MaxFromHolland
True Ouddict
Did you edit the explanation out or i am hallucinating 🙂, i was searching for that bear fat story i could not read (tired) yesterday?
Miscellany of the day
- Thread starter Mr.P
- Start date
Mr.P
oud<3er
I shortened it up a bit yes. Deodorized bear fat indeed
MaxFromHolland
True Ouddict
So it was submerged enfleurage in bear fat, then mix the filtered fat with ethanol to extract? How long did that washing stage take?
Mr.P
oud<3er
that's correct. Washing stage was not particularly long, I'll have to ask my friend - he did the transfer from fat to ethanol.
MaxFromHolland
True Ouddict
Would be interesting to know how he proceeded between enfleurage and the finished extract for sure.
Also for how long the botanicals had to spent time in the fat.
I would love to give it a try, although i may have to find a slightly less exotic variety to bear fat 🙂 we do have plenty of pigs though..
Mr.P
oud<3er
Extract was simply made by shaking the pomade with alcohol, then decanting the alcohol. Simple as could be and not some long-term month-long process or anything like that. Immersion time for flowers was not particularly long, need to check exact, but the idea is that they are changed once they wilt so it kind of depends on the condition of the flowers and the temperature - you just don't want anything going anaerobic under the oil for any period of time
OK here's some more specific details:
Flowers lasted about two days max in the oil.
For the fat alcohol transfer the two were combined in a jar and shaken (bear fat is almost liquid) for a couple of minutes and allowed to settle and the alcohol roughly decanted and replaced with fresh. That was repeated about six times. finally the whole thing was chilled for a couple of hours in a freezer before decanting. by the sixth the washing there was very little evidence of aroma continuing to be transferred and the alcohol was becoming harder to separate from the fat
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MaxFromHolland
True Ouddict
Ah thanks for the extra info. That is somewhat different than i thought it would be. I would never have expected the washing to go like you described with multiple reloads of fresh alcohol, so that is good to know.
Also it occurs to me that such pommade in a jar has a great advantage if you want to capture the scent of a flower that isn't available in a large enough quantity all at once: Each time you can harvest some, put them in the fat for the suitable amount of time and between harvests just keep the jar closed. Continue until either the fat is saturated or there are no more flowers to harvest.
Mr.P
oud<3er
here's another detail because for this particular project my friend is handling the fat and infusion and I'm handling the separation and concentration. He's actually running each set of flowers through two extractions: first he puts them onto the solid beef tallow traditional type tray, once they begin to wilt he then moves them into the liquid bear fat bottle for follow up maceration. So far we have only concentrated the washings of the infused bear fat, the solid stuff is still being infused with fresh changes of flowers, about 100 per day are available to extract. Once the flowers are all done we will extract the oil from the beef tallow and concentrate it into a true absolute to see how it compares to the other.
MaxFromHolland
True Ouddict
Thanks, appreciated! Will scribble it all in my notebook 🙂
Mr.P
oud<3er
The patchouli heart SFE from Firmenich is interesting stuff. It's not exactly a full patchouli, and is extracted to eliminate certain notes and emphasize others.
In spite of this I've always found it useful as a kind of general purpose patchouli in blending, but more often these days I've been wearing it on its own.
The funny thing is that I think every single time I've applied a big swipe of this and forgotten about it, I have it at some point during the next eight hours found myself struck by surprisingly beautiful facets of this oil. Yesterday evening I found myself wondering where the heck this beautiful slightly spicy dry patchouli note was coming from, thinking that I really needed to study my patchouli more closely since I was unsure where it was coming from… Later on I remembered I had almost mindlessly applied a swipe while talking to someone on the phone and then completely forgot about it.
Once again though I've never worn this oil and not been surprised at some point afterwards. When I first apply it it just smells like another semi-mellow patchouli oil, but it's the little notes that come and go in the dry down that are spectacular to me.
In spite of this I've always found it useful as a kind of general purpose patchouli in blending, but more often these days I've been wearing it on its own.
The funny thing is that I think every single time I've applied a big swipe of this and forgotten about it, I have it at some point during the next eight hours found myself struck by surprisingly beautiful facets of this oil. Yesterday evening I found myself wondering where the heck this beautiful slightly spicy dry patchouli note was coming from, thinking that I really needed to study my patchouli more closely since I was unsure where it was coming from… Later on I remembered I had almost mindlessly applied a swipe while talking to someone on the phone and then completely forgot about it.
Once again though I've never worn this oil and not been surprised at some point afterwards. When I first apply it it just smells like another semi-mellow patchouli oil, but it's the little notes that come and go in the dry down that are spectacular to me.
