Plumeria, pikake, gardenia — these fragrant tropical flowers seem to make people either swoon with joy or retreat to a cool, dark room with some extra-strength aspirin. The scents of these flowers are extravagant and are often described as: sultry, intoxicating, enticing, suffocating. I enjoy these flowers’ fragrances on the air, outdoors; in a greenhouse or in a bouquet, they can overwhelm me and even, up close, smell unpleasant.
Since I would never wear a perfume that features these flowers (too feminine), I enjoy their opulent, creamy floral aromas in room sprays, candles and soaps.
Mālie Kaua’i is a new company based on the “Garden Isle” of Kauai, Hawaii. ‘Mālie’ means “beautiful, calm water”. The flowers and fruits used in Mālie Kaua’i’s products are water rich, and do not possess much essential oil. The company uses a high-tech distillation process (a patented vacuum technique using high pressure but low temperature) that preserves the “integrity” of the plant aromas it gathers. The end result of this process is called a hydrosol…
The Japanese incense company Baieido was founded in 1657 by Jinkoya (meaning “aloeswood trader”) Sakubei in the city of Sakai, a trading port where incense was a hot commodity. Baieido’s Hinoki Incense is made with the essential oil of a venerable and treasured tree — the hinoki cypress. During feudal times in Japan, the hinoki cypress was one of the Five Sacred Trees of the Kiso forest; death sentences were handed down to those who felled a hinoki cypress without permission from the authorities.
