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Make Them Look at Your Face!
Why Mothers Kiss Babies - Pheromone ID Swapping
Pheromone Attraction More Powerful Than Strength in Animals
Why Women Call Men Pigs
Nipple Pheromone - Why Men are Attracted to Large Breasted Women
1,500 Human Genes for Smell
Insufficient pheromones - Inadequate emotions
Pheromones Act Even if You Cannot Smell Them
Smells Directly Affect the Emotional Center of Your Brain
Washing, Cultures and the Decline of Bonding
"The Lonely Crowd" - Cleanliness Can Produce Loneliness
Low Pheromones Reduce Your Attractiveness
Expensive Perfumes Do Not Work
Calypso's Oils for Attraction and Bonding
More About Pure Essential Oils
The Goddess Calypso
References

Using Pheromones for Attraction and Bonding

The purest union that can exist between
a man and a woman is that created
by the sense of smell and sanctioned
by the brain's normal assimilation
of the animate molecules emitted
by the secretions produced by two bodies
in contact and sympathy,
and in their subsequent evaporation.
Auguste Galopin in
"The Perfume of Women and the Sense of Smell in Love"
 
 
 
 

Make Them Look at Your Face!

When you wear clothes, your body heats the air around your body. This causes the air to rise toward your highest opening in your clothes. As the heated air rises, it picks up the pheromones secreted from your skin, and, as this air emerges around your face, it causes people to look at you and notice your face.

However, human pheromone levels peak at around age 18, then slowly decline through our life. This is why we are always aware of teenagers in a room. By age 40, your pheromone signals no longer excite others when you enter a room as they did when you were 18. We all tend to think that the physical beauty of young people is the source of their attractiveness; however, smells activate the emotions. Thus, the declining interest of others as we age may be more due to pheromone declines than physical changes in our bodies.

So, to make people look at you (and not the lovable teenagers), you should enhance your natural pheromones signals with supplemental pheromone signals - just as supplements of anti-oxidants keep you healthy and ward off diseases.

Pheromone scientists have said that mammals think through their noses. Virtually all organisms, from yeast to insects to humans, produce volatile smelly pheromones that act as sexual magnets and send other messages such a dominance or fear. Pheromones are substances secreted by one animal that cause  some behavioral response in a second animal. Pheromone is from the Greek words pherein, which means to bring or to transfer, and hormon, which means to excite. Most studied pheromones are volatile smells but others are transferred by direct skin-to-skin contact. Pheromones are primarily present in the skin and the glands of skin, in saliva, urine, and vaginal liquids (Cohn 1994).

Some pheromones are oil-like chemical odors that can be put into perfumes and oils. However, other pheromones are proteins which must be transferred by physical skin to skin contact or by kissing (Singer 1991). Kissing is nearly universal in human culture and may be an unconscious method of transferring protein pheromones.

However, in recent years the definition of pheromones has been expanded to include both attractive or repulsive pheromones  which play a major part in attraction between persons. While you may be attracted by the pheromones of one person, those of another person may repel you (Nicoli and Nicoli 1995).
 
 

After the final no there comes a yes
And on that yes the future world depends.
                                     Wallace Stevens
 
 
 
 
 
 

Why Mothers Kiss Babies - Pheromone ID Swapping

While the effects of pheromones on humans are less obvious than in other mammals, they still strongly affect our behavior. Many pheromones are air borne particles that pass through air after evaporation by the heat of the body. Some pheromones are heavy proteins that cannot be passed through the air by evaporation. These are passed by physical contact such as by kissing or skin-to-skin contact. Kissing occurs in all human cultures and is a way of passing identification pheromones. When a mother kisses her baby, this increases the mother-baby bonding.

Pheromones act in two ways. The first is "signal pheromones" that cause others to become aware of your presence and cause immediate changes in behavior by activating certain areas of the brain. The second class is "priming pheromones" which trigger increases in GnRH production and which often require kissing or skin-to-skin contact. This, in turn, increases production of many hormones that affect development, metabolism, and mating behavior. Often, fertile women have difficulty becoming pregnant. In married couples, it takes, on average, six months of sexual intercourse to produce the first pregnancy. One theory is that the woman's body is slowly adjusting to her husband's pheromones before becoming receptive to pregnancy.

Pheromones activate pre-coded genetic programs. They increase production of GnRH (Gonadotropin Releasing Hormone) that starts the pulses and cycles of sex hormones which govern sexual development. GnRH also affects activity in the brain that affects sexual development and behavior.

Pheromones Attraction More Powerful Than Physical Strength in Animals

In goats, sheep, and pigs, male dominance in competition for females is determined by the strength of the male's pheromone - and not physical strength or beauty. The animals with the strongest pheromones have more confident threat displays without giving signals of fear. This reduces the incidence of actual physical combat for females - especially among deer and moose. The pheromones of the male with the strongest pheromone causes a psychological castration of other males which helps remove them from competition. In pigs, the pheromone androstenone triggers the female's receptivity to the male.

This type of pheromone dominance may also apply to humans since many researchers think human pheromone responses are very similar to pigs (Hard on our ego but probably true). Truffles, which are a fungus that grows underground near oak trees in France and Italy, are highly valued as human aphrodisiacs. Pigs also are passionately attracted to truffles and are used to locate the truffles.

So if you are a man, your pheromone smell may affect females more strongly than your good looks, money, or wit.

