposes of natural perfumery, I much prefer fir. Like pine, fir benefits the respiratory system and shares many of pine's other attributes. But I feel that fir's fragrance, generally-speaking, is softer and more refined--whereas pine's often seems rather brusque. So to me, fir is more suitable for use in perfumery. Typically, I save pine for aromatherapeutic purposes.
Fir is a top note, meaning that if it's contained in a blend its scent is among the first you'll smell--and as a top note it will be fleeting as it leads you deeper into the perfume's heart and soul. I always think of top notes as the guides that grab ahold of my hand and give me confidence to venture deeper into the netherworld of a fragrance.
Often when I'm using fir in a perfume, I'll blend it with pine to create a strong, clean impression that has considerable depth.
But, alas, I have been spoiled.
A few years ago while in the South of France, I was honored with a silver fir essential oil that had been wildcrafted by a woman in her 90s. The story was that she would take her tiny, portable distillation unit deep into the Provence forest and distill the fir needles on site. This woman's essential oil was the most magnificent fir that I've ever experienced in my life, and try as I might I have not been able to get my hands on anything quite like it since. I brought two bottles back home with me, but of course they didn't last very long.
My only consolation is that the fir's ethereal-like fragrance lives on in my memory.
A couple of years ago I bought some silver fir from one of my few trusted suppliers who insisted that it came from the same 90-year-old woman who distilled the fir that I fell in love with earlier. But this fir didn't smell anything like the fir I remembered. However, France had a particularly rainy autumn and spring that year, which could have easily accounted for an inferior fir unworthy of waxing on about.
After all, essential oils used in natural perfumery are like wines. The conditions in which the plants are grown to create the oils have a bearing on the final product. Rain or a lack of it, soil conditions, temperature--these are things that the French term terroir. They all play a part in an essential oil's quality, just as the terroir, or the conditions in which the grapes are grown, is largely responsible for a wine's quality.
I hope that the scents you are experiencing this season are worthy of wonderful memories. Enjoy your pine or your fir, whichever "version" you've bedecked your home with. Remember: The fragrance is uplifting and clears away mental fatigue.
To me, smells such as pine and fir are "happy scents."
Happy holidays.
Essential oil of pine is widely used in aromatherapy as an inhalation treatment to combat mental fatigue, and to help in instances where one has bronchitis, the flu or laryngitis. It also has tremendous antiseptic and antiviral properties, which leads me to use it for my home cleaning chores. And let's face it: the natural scent of pine smells oh so much more lovely than the commercial cleaning preparations that are laced with who-knows-what kinds of chemicals.
However, for purposes of natural perfumery, I much prefer fir. Like pine, fir benefits the respiratory system and shares many of pine's other attributes. But I feel that fir's fragrance, generally-speaking, is softer and more refined--whereas pine's often seems rather brusque. So to me, fir is more suitable for use in perfumery. Typically, I save pine for aromatherapeutic purposes.
Fir is a top note, meaning that if it's contained in a blend its scent is among the first you'll smell--and as a top note it will be fleeting as it leads you deeper into the perfume's heart and soul. I always think of top notes as the guides that grab ahold of my hand and give me confidence to venture deeper into the netherworld of a fragrance.
Often when I'm using fir in a perfume, I'll blend it with pine to create a strong, clean impression that has considerable depth.
But, alas, I have been spoiled.
A few years ago while in the South of France, I was honored with a silver fir essential oil that had been wildcrafted by a woman in her 90s. The story was that she would take her tiny, portable distillation unit deep into the Provence forest and distill the fir needles on site. This woman's essential oil was the most magnificent fir that I've ever experienced in my life, and try as I might I have not been able to get my hands on anything quite like it since. I brought two bottles back home with me, but of course they didn't last very long.
My only consolation is that the fir's ethereal-like fragrance lives on in my memory.
A couple of years ago I bought some silver fir from one of my few trusted suppliers who insisted that it came from the same 90-year-old woman who distilled the fir that I fell in love with earlier. But this fir didn't smell anything like the fir I remembered. However, France had a particularly rainy autumn and spring that year, which could have easily accounted for an inferior fir unworthy of waxing on about.
After all, essential oils used in natural perfumery are like wines. The conditions in which the plants are grown to create the oils have a bearing on the final product. Rain or a lack of it, soil conditions, temperature--these are things that the French term terroir. They all play a part in an essential oil's quality, just as the terroir, or the conditions in which the grapes are grown, is largely responsible for a wine's quality.
I hope that the scents you are experiencing this season are worthy of wonderful memories. Enjoy your pine or your fir, whichever "version" you've bedecked your home with. Remember: The fragrance is uplifting and clears away mental fatigue.
To me, smells such as pine and fir are "happy scents."
Happy holidays.
