Aromatic Adventures

  No new content will be added to this blog. Active content has been moved to new location www.aromaticadventures.com . Thank you for your support over the ten years. Wendy

 Sharing my aromatic garden to you today- a small inner city garden in Christchurch filled with over 15 aromatic plants I distill for the aromatics . Enjoy! https://fb.watch/9GMw008djG/ I only distil for hydrosols these days or for preparing as ethanol tinctures for perfumery

This is a the first run of my small scale back yard set up on various geraniums distilled for hydrosol, using a pump to reticulate water through the condenser to save water. It means I do not have to stay close by every second for two or more hours. (I am still in the vicinity though in case of mishaps!) Day 1: Harvest of lemon geranium ( Pelargonium crispum ) this morning, stripped leaves from branches (approx 500gm plant material) and added to 3 litres of commercially distilled lemon geranium hydrosol so I get double the benefit. I don't extract any essential oil out of it. https://youtu.be/LFVPV6WHCIg . I achieved about 600 ml good quality hydrosol after 3 hours on the hot plate. (leaf 1 in picture below) Day 2: First up is rose geranium ( Pelargonium graveloans var. roseum ) with pure water (leaf 2 in picture below). Hydrosol appeared very quickly and prolifically, obtaining 200 ml within first 20 minutes of the distillation. This was distilled for about two hours  and...

Introducing my newest Aromatic Adventure- welcome to 'The Sultress' Parfum Naturale - an 100% vegan and natural perfume range using precious aromatic extracts to create authentic perfumes. Aesthetic Aromatherapy…-this evocative expression is all about the hedonistic blending of aromatics purely for pleasure. As an experienced aromatherapists and formulator I have also studied the finer art and science of perfumery. Inrecent times most of this has been incorporated onto skin care products for commercial clients and creating a base range of aromas to be used with a range of products. However now is the time to expand of this and offer a personalised perfumery bending service. This service is perfect if you want a truly bespoke blend just for you to use and may have incorporated into body care products or to wear as a perfume. I have a collection of over 300 precious plant aromatics to draw on and nothing can compare with the pre strength of natural aromatics. Essential Oil...

I am having a play around making my own turmeric infused oil as abase for a blend for arthritis- full details on my website here

Whats the deal on Vitamin C in skincare : Winter is the best time to pamper the skin and with so many products containing Vitamin C how do you know what works for you and whether it even suits your skin,

Winter Foot Care : Just because it is getting cold doesn't mean you can neglect your feet!

I haven't posted for a while as for the last 6 months I have either been preparing to move, moving or unpacking. I managed to bring most of my precious aromatic plants with me from the warmer North Island to the colder South Island and now winter is coming (in the best Game of Thrones way) I will have to be vigilant with them to make sure frost doesn't get to them. I had transferred most to pots before hand and let them harden up for a few months and had a nervous wait for 2 weeks until they arrived by road after being cooped up in a shipping container the whole time. I had invested in soil hydration crystals and had watered them throughly everyday before hand and packed then up with wet newspaper as well.  They made it without any casualties- a finger lime, some lemon myrtles, osmanthuses (or is that osmanthii?), Rosa damascenas, a bergamot, yuzus, a hawthorn and a couple of other special roses. I sold off heaps of others to pay for the shipping. Since arriving at my new plac...

Here you will find links to some of my resources I have written or prepared. Please acknowledge me Wendy Maddocks and Aromatic Adventures as the owner of copyright for my own material. Other published articles from other sources are also shared - again please acknowledge appropriately. If you are interested in receiving more information please check out my learning opportunities on my website here . Bounty From Down Under- presentation at Aromatica 2015 Journey to the Turkish Rose Fields 2011 GCMS South Island Manuka as supplied by Estate Aromatics GCMS West Coast SI Manuka Aromatic Presentation- presented multiple times in several countries Manuka and Kanuka Article written by Wendy Good Gargling 2008 Presentation (Doctoral Research) Kanuka and Manuka Research Article

Here in NZ winter citrus grow in abundance in my garden. One citrus I planted 4 years ago in my converted paddock is 'Lemonade", which is a hybrid citrus. I t is a cross between a lemon and a sweet mandarin (Citrus limon x. reticualta).  Some authors refer to it as C. limon x sinensis (here) It is a popular citrus in NZ and in Queensland. This is the first year I have had an abundance of fruit. We use the juice to make either home-made lemonade or a version of lemoncello which we enjoy over ice. T his is the first time I have been able to distil the fruit for hydrosols. In aromatherapy most citrus fruits are expellar pressed after squeezing for juice. the essential oil is present in little oil sacs just under the rind- clearly visible here on the photo of the orange. Some citrus are steam distilled for essential oils which helps minimise phototoxicity. Essential oils are also produced from blossom (orange blossom or neroli) and the leaves and twigs (petitgrain). Howe...