Why Women Call Men Pigs

Women often call men pigs (or vertical pigs). On the other hand, men very rarely use this term when talking about women. Since the domestication of wild pigs 7,000 years ago, women have intuitively known that many male human hormones are very similar to those of pigs.

The key pheromone in pigs is androstenone, which gives the characteristic odor to urine from boars (male pig) and some of the odor to human male urine also. Female pigs are extremely aware of the smell of androstenone as are human female to male smells. Pig breeders spray androstenone from aerosol cans on the backs of female pigs to determine whether the female is ready for breeding - if the sow arches her back, she is sexually receptive.

Nipple Pheromone - Why Men are Attracted to Large Breasted Women

Newborn infants follow the breast odors emanating from their mother's nipple/areola region. These odors exert a pheromone effect that guides the infant to nurse at their nipples (Winberg and Porter 1998, Porter and Weinberg 1999). Within minutes after birth, the mother's breast odors cause a head turning of the baby for the nipple and helps guide the baby to successful sucking for milk. Newborns soon learn to recognize their own mother's unique odor signature which builds mother-infant attachment.

Nipple pheromones also may explain a lot of behavior in young men. The irrational obsession of men with women's breasts has long been a puzzle. It may be that this is a natural bonding pheromone that men require for their emotional stability and helps tie them to women.

This is the reason that men are instinctively attracted to large breasted women.
 

1,500 Human Genes for Smell

Interpersonal attractive pheromones are the air-borne pheromones which often have a distinct smell. Smells and our response to them are extremely important to proper body functioning. A very significant part of the human genome - about 5.0% or about 1,500 genes of our 30,000 human genes - is used to code the receptors of smell. Two anatomically distinct organs respond to smell, the olfactory system located in the upper part of the nasal cavity, and the vomero-nasal organ or VMO in the nasal septum.

Even though human interactions are more complex than other warm-blooded animals, odors and pheromones still influence attraction and bonding. The wiring of the brain in humans and other animals sends signals from smells directly from the nose to the limbic area of the brain where our deeply felt emotions reside.
 
 

When we smell another's body,
it is that body that we are breathing
in through our mouth and nose,
that we possess instantly,
as it were in its most secret
substance, its own nature.
Once inhaled, the smell is
the fusion of the other's
body and my own.
Jean-Paul Sartre
 
 

Insufficient Pheromones - Inadequate Emotions

A lack of smell limits emotional attachment. Approximately 1.3% of persons are born with a total lack of smell or Anosmia. And most of us lack the ability to smell certain fragrances. A study found 5 to 8% of students at Oxford University could not smell freesia, a very fragrant flower.

Persons with Anosmia often complain about a lack of libido. While they may marry, behavior that is emotionally distant remains a problem. Some researchers have noted that the decline in sex drive with aging coincides with the decline in smell.

One answer to reduction in the ability of smelling as we get older is to increase our pheromone signal with essential oils and pheromones.

Pheromones Act Even If You Cannot Smell Them

While many pheromones have distinct smells, one may be influenced by a small amount of a pheromone which is not enough to create a conscious odor. Male dogs can respond to pheromones from a female dog at distances up to three miles and at concentration that the dogs are unlikely to consciously smell.

Women often like to wear unwashed T-shirts previously worn by men. In the Middle Ages, a man would wipe his brow after dancing and present it to his lady as a love token. The reason for this behavior may not have even been consciously realized but it meant that the lady would have her man's smell with them. In Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice , Othello goes into a rage over one of his missing handkerchiefs.  The wives of Welsh miners working on night shifts would put their man's nightshirts in their pillows where they could smell them.

Humans also respond to pheromone levels that are too low to smell. Sobel and colleagues (Stanford University) found that an air-borne fragrant pheromone (oestra- 1,3,5(10),16-tetraen-3yl acetate) would activate brain centers even when present at concentrations below a threshold of conscious detection. Sobel used Magnetic Resonance techniques to prove that exposure to pheromones (at undetectable levels) activate brain centers. Even when the  experimental subjects could not smell the chemical, their brain centers that respond to the pheromone, were activated.  (Sobel et al 1999). Other studies of brain EEG patterns of behavioral evidence have also come to the same conclusion: that we can be strongly affected by pheromones that we are not even conscious of smelling.

Smells Directly Affect the Emotional Center of Your Brain

Smells activate nerves in the vomero-nasal organ or VMO in the nasal septum  that act directly on the brain's emotional control areas. All other senses such as sight, touch, sound, temperature are transferred through a series of nerve connections that change and moderate the effects so that the brain does not over-react to new stimuli.

However, the nerves that respond to smell are wired directly into the brain and the stimuli are sent pure and unmodified to the limbic center of the brain. There are three general areas of the brain, the first and most basic is the brain stem which controls basic functions such as breathing and heartbeat. The next higher area is the limbic system in the central area of the brain. The limbic system is where emotional responses are concentrated. When various areas of the limbic system are activated, a person feels intense emotions. Some limbic areas cause feelings of peace, contentment, attraction while others areas causes feeling of anger, rage, hostility, loneliness and so on. The conscious brain is the topmost and outer area of our brain. This is where we spend our time thinking but the conscious mind is not where our emotions are developed. Why we love someone is more how they smell to the limbic system than what we consciously think.

In rats, surgical ablation of the vomero-nasal organ or VMO in the nasal septum produces dramatic impairments of  mating, dominance status, and gender recognition.
 

