#themixelixir

Thinking of buying natural essential oils for aromatherapy and cosmetic products? Well I have compiled a little guide for all those itching to bring their natural creations to life, but haven’t yet bought any of the ingredients. I know that when you are a complete novice at something, buying supplies for a new project can always be daunting, trust me I know, because I am always trying my hand at something. As a beginner, we want to avoid wasting our money on products we don’t need in quantities we won’t use. We may fear that new suppliers will rip us off, not deliver on time or have misleading product descriptions. These are all valid concerns.

As someone who buys 80% of her life online with products ranging from craft supplies, clothing, jewellery, electricals and anything else you can think of, I think that I have learnt a thing or two about online shopping. I am now going to pass on what I have learnt, the hard way, about buying essential oils online.

1 Natural doesn’t always mean 100% pure

In the naturalista community I think that there is a tendency to put our faith in anything labelled “natural” and “organic”. Stay woke. With many expensive oils such as rose, which are complicated to extract from the plant, suppliers will dilute the oil into a carrier oil to around 10% strength and sell it onto us at a cheaper price. Now to the naïve consumer/ buyer we’ll be quick to pat ourselves on the back for finding rose at such a good price, but be aware, the supplier may not be offering what you are expecting. There is nothing wrong with buying diluted oils, so long as all the additional ingredients are listed, but just note that the concentration of the essential oil will be significantly reduced. It may also make it tricky for you to measure just how much of each oil you have inside your finished product.

2 Know the difference between essential oils, absolutes, resins and waxes

Take some time before you start blending and buying to understand the processes that go into extracting oils. Not only will this give you an appreciation for natural substances, but this exercise will also help you understand why things are the priced the way they are. For example, carrier oils are much cheaper than oils such as oud and amber. I learnt this by reading a book called The Encyclopedia of Essential Oils (see my review here) and this will give you a simple overview so cop your copy from Amazon.

3 Just because it is not certified by the Soil Association doesn’t mean that it’s not organic

This may seem like I am trying to confuse you but I am just trying to make you aware that not all organic products are certified organic. Do not get too hung up on these certifications because many suppliers do not bother obtaining them. Believe it or not, buying organic products that aren’t certified may be a good option for you when you just beginning to blend and make your own potions. You see, it costs suppliers to obtain soil association and organic certifications as well as hassle complying to strict protocol such as the use of separate machinery and equipment for their organic produce. This means that they incur more costs, and these costs will then be passed down onto the customer, also known as you. If you decide to move onto producing products for sale or for gifts and you want to advertise everyone how amazingly natural they are, then you can move onto the certified organic stuff, but as of yet, just stick to what is most cost effective option.

4 Create an account on the website

I don’t always like to sign up for an account on every website I buy from for a number of reasons. I don’t want to have to create a new password, let alone remember it, I don’t want to receive newsletters and I often can’t be bothered. If I can express pay with paypal, then I will. However, sometimes signing up for accounts can have great benefits, as in saving money benefits. A few months ago when I paid for a EU Regulation course with Naturally Thinking my account had been upgraded to a business account automatically which now means that everything I buy with them is at a cheaper price then what the regular customer pays.

5 Plan ahead and bulk buy

Postage and Packaging charges are the devil’s work. There are very few charges I hate incurring other than p&p. Right up there on the list is paying for processing fees when you booked for tickets yourself online. In those cases I think the company should be paying me for processing my own stuff. To avoid unnecessary p&p charges, I highly suggest that you plan for all the blends you are going to make, buy in big enough quantities, and try to get multiple oils from the same supplier if possible. Now I know that this may seem like obvious advice, but I assure you that you will save a lot of money. This isn’t like buying clothing and electricals where the price per unit stays the same regardless of how many headphones or tshirts you buy, with oils the price per ml will decrease the more you buy at a time.

I hope that my guide to buying essential oils online will help you get started. I will be posting reviews of my experiences with various websites that I buy from in the hopes that it will help you locate what you are looking for. These reviews will give you a personal insight into where I buy what and for how much. Keep following The Mix Elixir for more advice, reviews and general chit chat.