So after 4 weeks of consecutive flowering of my osmanthus bushes, starting at one of the line and working their way down (each bush flowering after the other one), I have harvested the last of the usable blossoms for a final distillation. With the previous experimental distillations I added a base aromatic to try and bind the fragrance together. this one I wanted to keep very light and fresh, in memory of the beautiful autumn we are experiencing in Palmerston North. So the hydrosol base was a commercial lemon verbena (which did not have the essential oil removed). In to the still went the osmanthus flowers and the last of the heavily fragrant lemon blossoms. I now have around 500 ml of lovely (slightly cloudy) light, citrus and floral hydrosol just for me to enjoy! I hope you have enjoyed my osmanthus experimentations- hydro-distilling is such a lovely pastime and takes very little effort and even with only small amounts of aromatics you can create something quite bespoke. ...

I often co distil where I use a commercially produced hydrosol as a base (usually lemon geranium or lavender) and redistil with fragrant plant materials. I often to this when I don't have enough of the raw material to make a decent single distillation. For this experiment I decided to mix it up totally to try and create something completely different. As with all of my distillations I do not attempt to remove any of the essential oil which may be present. I only use a small copper alembic still (3 litre). For this complete fragrance experience I first prepared the base hydrosol, using lemon geranium hydrosol from a commercial distillation and re distilled this by itself (2 litres hydrosol to obtain 1 litre more concentrated hydrosol). If you are not familiar with lemon geranium it has a sweet, honey like quality to the aroma. In to this I added the following my garden: osmanthus blossoms lemon blossom rose geranium leaves (young tips only) dried Rosa damascena blossom fr...

Autumn has brought with it some welcome rain, however the air temperatures have still been quite pleasant with daily averages in the low 20's (Celsius). The Osmanthus hedge is now covered in tiny white fragrant flowers and I am entering the second stage of my experimentation with this flower. I am wanting to make a intense an aroma as possible using the still. I don't have the time or expertise to make and haven't yet sourced perfumers alcohol to try a tincture. For this distillation I decided to do a total immersion (hydro) distillation with double the amount of flowers as my first attempt. I picked the flowers in the evening (it had been raining) so left them on a paper towel spread out over night to dry out totally. As I was trying to condense the aroma as much as possible I decided to distil using previous versions of osmanthus hydrosol. The Stats 60 gm of fresh flowers picked 14 hours earlier 125gm of osmanthus hydrosol distilled 1 week ago (th...

perfect osmanthus harvesting footwear! Some of the hedge Upclose with the tiny white flowers For those who have followed my blog and aromatic musings you will know full well the heartfelt disappointment when the (expensive) Osmanthus fragrans trees I planted in the summer of 2012 failed to produce anything  (detailed here from 2015). I t appeared that I had been sold the wrong variety of plants as they seemed misnamed. Today (Easter Monday) there had been a light shower and I was showing some visiting out of town friends the growth and plantings in my garden since they last visited more than a year ago. Low and behold I was met with the most precious site of hundreds of tiny pinhead sized white flowers and the most divine aroma wafting up in the soft breeze. My osmanthus has flowered!!! Closer inspection showed that the bush was covered in the flowers-only one bush in the hedge of 5, but it was a great sight. Added to organza bags ti steam distill 31 gm (2...

Shakespeare has this to say about the rose...In Act II, Scene II [ 1 ] of the play, the line is said by Juliet in reference to Romeo's house, Montague which would imply that his name means nothing and they should be together. Juliet: O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name; Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I'll no longer be a Capulet. Romeo: [Aside] Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this? Juliet: 'Tis but thy name that is my enemy; Thou art thyself, though not a Montague. What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot, Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part Belonging to a man. O, be some other name! What's in a name? that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet ; So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd, Retain that dear perfection which he owes Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name, And for that name which is no part of thee Take all mysel...

Dr. Wendy Maddocks (RN, DHlthSc): Introducing Dr. Wendy Maddocks (Registered Nurse, ... : Hi there- you have probably come to this page via a previous web address. This page gives a small overview of my professional aromatic a...

Myrtle hydro distillation and absolute production attempt January 2016. Happy new year!   A couple of days ago I noticed a very fragrant bush in my parents garden covered in small white flowers. turns out it is a Myrtle, Myrtus communis Varigata . I decided to see what I could create from it. Their tree was a bit odd though as it started out as a variagated bush and in recent years new leaves were not fully green. lower branches still had variagted leaves. it hasn’t been grafted. the scent was most prominent in the early evening. Coconut infused Myrtle blossom   I decided to use the flowers for my first attempt at an absolute production. I harvested by hand approximately 100 gm of flower heads and pressed them into organic coconut oil. Straight away I realised of course that my lovely high quality coconut oil had it’s own delicious fragrance. However I persevered and impregnated the coconut oil with 2 batches of petals/flower heads. Due to the heat here in su...