I will be arriving in Paris tomorrow evening.
Don't wash!
Napoleon - Message to Josephine
 
 

Washing, Cultures and the Decline of Bonding

Numerous scientists have observed that as cultures advance to higher levels of bathing, interpersonal bonding seems to decline. They suggest that the washing removes skin pheromones and weakens the interpersonal bonding in families and between couples.

In the Roman Republic, family ties were very strong. However, as it evolved into the wealthy Roman Empire with its adequate water supplies and free municipal baths, personal bonds became weaker, divorce became common, and social disorganization increased.  With the rise of Christianity, with its dislike of nudity and bathing, family ties began to strengthen. It is said that few people bathed for the next 1,500 years in Western Europe.

In North Africa and the Middle East, where Islam prevailed after the collapse of classical Roman culture, a somewhat different scenario occurred. Musk, a strong pheromone obtained from the male musk deer, was a special favorite of the Prophet Mohammed. The El Ktab, a classic Islamic text, describes musk as "the noblest of perfumes and that which provokes men and women to venery". Islamic culture always emphasized the use of perfumes and pheromones (Kohl and Franceour 1995).

"The Lonely Crowd" - Cleanliness Can Produce Loneliness

In the United States, California led the way on personal cleanliness. By the 1940's, many Californians bathed or showered daily and washed away their personal pheromones, while most of the USA stuck to weekly bathing. However, California soon led the USA in divorce rates and family breakdown. Likewise in Europe, Scandinavia led the way in personal cleanliness in the 20th century and soon experienced family breakdown and chronic cultural complaints of interpersonal coldness and a lack of bonding. Immense social programs, prosperous economies, and a basic friendliness of people both in California and Scandinavia have not solved these problems.

While many social historians would disagree that a lack of pheromone could cause family  breakdown, there are other precedents where chemical changes may have altered history. The poor leadership of the upper classes in the Roman Empire may have been influenced by chronic lead poisoning. Wealthy people use lead cooking pots and the bones of wealthy ancient Romans often have lead concentrations 100 times the level that causes brain dysfunction.

Low Pheromones Reduce Your Attractiveness

Human pheromone levels peak at around age 20 then slowly decline through our life. By age 40, your pheromone signals no longer excite others when you enter a room as they did when you were 18. We all tend to think that the physical beauty of young people is the source of their attractiveness - however, smells activate the emotions. Thus, the declining interest of others as we age may be more due to pheromone declines than physical changes in our bodies.

Thus, to increase your pheromone signature as you move beyond puberty, you need supplemental pheromones - just as supplements of anti-oxidants reduce degenerative diseases.

Expensive Perfumes Do Not Work

Studies by Alan Hirsch and Jason Gruss (Smell and Taste Treatment Research Foundation, Chicago, Illinois and University of Michigan) found that expensive perfumes are much less effective than many essential oils and common foods. They studies the effects of many different scents on sexual arousal of males and females by comparing their blood flow in sexual-aroused tissues while wearing scented masks and while wearing non odorized, blank masks.  Expensive perfumes increased blood flow by only 3%. In contrast the combined odor of lavender and pumpkin produced a 40% increase and many other scents worked better than perfumes.

While these results are for men, the researchers reported that women also responded poorly to expensive perfumes. While these scientists tested lavender which has a reputation as a mild attractant, they unfortunately did not test many other pheromones with reputations as bonding smells such as ylang ylang, Asian oud and others.

Hirsch postulates that scents may act by on the brain (1) by reducing anxiety, which inhibits natural sexual desire, or (2) increasing alertness and awareness, making the subjects more aware of sexual cues in the environment around them, or (3) by acting directly to the septal nuclei, a portion of the brain that induces sexual arousal.
 

Why Perfumes Fail

The key to using oils as pheromones is to put them into contact with large areas of your body. Then the heat of your body biochemically alters the odors and blends them into your overall pheromone signature.

Your personal pheromone "odor signature" is a complex mixture of pheromones, body oils and fatty acids, sweat, and hormones such as androsterone secreted onto the skin from your apocrine glands. In addition, the 40 million skin cells that you shed each day add to your pheromone signature.

Perfumes that are dabbed on a small area - such as the wrist - do not effectively mix into your overall pheromone signature. Thus, they exist as a separate smell and do little to change your total pheromone signature. Furthermore, the mixing of many different scents in perfumes produces a confusing pheromone signal.
 

Human Pheromones Increase Attraction but also Aggression

Another drawback to using human pheromones is they may trigger aggression. On the other hand, traditional plant pheromone all have soothing properties, encourage calmness, and have been also used for meditation and religious ceremonies.

In humans and other mammals, sexual attraction can also trigger aggression. Androstenone, a pheromone in pigs, triggers both sexual attraction and aggression in boars.  Human men produce the same chemical in their armpits.

In mice, certain pheromones cause male mice to kill other male mice. The attacks depend largely on odor cues (male odors increase attacks, female cues decrease attack ). In many mammals such as lions and bears, males will kill the offspring of a female so that they may mate with the female. Sex hormones stimulate production of urinary pheromones that increase the intensity of fighting in rodents. But the urine of castrated rats lacks the aggression-provoking pheromone. Conversely, the urine of female rats contains an aggression-inhibiting pheromone. For these reasons, stick to traditional plant pheromones.