Keep mixing,

I’d like to start by apologising for my unexpected hiatus from The Mix Elixir. I have been busy and all over the place- so much so that I have neglected the blog a little, which I feel incredibly bad about. I hate not following through with my commitments, so, sorry for those who follow me and from now on I will be spamming you, trust me. Now let’s move away from feelings of guilt and stress and onto something better!

This week I am reviewing a workshop that I recently attended in Croydon. The workshop was a two-day EU cosmetic regulation course run by the company Naturally Thinking. I had been meaning to take this class for a little while now, but I had been a little reluctant to part with almost £300 without being sure that I was going with the right course supplier. However, I knew that at some point I would just have to just bite the bullet and click pay on Paypal.

I knew that if I were serious about becoming a perfumer, making my blends and educating myself on the cosmetics industry, I would have to know about the laws and legislation that surround the industry. I am without any doubt that there are many small and medium sized cosmetic businesses operating without knowing the proper processes or legal parameters that are in place to protect the consumer and manufacturer. It is easy to think that if you are making ‘natural’ and ‘organic’ homemade products from your kitchen that you can just sell products off the bat without subjecting your products to the same industry safety checks that beauty conglomerates like L’Oréal and Estee Lauder do. But that is not the case. I don’t say all this to scare you, but more as a word of warning. If you are thinking to start your own cosmetic business, no matter how big you want to grow it to, please attend a course on legislation and get off on the right foot. In addition to that, please be aware that there will be small businesses out there selling bits and pieces at fayres without notifying the EU. I believe that the booming ‘natural’ and ‘organic’ trend in the cosmetic industry will see people cutting legal corners in order to enter the profitable market as soon as possible. Don’t be that dude.

Nagging aside, I chose to go with the firmly established aromatherapy company, Naturally Thinking, based in south London, UK. If you have bought essential oils and cream bases online or so much as googled “100% pure natural organic jojoba oil” then no doubt you have come across Naturally Thinking. I parted with my hard earned £279 including tax for EU Cosmetic Regulation and Good Manufacturing Practises courses. (Please, if you get tax deductions do yourself a favour and declare this as an expense).

Day one: Approximately 10 of us attended the classes and that was a good size. Small enough for us to ask as many questions that we want to and network properly and yet large enough to doze off and not get noticed when your brain switches off after 5 hrs of EU law.

Topics covered on day 1 included:

·       Legal definitions eg. What is a cosmetic product, responsible person

·       Legal precedents

·       Structure of the law

·       Prohibited and restricted substances and IFRA

·       Responsible person

·       Distributors

·       Product testing

You are probably thinking that committing two days to learn about cosmetic regulation is a big time commitment especially when taking into account the travel time. You may even be put off by the £180 price tag that is associated with the class or anxious about completing the class. Whatever your concerns are, I would still advise you to take a regulation course - it’s necessary and incredibly useful. There are things you will learn in a classroom that you would never learn from an e-course. I would 100% recommend the one run by Naturally Thinking because I felt I got good value for money.

Tom who ran the sessions was in fact the director of Naturally Thinking. A young guy with heaps of experience putting these laws and legislation into practise. He was good at interpreting the legal terminology into language and scenarios we were all able to understand. Slides and excerpts of Regulation EC No 1223/2009 were printed out for us to add notes to.

Thankfully, lunch was provided and it was a good healthy one. It was nice not to have to prepare food at home and cart it all the way to Croydon with me. Thank God for small favours.

The score I give this is a solid 4.5/5. The only reason why I haven’t given it a perfect score is because I am reluctant to give any one or thing a perfect score when I do not have anything to compare it against, as it was my first time on a course like this. I promise you that if you do decide to attend the Naturally Thinking EU regulations course, you will not be disappointed.

Check back with The Mix Elixir for a recap of my second day on this course and a review of the Good Manufacturing Practises course.