Mr.P
oud<3er
Enjoying the heck out of the self distilled clary sage I made this week. This has been a two year long project because this plant is a biennial. I got a few distinct products: hydrosol, separated essential oil, and an alcohol washing of the separatory funnel after collection. All smell excellent, I've spent a lot of time checking out clary sage and if I could find an oil that smelled like this I would buy as much of it as I could get my hands on. No this is not shameless self-promotion I collected only about .5 mL of oil and it's not going anywhere. So unusual for an herbal oil: distinctly musky, hints of cypress, ambergris, body odor, lavender and other fascinating semi-lavender-like variations; probably due to the associated excitement I actually love the fresh still notes, there's something in this that's very much like freshly distilled rosemary, these still notes fade with time, always, which is lucky in most circumstances. This self-made oil is much more complex vital and multifaceted and musky then the commercial oils I have (which tend to have a more flat and generic clary profile). I read that commercial distilleries allow the clary flowers to wither and brown before collecting them because it increases the yield, but I have a feeling that it does not improve the aroma.
In the 90s I got a small bottle of "Clary Sage Extra" which I have a little residue of somewhere and that had a little bit in common with the home distilled oil.
Yield was terrible, that's the thing that sucks about these small batch distillations… You often make just enough to completely coat the inside of the separatory funnel which leaves almost none for you to put into a bottle in the end. Don't bother trying to float oil with a 3 L still unless you're a glutton for punishment because is a complete waste of time... or unless, like me, you are in it for the experience of learning more about the material. I never expected to have enough to distill at all, not to mention collect a tiny bit and I feel like I learned a lot even though I gained nothing practical. Definitely doubling down on my clary sage plantings and the "quest for the perfect Clary Sage" has been activated.
In the 90s I got a small bottle of "Clary Sage Extra" which I have a little residue of somewhere and that had a little bit in common with the home distilled oil.
Yield was terrible, that's the thing that sucks about these small batch distillations… You often make just enough to completely coat the inside of the separatory funnel which leaves almost none for you to put into a bottle in the end. Don't bother trying to float oil with a 3 L still unless you're a glutton for punishment because is a complete waste of time... or unless, like me, you are in it for the experience of learning more about the material. I never expected to have enough to distill at all, not to mention collect a tiny bit and I feel like I learned a lot even though I gained nothing practical. Definitely doubling down on my clary sage plantings and the "quest for the perfect Clary Sage" has been activated.
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MaxFromHolland
True Ouddict
You may be able to do a liquid-liquid extraction of the hydrosol with some jojoba. I know you're not particularly keen on jojo but it will give you something swipable 😋
Fun to sense your joy reading the post, great hobby we have!
Mr.P
oud<3er
It is a very interesting hobby I agree. I've gotten a neighbor hooked as I've mentioned a couple of times 🙂… this is a rare case where the homemade rough cut product is truly exceptional. That's not often the case… I've got to see if I can find some sparing clary sage like this out there for sale. The absolute provide some other notes but they also seem to be extracted from relatively dull smelling stuff
Mr.P
oud<3er
I don't understand it… My car smells so freaking good and I never deliberately scent it - through some mechanism I don't quite understand it just picks up whatever perfume I'm working on and the car will tend to smell like the dry down of that fragrance. I think it must be getting into the cabin air filter because I can't imagine I would transfer enough to smell given that I would likely be desensitized to anything that I'm transferring. The same effect happens to a less intense degree in my home but it's really the car where I get that blast of perspective on the last stuff that I've been working on. Weird. But good weird
Mr.P
oud<3er
Layered two beautiful jasmine oils, both Egyptian both from Payan Bertrand, batches purchased about a year apart with quite different profiles but both seem like very select oils with a good balance of notes and no off notes. Good Jasmine grand oil is just amazing, one of the most beautiful things have experienced. Based on the live plants I always thought it was sambac that would produce the really crazy oil but somehow it doesn't and makes something pleasant but not intriguing or mystifying. This stuff on the other hand...
AlHind Oud
Resident Artisan
I visited an antique shop in Ohio last week and found these beautiful, airtight, and sturdy jars. They were unused and in good condition. I also got a crystal decant bottle. I might use it to store some of the oils, perhaps sandalwood or Ghaliyah-style attar in the future. إن شاءالله تعا لى
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Saudalhajri
True Ouddict
Trying some Madagascan vanilla absolute
Even at 10% dilution it’s powerful, dark chocolate, earthy, bittersweet, a little Smokey, and a beautiful classical creamy vanilla scent. My nose is glued to my wrist. It’s been well over 12 hours and I can still smell it even after a hot shower. Something unexpected was a slight animalic scent, I can’t tell exactly what kind of “animalic” but it’s somewhere between indole and fermented fruits, it’s very subtle but still there.
Even at 10% dilution it’s powerful, dark chocolate, earthy, bittersweet, a little Smokey, and a beautiful classical creamy vanilla scent. My nose is glued to my wrist. It’s been well over 12 hours and I can still smell it even after a hot shower. Something unexpected was a slight animalic scent, I can’t tell exactly what kind of “animalic” but it’s somewhere between indole and fermented fruits, it’s very subtle but still there.
Mr.P
oud<3er
These are great for storing woods like sandalwood that benefit from being kept airtight.
Mr.P
oud<3er
I think vanillin has the lowest vapor pressure/tendency to evaporate of possibly any aromatic substance. I need to do a little verification here but I think it may be the literal extreme as far as that goes!
roflwaffle
True Ouddict
Coumarin and ambergris are both lower, prob others especially if you start to look into synthetics, but vanillin is quite low