Plant Pheromones are a Safer Alternative

Plants use chemicals to attract bees and other pollinators to their flowers. Some plant pheromones have similar chemistry to animal pheromones. Musk is a strong pheromone from musk deer, musk ducks, musky moles, muskrats, musk ox and musk beetles. But similar pheromones exist in musk melons, musk hyacinths, musk cherries, musk thistle, musk rose, musk plums and musk wood.

The truffles prized by French gourmets as aphrodisiacs are a fungi that has an odor nearly identical to androstenol, a sex attractant for pigs and very similar to chemicals that act as sex attractants in humans.

Perfumes arose from plant oils with smells similar to animal pheromones. Plant oils with the strongest similarity to human sexual pheromones are from jasmine, ylang ylang and patchouli.

Plant Pheromones vs Human Pheromones - How Skin Biology Found the Most Effective

Several companies have been set up to develop human romantic pheromones for the general consumer. However, the products from these companies have had disappointing results. At Skin Biology, for an experiment, we purchased a variety of very expensive human pheromones from other companies and gave them to volunteers for testing. We also gave the volunteers various traditional pheromone-like oils from plants. The volunteers were asked to record their results as to whether other people were more friendly, talkative, and affectionate.

Surprisingly, in every case our test subjects found few positive responses to the expensive human pheromones. On the other hand, all the volunteers reported numerous very positive responses to at least some of the tested plant pheromones. The most effective plant oils were jasmine, asian oud, ylang ylang, lavender, sandalwood, patchouli, nutmeg and Phermone.

        The ancient Greeks (and many other ancient cultures) routinely used plant oils for both medical and cosmetic purposes. In the 1930's a French chemist, Rene Maurice Gattefosse, discovered the benefits of lavender oil when treating a burn on his hand. This started his research on the use of essential oils and Gattefosse later published the first modern book on the uses of essential oils.

Skin Biology's Exclusive Pheromone™

Our exclusive Pheromone is a natural oil product developed by Skin Biology. It was developed during a search for mood enhancers that would improve inter-personal feelings, but it is not an aphrodisiac like jasmine or ylang ylang. It seems to generate positive feelings and increased bonding. Users say it increases friendliness, warmth, affability, fondness, pleasantness, geniality charm, affection and sociability. We have added it to our mood enhancing oils because of its very positive actions.

Calypso's Oils for Attraction and Bonding
 
 

Thou anointest my head with oil.
My cup runneth over...
        23rd Psalm of King David

Thy God hath anointed you
with the oil of gladness....
                          Saint Paul

The great hearted Odysseus was home at last.
The maid Eurynome bathed him,
Rubbed him down with oil,
and drew around him a royal cape....
                                Homer 800 BC
 
 
 
 

Based on the above research, Skin Biology developed Calypso's Oil as a safe replacement for ineffective perfumes.

Calypso's Oil comes in versions with added pure essential fragrant oils and resins such as lavender, jasmine, ylang ylang, sandalwood, patchouli, nutmeg, asian oud enhanced with our exclusive Pheromone. Lavender soothes the skin, reduces pain and aids relaxation. Jasmine, ylang ylang, sandalwood, Asian oud have been used for thousands of years to increase interpersonal attraction, have mild aphrodisiac qualities and increase interpersonal bonding. Or try Calypso's Oil - Pheromone Only scent.

You can also purchase Calypso's Pheromones in Protect & Restore Body Renewal Lotion. This lotion contains skin regenerating copper-peptide plus retinol for skin renewal.

Calypso's Oils and Body Lotions are at www.calypsos-oil.com.

The easiest way to use Calypso's Oil is to apply it to your skin in the morning or before bed. Apply it to your torso and skin areas that may be too dry or irritated such as elbows, hands, and feet.

After Bath or Shower

While your skin is still damp,  you can rub the oil on your skin to impart a silky smoothness to your skin. Then pat dry with a towel.

In Your Bath

Add to the bath water to soften and protect your skin as you bathe. The oil will float to the surface and adhere to your skin as you leave the bath.

Using Oils For Attraction and Bonding

For attraction of others, you should not always use an oil that you personally prefer. For example, patchouli oil is loved by women but not men. It is felt to mimic sweat pheromones from men that attract women. So if you use patchouli oil, you may increase your attractiveness to women but not to men. Ylang Ylang Oil, on the other hand, seems to have stronger effects on men.

Some oils seems to enhance mutual attraction such as musk and sandalwood. Jasmine attracts women but most men also like jasmine.

Testing Calypso's Oil

By using an appropriate version of Calypso's Oil on your body - instead of a perfume - you can strongly modify your personal pheromone signature. To test the effects of a version, after you normally bath or shower and dry yourself, rub Calypso's Oil on your torso - especially the chest and breast area. If you bathe at night, the oil can be applied to your dry skin in the morning. The heat of your body will evaporate the scents and then blend the pheromones and scents in Calypso's Oil into your body pheromone signature.

Dress normally and go about your daily work and visits. Responsive people unconsciously notice you at about 3 to 5 feet. Watch for people who unexpectedly turn around and smile at you or extend conversations. (This a little like trolling for salmon with different lures - it takes some time but you find the right lure.)

Aromatic molecules travel through the air at about 100 miles per hour. So people will become aware of the your pheromones and scents - even if it is at an unconscious level.

Try one thing one day - another the next. You will become aware of the pattern of people who are responding to you and can decide what scent works best for you.