In my next review, I will discuss more about the networking opportunities at this course and what else we covered on day 2

As always, I’d love to hear from those who read my blog so comment, like and share this article. If you have any questions on taking courses or about this one in particular then leave a comment below.

Happy Mixing

This week is all about the deliciously sexy vanilla. I felt to focus on vanilla would most appropriate as I have just returned from the Caribbean, and vanilla always reminds me of the Caribbean. (And no I will not stop banging on about my trip).

Family: Orchidaceae

Latin name (for when you buy it online): Vanilla planifolia

AKA: V.fragrans, Common Vanilla, Mexican Vanilla, Bourbon Vanilla, Reunion Vanilla

But what is it really?: A perennial herbaceous climbing vine to 25 metres, with green stems and white flowers.  The fruit is ready to be picked after 8 or 9 months. The “immature” plant/the Vanilla pods which are between 14 to 22cm long, must be fermented and dried to turn it into the fragrant brown pods.

Distribution: Native to Central America, cultivated in Madagascar, Mexico, Tahiti, the Comoro Islands, East Africa, and Indonesia. Pods are processed in Europe or the USA

Varieties: Tahiti Vanilla (V.tahitensis) which is a smaller bean

Scent: Pure Vanilla extract is characterized by its delicate, fruity sweet, spicy flavor and aroma. Resinous, woody, pruney, floral and rummy notes are also commonly associated with Vanilla.

Extraction: A resinoid by solvent extraction from the cured vanilla bean. An absolute is occasionally produce by further extraction from the resinoid.

Safety info: Non-toxic, common sensitising agent

Folklore: Vanilla was enjoyed by the Aztecs in a drink called Xoco-lall, which was made from cocoa and Vanilla beans. Cortéz sampled this drink and returned to Spain with reports it contained magical powers. Europeans mixed Vanilla beans with their tobacco for smoking and chewing, and considered it a miracle drug.

Where to buy it: Eden Botanicals in the States or Naissance in the UK for £4.49 plus p&p

Uses: Used in perfumery extensively or a mysterious, oriental aroma. It is considered one of the oriental notes. Vanilla is heavily used in bakery and I believe it is a good way to add flavour to cakes without increasing the sugar content

Vanilla is one of my favourite fragrances, and it is globally popular. I, myself, hope to do a lot more experimenting with it in the near future as it is not too expensive to get hold of. Vanilla is a plant that carries with it a lot of history and intrigue as well as luxury. Tell me what you have made using vanilla to be featured on The Mix Elixir!

Happy mixing

What do I bring?

If you follow me on Twitter (@TheMixElixir) then you’ll know that I went to Jamaica for just under two weeks for a little homecoming. Now of course I took with me my personally mixed perfume blends for me and my family to use, that goes without saying, so I had to think about how I was going to travel with these potent liquids in my hold and carry-on luggage.

This realisation that I own absolutely nothing fit for purpose or remotely stylish to transport my oils caused me to source some travel solutions for my trip.

I thought, as always, that it would be nice to share what I found with you, in case you are thinking of taking a trip and you are looking to bring with you massage, perfume oils and homemade cosmetic ingredients with you. Thank me later.

Fоr Yоur Bag in the Hold

I like the idea of using a cushioned case fоr vials оf essential oils. This is quite a tidy and easy option when packing and keeping everything together. These cushion cases can be found on www.bestessentialoilcase.com in various styles and sizes, thоugh I would suggest to stick to a carrying case fоr 16 vials as it will be lighter in your luggage.

Typically, they have cushioned dividers which kеер the glass vials frоm banging together. It аlѕо with padding оn аll sides, top, аnd bottom. Think of wrapping up all of those bottles of rum you cleverly conceal in your luggage to smuggle back into the country. Let’s not pretend we don’t all do it.

