Scents & Serendipity; Ayala & Persephenie Part II

BACK TO BLUNDA

If you live in Los Angeles or are planning a trip anytime soon, you must call and make an appointment to visit Blunda Aromatics or just stop by on a Saturday. The studio is magical, as is the creator Persephenie Schnyder. She offers private lessons in natural botanical perfumery, bath and body care, aromatherapy, candle making and more. Blunda also specializes in a wide range of natural botancial perfumes, essential oil pharmacopeia, exotic herbs, roots, and resins from around the world, educational showcasesand lessons, and last but not least, collectible treasures.

Just a brief wend through the space during Ayala Sender’s Hanami’s showcase, and one small area caught my attention — a group of narrow shelves featuring five vastly different types of Frankincense from Ethiopia, India and Somalia, along with Myrrh, Costus Root, Agarwood, Labdanum, and a small nugget of Ambergris.

Because I am new to this, I had to Wiki and Google many of these substances. And it was a strange and whimsical gift to look them up, I have to confess. Now I know Agarwood (also known in the West as “oud” or “oude”) is a highly aromatic resin that is produced from several types of Aguilera trees — large evergreens — once they become infected with a type of mold or fungis. The trees immune response creates a rich dark resin in its heartwood which in turn impedes the spread of the fungus, and the result is a very prized and rare fragrance.

And I’ve learned the hilarious traditional harvesting process of Labdanum, an essential component of chypre perfumes. Labdanum is a sticky dark resin originating from two types of rockrose shrubs. Perfumeshrine has an excellent entry on this healing miracle substancehere. Although the modern method is far less imaginative, the old school harvest of Labdanum involves running herds of he-goats through groves of rockrose shrubs so that the beautiful, rich fragrant resin collects on the goat’s beards and is then combed out and saved. That’s right! According to some legends, ancient pharaohs would cut the goat beards and wear them because of the resin’s rich odor.

And lastly, there on that shelf was a small nugget of rare Ambergris. With its sweet, earthy, animal and marine odor, Ambergris is created by waxy, solid grey whale spit-up that turns black and crusty after years of floating on top of the ocean. Amidst all the gentle chaos of the Hanami showcase, Persephenie took the time to explain the origins of Ambergris to me and to invite me to smell it — and anything else in her studio of wonders. This world of rarities and exotic substances sounds sublime, doesn’t it? You can be sure I’ll visit again.

~Please visit the Blunda website to discover Persephenie’s offerings.

~Also see Part I of this article here.

~Written by guest contributer, duVergne Robert Gaines: a neophyte to the odor order, is a professional feminist and occasional poet. She lives in Los Angeles near the La Brea tar pits with her partner David Riley Shackelford and their two cat children, Trotsky and MadX.

Posted by ~Trish