While general responses of people to essential oils and pheromones can be predicted, some humans may react differently. For attraction of, or bonding to, women, Jasmine and Pheromone or Patchouli and Pheromone are very good. Ylang Ylang is considered a strong aphrodisiac for men and might be a good attractant for men. Sandalwood is similar to musk which is considered the universal attractant. But also keep the jasmine for men since it is the traditional favorite of French women who know how to attract anything.

For relaxation or romance, rub the oils on your body (and your best friend). Effects take about 10 minutes to manifest.
 

The term oil in "essential oils" is not truly accurate but a traditional term. Essential oils are very volatile fragrances that easily evaporate and very different in character from oils such as olive oil or safflower oil. Essential oils are complex mixtures of plant produced chemicals - essential lavender oil has more than 50 plant chemicals.

Pure essential oils are expensive and must be obtained from reputable sources. Adulteration of essential oils is very common since a product like rose oil yields just 0.2% essential oil.  While the finest natural French lavender oils harvested in the Haute Provence up to 70 percent linalyl acetate, many other lavender oils from France have higher levels of linalyl acetate but such oil is fortified with synthetic products and may have no traces of natural lavender.  Sandalwood oil can be adulterated with diverse oils such as caster, palm and linseed.

Essential oils are remarkably free of side effects - which is reflected by their long use by humans. Some persons may have allergies to oils such as cinnamon oil and juniper berry oil but we do not use these oils.

Skin Health and Essential Oils.

Surprisingly, many of the traditional mood altering essential oils also have been historically used for skin care. Patchouli has also been used as an anti-inflammatory and an aid for dry, cracked skin. The oil of lavender has soothing effects on the skin and has been on wounds in ancient Greece and Rome and still is today. Sandalwood has been used for skin regeneration, and to treat acne, dry skin, rashes, chapped skin, eczema, itching and sensitive skin. Ylang ylang has been used to treat eczema, acne, oily skin, and irritation associated with insect stings or bites.

Jasmine is a member of about 200 species of shrubs and climbing vines native to tropical areas of southeast Asia, Africa and Australia. Mature plants are usually up to 3 meters high and 2 meters wide.

Jasmine is grown extensively In Cannes and Grasse in France, and also produced in Morocco, Italy, India, China, Japan and Egypt. The popularity of jasmine has resulted in many species of jasmine now grown worldwide. True jasmine is a climbing vine with oval, shiny leaves and tubular, waxy-white flowers. Two types of jasmine are used for oil production - J. grandiflorum and J. officinale. The oil of the two flowers types is virtually identical.

Her breasts, like lilies, 'ere their leaves be shed;
Her nipples, like young blossomed jessamines;
Such fragrant flowers do give most odorous smell
But her sweet odour did them all excell.
                                          Edmund Spencer
 
 

Jasmine has a heavy, rich, animal-like quality akin to musk oil in its sensuous effects but is also calming and relaxing.  It contains over 100 ingredients including jasmolactone, jasmone, and methyl jasmonate. Jasmine has been considered an exotic and powerful aphrodisiac since antiquity. In India, jasmine is called "moonshine in the garden" and ancient Indian paintings depicted lovers bathing in moonlight near jasmine plants. Ancient Asians wrote that jasmine penetrated the deepest layers of the soul and opened emotions. In China, the relaxing jasmine tea has been a popular beverages for thousands of years. In the Sung Dynasty (960) the Emperor had several hundred pots of Arabian Jasmine moved into his courtyards, filling the palace with fragrance.

Cleopatra is said to have wooed Anthony with jasmine oil and Louis XVI had a passion for jasmine scented sheets. It is still the favorite fragrance of French women.

Jasmine resin is extracted from flowers by an extraction process known as enfleurage, or fat maceration, a process which used fat to absorb the volatile aromatic compounds from the living flower. The enfleurage extraction process begins with the hand-picking of the jasmine flowers after they open at night. The freshly picked blooms are laid out on panes of fat covered glass and stacked so the aromatic volatiles don't escape into the air. This process is repeated for several days with new layers of fresh flowers, until the fat is saturated with aroma.

The saturated fat is next melted under very low heat, then filtered. The aromatic compounds are extracted from the fat with alcohol, then the alcohol is gently distilled away to leave behind the pure essence.

Jasmine absolute oil is used in perfumes and body lotions and produced by using a gentle solvent on delicate jasmine flowers. 2,000 pounds of the hand-picked blossoms to yield 1 pound of jasmine oil. Jasmine absolute is a dark orange or brown to reddish liquid that becomes darker and more fragrant with age.

Lavender has been used as a fragrance and a folk medicine since the beginning of recorded history. The botanical name Lavendula derives the Latin, Lavare, meaning "to wash". Lavender is part of the Labiatae family, comprising aromatic herbs such as thyme, savory, oregano, peppermint, and sage.

Picture to left - Lavender grows wild in many parts of the world, in the hot and dry regions of the Mediterranean, the Middle East and the desert regions of Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Ethiopia. Tradition tells us that French lavender originated in Persia or the Canary Isles.

Picture to left - Today lavender is farmed in France, England, China, the Mediterranean  region,  Spain, The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Bulgaria, Russia, Australia, Japan, Canada and in Washington state in the United States. The plant has blue-green leaves and bright blue blossoms. Both the leaves and flowers are fragrant.  150 pounds of lavender flowers produce one pound of essential oil that is aged for one year before it is released.  Lavender has light, floral scent with woody undertones.