Here are some other links for cheap and cheerful cases:

NaturallyThinking for those in the UK 

AromaTools is based in The States 

 Something more stylish and sexy:

J Pardue Leather Design (featured above)

 Fоr Yоur Little Clear Plastic Bag on the flight

Whаt I dо iѕ line uр 6 5 ml oil bottles in thе bottom оf a non-zip sandwich bag аnd fold it оvеr thеm tо make a safe carrier. Thеn I put thеm in a zip lock bag. If you read my Staying Organised article then you will know I love zip lock bags.

Staying Fly and Not Sweaty

When travelling to hotter climes it is always nice to carry your own personal body spritzer Put a 15 ml bottle оf peppermint oil and water in your carry-on to help you cool down. Thiѕ 15 ml bottle will hаvе juѕt 15-20 drops оf peppermint oil in it and the rest of filtered water ready to spray when you experience those hot flashes.

Going Empty

Remember to take with you come empty vials of 5ml/10ml for when you mix oils during your trip. This is such an easy thing to forget especially when you are so focused on packing what you want to bring with you. For example, I always forget to pack pjs because I am so focused on the outfits I will wearing during the day.

Hopefully this post has been helpful and it has provided you with some reasonable travel suggestions. I would love to know if you liked this article and also if you would like me to post mor information on travel.

I’d also like to know if you make your own essential oil travel cases! Send me photos and I will feature them on The Mix Elixir.

Au revoir, ciao, tchau, adios

Happy Saturday morning to those who have the weekend off work, and for those who don’t have the leisure of sitting in bed with a cup of sweet Earl Grey, I’ll be thinking of you as I take a secondary morning nap.

Last week I was perfecting and playing around with some of the mixes I have been working on, and I felt the need to start taking some photos of my set up. Doing that gave me the inspiration for this article and also an opening to a new topic of discussion. I’ll be honest, my perfumery set up is modest in nature, but its impressively organised. As a novice of any trade or craft, not only is it satisfying to have a really organised zip lock bag clad collection of equipment but, not surprisingly, it is pretty damn important to help you, moving forward. So my collection of perfume paraphernalia is expanding and most things were procured via Amazon and other sites (I’ll share that info some other time in another article because I don’t like to use up all my ideas at once- being resourceful is a virtue). I love shopping online as it allows me to shop around, and boy do I like to shop. I am better at comparing the price of organic Citrus Aurantifolia essential oil and scientific glass beakers than comparethemarket.com. No lie. Having said this, buying with purpose is very important and it will save you buying things that you do not need, that don’t help you and that just gather dust, which is counterproductive to being organised.

So, it is at this point I would like to show you how I stay organised which can be challenging when you are such a creative person.

Firstly, I should mention the ziplock bags. I am obsessed. This obsession was passed down to me from my mum who buys them in various sizes. Good places to get them from include Costco and Ikea. The prices are good and the quality is there. By the way I am all for reusing equipment where possible so buying quality reliable products is important. I use the large bags for dirty pipettes mostly and I love the tiny ziplock bags for clean glasswear, glass vials, and other bits and bobs. I personally like to label the bags with permanent markers.

Speaking of labelling things, I’ll touch on my white sticky labels. From Sainsbury’s, I just buy the cheapest ones going which means that the pen I use on them are not immune from the oil that may run onto it and destroy the letters rending it completely illegible. These I use for, and listen up because this is probably my smartest tip yet, labelling my glass vials by wrapping them around the tube and sticking the ends together to create a makeshift tag. I note any relevant information on the labels to help me distinguish my mixes.

My wooden box for essential oils is not essential, but it is useful. Without sounding simple, boxes help protect what you value the most, and at £7.50 plus p&p for 3ml of Rose Absolute I think you will find a sturdy box important.

A reporter’s notebook is an oldie but a goodie technique to stay organised. I use mine to note down mix combinations and impressions, to do tasks and my questionable ideas. Not much else to say about this fella.