The French lavender oil excels all other types in quality, possessing a characteristic sweetness of odor. Provence is now the world's largest lavender producer, with the area of Grasse as the centre of the French perfume industry. Traditionally lavender was used to scent the linen closet and white linens were once spread over lavender bushes in the south of France.
 
 
 

Lavender oil has along history. In the Bible there is the story of Judith, who anointed herself with perfumes including lavender, seducing Holofernes, the enemy commander. Once he was under her scented influence, she murdered him and saved the City of Jerusalem from destruction. Both the Queen of Sheba and Cleopatra are said to have used the power of perfume in seducing their lovers.

Lavender played a sensual role in the famous Roman public bath houses as Romans used aromatic oils to scent their bodies and and the bath water. Elizabeth the 1st and Queen Victoria were devotees of lavender. Queen Elizabeth I drank copious cups of lavender tea to treat her frequent migraine headaches. During the reign of Queen Victoria, lavender floral waters and smelling salts were in fashion and part of every lady's toilette.

The oil of lavender also has soothing effects on the skin. Oil of Lavender was used on wounds in ancient Greece and Rome over 2,000 years ago. Lavender oil was used in ancient Persia, Greece and Rome to clean hospitals and sick rooms.  Roman soldiers carried lavender oil in first-aid kits on their campaigns. It has also been clinically used to cleanse cuts, bruises and skin irritations. The aroma of lavender oil was thought to be cleansing and soothing for the spirit.

Today it is widely used in clinical wound-treatment products. In one placebo-controlled blinded study of 635 women, it was found that the application of oil of lavender to the outer birth canal resulted in much less pain and discomfort after childbirth. The pure lavender fragrance in many perfumes does not have the soothing and pain reducing properties of the pure oil which contains over 50 different compounds.
 
 
 
 
 

Nutmeg is a spice from the seed of the Myristica fragrans, a tropical, dioecious evergreen tree native to the Moluccas or Spice Islands of Indonesia. The nutmeg plant, Myristica fragrans, is a member of the family Myristicaceae containing about 300 species spreading from India and Sri Lanka eastwards through Malaysia to North-Eastern Australia, Taiwan and the Pacific, including the Solomon Islands, Fiji and Samoa. Since 40 known species of Myristica are found in New Guinea (Indonesia), this location has been designated the centre of origin of this genus.

Most of the species in the genus Myristica are tropical evergreen trees found growing mainly in the lowland tropical rain forest, but some mountain species also occur. The trees may reach about 65 feet (20 meters) tall and yield fruit 8 years after sowing and may continue to bear fruit for 60 years or longer. It has been grown for commercial nutmeg production in the Moluccas, Antilles, Java, Sumatra, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Grenada. The typical tree is unisexual- with male and female flowers on different trees. On occasion both male and female flowers may occur on the same tree and even rare hermaphrodite flowers may be formed. From field observations in Grenada it has been reported that male trees progressively change to female with aging and bear fruits.

Nutmeg is said to have a subtle aphrodisiac effect in smaller doses, and has been used as such by Hindus, Arabs, Greeks and Romans. In the Orient it was especially highly prized among women. The compound that may be responsible for the aphrodisiac effects of nutmeg is myristicin, 4-methoxy-6-(2-propenyl)-1,3-benzodixole. It has some structural similarity with mescaline, the hallucinogen from peyote cactus. Nutmeg is used as a stimulant but very high doses can be cause agitation. Historically, it has been used to improve circulation, and for muscle and joint aches and pains.

The ancient Romans used nutmeg as a form of currency. In the 13th century, nutmeg was used in the Middle Ages for it’s medicinal qualities. The Dutch had a monopoly on the trade of nutmeg for 200 years (1600-1800) and established plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia. The Dutch plotted to keep prices high while the English and French sought to (by any means) obtain fertile seeds for transplantation.

The name nutmeg is also applied in different countries to other fruits or seeds: the Jamaica, or calabash, nutmeg derived from Monodora myristica; the Brazilian nutmeg from Cryptocarya moschata; the Peruvian nutmeg from Laurelia aromatica; the Madagaskar, or clove, nutmeg from Ravensara aromatica; and the California, or stinking, nutmeg from Torreya californica.
 
 
 

The nutmeg fruit is similar in appearance to an apricot. When ripe it splits in two, exposing a single shiny, brown seed, the nutmeg. After collection, seed is removed, flattened, and dried gradually in the sun over a period of six to eight weeks. During this time the nutmeg shrinks away from its hard seed coat and after the shell is broken, the nutmegs are picked out. Dried nutmegs are grayish-brown and about 1.2 inches long and 0.8 inch in diameter.

Nutmeg contains 7 to 14 percent essential oil, of which the principal components of are pinene, camphene, and dipentene. The oil is  obtained by distillation from nutmeg and is colourless, pale yellow or pale green liquid with an colour and taste of nutmeg.
 

Raw oud, which is wood from the oud tree, is used as incense and its oil, called dehn al-oud, is used as a perfume. Oud takes 300 years to form in the trunks of trees contaminated by a certain bacteria. Since the oud tree is not grown anywhere except in limited parts of Asia, the price of the wood and its oil extracts has remained high. Traditionally, India has been one of the largest producers of oud.

The best quality oud breaks easily and contains water. This variety will give off the best fragrance when burned and can be recognized by the bubbles that appear. When burned over hot coal, solid oud releases a stronger, but pleasing fragrance.

Saudi Arabia is the principle importer of Oud but the oil is prized throughout south Asia. Oud is also used as part of the celebrations following Ramadan and the Hajj. During Ramadan (the Muslim holy month of fasting), some Saudi families burn oud each night after breaking their fast and washing, and before going to the mosque to perform the evening prayer.

Some would say that patchouli is the most distinctively fragranced herb in the botanical kingdom. The first whiff of its rich, exotic scent never fails to become fixed forever in the olfactory memory.

Patchouli is native to Malaysia where it was used as a traditional medicine and perfume there. It was also used in China and Japan. Patchouli was first described by botanists in the Philippines in 1845. Patchouli is a bushy, 3-foot tall plant with small furry leaves and is a tropical member of the lamiaceae family. Distant relatives include lavender, basil, marjoram, rosemary and many other herb plants associated with more temperate regions. Patchouli seems to have moved south and suffused itself in the mysterious aromas of a steamy jungle.

Today patchouli is farmed throughout tropical Asia. True patchouli has hairy stems, flowers seldom, and is propagated by cuttings. A second species, Pogostemon heyneanus, known as Java patchouli, has smooth stems and flowers reliably. Java patchouli has an inferior aroma and may show up as an adulterant in the whole leaf form or the distilled oil. Plants available from herb nurseries labeled as Pogostemon cablin often turn out to be Pogostemon heyneanus.

Patchouli is usually grown on small forest plots by individual farmers who harvest and dry the leaves, then sell them to distilleries that buy the leaves from various farmers and combine them into one steam distillation. Newly distilled patchouli oil has a fresh, slightly harsh aroma. As the oil ages it mellows considerably, becoming sweeter and more balsamic. Patchouli is an oil that, like fine wine, improves with age. High quality patchouli oils emit a suave, fruity, wine-like top note when uncapped.

Patchouli oil is dark yellow. The perfume industry considers the dark oil color undesirable so usually they redistill the oil or adulterated it with cedarwood oil.

Patchouli's musty, sweet, spicy smell evokes strong emotional reactions from both men and women. Some associate the scent with that of moist earth, while for others, the memories of the hippie generation of the 1960's. Patchouli has a reputation as being considered a aphrodisiac.

Traditionally, patchouli was used to perfume fabrics in India. In Victorian times, the English loved shawls imported from India that were permeated with the scent of patchouli which came from their being packed in patchouli leaves to ward off insects.

Patchouli has also been used as an anti-depressant, anti-inflammatory. It is considered a sedative in low doses and a stimulant in high doses, and an aid for dry, cracked skin.

Sandalwood has a very long history - over 4,000 years of use - and is mentioned in Sanskrit and Chinese manuscripts. The oil was used in religious ritual, and many deities and temples were carved from its wood. The ancient Egyptians imported the wood from Asia to use in medicine, embalming and ritual burning to venerate their gods. In Buddhism, it is considered to be one of the three incenses integral to Buddhist practice, together with aloes wood and cloves.  In the Zoroastrian Temples it burns in there sacred fires to soothe the troubles of all humanity. It is used by the Jewish, the Buddhist, the Hindus, as well as almost every other belief system for its vast diversity in attributes. Sandalwood is among the perfumes approved by Islamic tradition, which also include musk, amber, jasmine and myrrh.

Sandalwood's "most divine fragrance" was felt to represent the divine qualities found in godly souls.  Many Asian ancient temples and religious accessories such as rosaries and staffs are made from sandalwood. Sandalwood admirers have called sandalwood oil "Liquid Gold", due to its precious nature.

The Sandalwood is a small tree, growing to a height of about 10 meters. It is an evergreen with rather tough green leaves. The trunk is grey brown, almost smooth, with many branches.
 
 
 
 
 

 

To the left - The flowers are formed at the tips of the branches and are pink to purple in colour. Mature trees are used to produce the best quality essential oil. The native sandalwood tree grows almost exclusively in the forests of India and Indonesia. As the tree grows,  the essential oil develops in the roots and heartwood, which requires at least 15 to 20 years. Full maturity is reached after 60 to 80 years. The core of dark heartwood gradually develops, which is covered by outer sapwood. The sandalwood tree is never felled, but uprooted in the rainy season, when the roots are richer in the precious essential oil. Vietnam and New Caledonia have developed of genuine Sandalwood. The best quality oil comes from the Indian province of Mysore and Tamil Nadu where the harvest of Sandalwood trees are protected by the state government.

The roots and also the heartwood of the tree, are mechanically reduced to fine chips, which are steam distilled to produce the straw yellow colored essential oil.  60 kg of oil can be extracted from a ton of heartwood. Once the oil has been distilled it is matured for six months so that it can achieve the right maturity and perfume. It develops from a very pale yellow to a brownish yellow. it is extremely thick and viscous with a heavy, sweet, woody and fruity aroma which is pungently balsamic.

Sandalwood oil is high in sesquiterpenes, sesquiterpenols, sesquiterpenals, aldehydes, pterocarpin and the hydrocarbons such as isovaleric aldehyde, santene, and santenone. The oil has been researched in Europe for its ability to oxygenate an area of the brain known as the pineal gland.

Sandalwood oil has a very pleasant distinctive aroma, appreciated equally by both men and women.

Sandalwood oil makes a fine massage oil, or may be added to a moisturizing cream for skin care, particularly useful for cracked or dry skin. A few drops of the oil in a warm bath is very relaxing and will impart to the body an attractive aroma. Sandalwood oil was used traditionally for skin renewal, yoga, and meditation. It has a scent and some aphrodiasiac like effects similar to deer musk.