My last tip is not an obvious one, but it has proved to be useful for me. I recommend getting your hands on a silver baking tray. I have one that is used in professional kitchens, but you will definitely find them in Costco and charity shops. Let’s get one fact out the way: essential oils can stain, they can permeate into hard and soft fabrics and they can be messy. Sure, you can just work straight on your kitchen counter top, but if you spill some on your kitchen, it will smell of that dodgy concoction you made a week ago. Now if you spill that dodgy concoction onto that silver baking tray, you can easily hide that tray and along with it the smell, in the cupboard under the sink until your next Mix Elixir session. The baking tray also comes with an added bonus of allowing you to work on the floor where you can see the TV and not worry about the vials toppling over.

So let’s recap.

Buy with a purpose and only purchase things that you need to avoid clutter and encourage resourcefulness

Ziplock bags

White sticky labels

Permanent markers

Reporter’s notebook

Silver baking tray

That’s all from me, I hope this has really helped! It is by no means all the things you will need when making and mixing, but it will help to you stay organised and ultimately, more productive. I’d like to know what you are using and what tips I could steal from you.

As always, get in touch and comment. I’d love to hear from you.

Hello all, I have spent the week developing and updating TME’s social profiles, so now that they are all up and ready and looking sexy, I want to share them with you!

My number one aim for The Mix Elixir is to create a platform which is contemporary, easily accessable, interesting and informative. From my experience, blogs about perfumery is dominated by trained perfumers, companies and consumers of a narrow demographic. I think the perception of perfumery has always been a classist and elitist and, quite frankly, a little old fashioned, so I am aiming to do something completely different.

I hope that people of all ages, nationalities and abilities will follow The Mix Elixir and learn some new every week.

Having said all that. let’s talk about how we can stay connected.

1. Twitter @TheMixElixir 

My twitter account is a constant stream of TME updates and retweets of articles I find interesting. Leave your twitter handle below and I’ll follow you back!

2.Pinterest The Mix Elixir https://pt.pinterest.com/themixelixir/

I thought that it would be nice to start a pinterest account A, because I am obsessed with images and B, because it would show another side to my project. 

By encorporating boards such as Destinations and Interiors we can share ideas and images that inspire and motivate us. Perfumery for me is always about creating a desired environment, whether that is making your bedroom feel more relaxing or putting good energy into your living spaces, so to include destinations and interiors into my collection of boards made sense.

Of course I will be posting links to my articles on my Pinterest account making it easier for those who prefer using Pinterest to the Mix Elixir site. 

As always, remember to follow my boards.

Let me know if you would also like to see an INSTAGRAM account. I am thinking about creating one as they always draw so much buzz, but it would also be great to hear what all your instagram handles are and if you’d follow The Mix Elixir. Leave your Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr names below and I’ll follow you.

Thanks again for reading, let’s speak soon

For my first post, I thought that it would be a nice idea to share my experience of one of the perfume worshops I have recently attended. 

A few months ago I attended EXPERIMENTAL PERFUME CLUB run by the lovely Emmanuelle Moeglin. Run in central London in a quirky warehouse housed by creatives, this is a great chance to hone your blending skills in a relaxed atmosphere, while being taught by a professional French perfumer. Seems perfect? Well it was.

Luckily, it was a sunny day in London, despite my grey clouds in my photo, so I knew it was going to be a good day.

Located near Holborn, the sessions have a maximum of 10 people. We were all sat round a table filled with pipettes, bottles, books on perfumery and home made Madeleines. If you want to pay £95 for those Madeleines alone, that would be money well spent.

So the session went like this: We began by smelling some famous fragrances and frantically trying to guess them. We then went on to sniff individual fragrance and essential oils, all the while discussing, making notes, learning about the structure of perfumes and eating more Madeleines. After all that, we were left to our on devices to create our very own perfume.

We then labelled and named our perfumes. This workshop would be a perfect treat for yourself (I treated myself) or this would work perfectly as a gift to someone else. If you are looking to build your confidence in perfumery or build on what knowledge you have and blend in a more social environment (and not late night lamp lit sessions that I know I do), then Experimental Perfume Club may just be the thing for you.

Value for money 4/5

Location 4/5

Teaching 5/5