It is considered one of the most calming incenses and is a preferred one for meditation and is said to calm the mind, enhance mental clarity,  peaceful relaxation, openness, and help promote spiritual practices.  It is said to improve interpersonal relations. It is used to treat impotence, depression, anxiety and insomnia.

Traditionally it has been used for skin regeneration, and to treat acne, dry skin, rashes, chapped skin, eczema, itching and sensitive skin.

The fame of Ylang Ylang started in Bali in Indonesia the fragrant, pale yellow petals of ylang-ylang were traditionally used to decorate and perfume the nuptial bed. The flowers and their oil were used as an antidepressant, aphrodisiac, treatment for impotence, to reduce sexual anxieties, and for calming. Ylang ylang evokes feelings of deep, languid calm that melt away anxiety, tension and stress.

The ylang-ylang (pronounced lang-lang and e-lang-e-lang) tree grows in low-lying tropical areas of several countries stretching from India southwards and eastwards to the northern parts of Australia. Ylang ylang is known by different names in different countries, however it is from the Tagalog language of the Philippines that the tree came to be known as ylang-ylang, or more correctly álang-álang, a Tagalog term meaning "flower of flowers". The flowers have a very pleasant, sweet and relaxing smell.

Cananga odorata is just one of about 130 genera contained within the large botanical family of tropical plants, shrubs and trees, the Annonaceae. It is quite a large tropical evergreen tree, growing to 20 meters high is often planted as an ornamental tree because of the shade it gives and the attractive aroma of its flowers. The dark green leaves are arranged alternately on the twigs, they are about 10 cm long, 4 cm wide with wavy margins. The flowers have six narrow petals and may be yellow, white or mauve, in colour. The yellow, starfish-shaped flowers are produced year-round. Small green fruits are formed after the flowers.

The flowers possess the oil and because the they attract night-flying moths, the flowers are ususally harvested after dusk or in the early morning when their oil is highest. The flowers are distilled in steam and the first fraction of oil produced (about 35 - 40% of the total) is considered to be the best quality, this first fraction is called ylang-ylang extra. As distillation continues a second fraction simply called "ylang-ylang" is taken, finally a third fraction is collected which is of a lower grade, this is often sold as "cananga oil" and is used commercially to perfume many household products. Some distillers do not fractionate the oil, in which case it is known as a complete oil.

For skin care, ylang-ylang has been used to treat eczema, acne, oily skin, irritation associated with insect stings or bites. Ylang-ylang oil is thought to promote hair growth and was a constituent of macassar, a popular hair oil extensively used in Victorian England.

Ylang ylang has also been used to calm persons and help reduce stress-related conditions such as anxiety, rapid breathing, rapid heart beat (tachycardia) and high blood pressure. It has been used to calm aggressive dogs.

"And I welcomed
Odysseus warmly,
cherished him,
even vowed to make
the man immortal,
ageless, all his days...."
Calypso speaking
of Odysseus,
Homer 800 B.C.
 
 
 
 
 

The Greek Goddess Calypso was described in Homer's Odyssey 2,800 years ago. Calypso, who lived on Ogygia, an island near Malta, was unmarried, independent, and history's first documented feminist. There she rescued the hero Odysseus from death as he drifted astride the keel of the his ship that Zeus had shattered with lightning. For seven years she kept Odysseus on her island, passionately loving him and offering to make him a God.

However, when Zeus finally ordered her to release Odysseus, she replied "Cruel folk you are, unmatched for jealousy, you gods who cannot bear to let a goddess sleep with a man, even if it is done without concealment and she has chosen him as her lawful consort." She further stated that the Gods often slept with mortal women and no objection was ever raised to this behavior.

Calypso then helped Odysseus build a boat and stocked it herself with bread, water, and wine, and sent a following wind so that he would reach his home in Ithaca without difficulties. She told Odysseus that she had a righteous mind and a heart that, not being indeed of iron, had compassion. Many scholars say Calypso represents the pure, remote feminine, untouched and inaccessible, separate, distinguished and different from the world of men (or the view of the world by men).

Cohn 1994 - Cohn BA, In search of human skin pheromones. Arch Dermatol 1994 Aug;130(8):1048-51

Kohl and Franceour 1995 - Kohl JV and Franceour RT, The Scent of Eros (Continuum Publishing) 1995. This is an very excellent book for the general public on pheromones and behavior.

Nicoli and Nicoli 1995 - Nicoli RM; Nicoli JM, Biochimie de l'Eros,  Contracept Fertil Sex 1995 Feb;23(2):137-44

Porter and Weinberg 1999 -  Porter RH; Winberg J, Unique salience of maternal breast odors for
newborn infants. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 1999;23(3):439-49

Singer 1991 - Singer AG, A chemistry of mammalian pheromones, J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol 1991Oct;39(4B):627-32

Sobel et al 1999 - Sobel N; Prabhakaran V; Hartley CA; Desmond JE;Glover GH; Sullivan EV; Gabrieli JD, Blind smell: brain activation induced by an undetected air-borne chemical. Brain 1999 Feb;122 ( Pt 2):209-17

Weinberg and Porter 1998  - Winberg J; Porter RH Olfaction and human neonatal behavior: clinical implications.  Acta Paediatr 1998 Jan;87(1):6-10