Potency of Potpourri

By Allyson Volpe

Always the intrepid explorer of things that cultivate a mindful lifestyle, the idea of creating a fragrant potpourri was very enticing for Lady Ripple.   It was during the pandemic lockdowns and spending many hours walking outdoors that the idea began to germinate:  how can we connect to the beauty of conscious living using our sense of smell?  Furthermore,  another dimension was needed to complete the scenario that would highlight the importance of nature and bees.   The idea of creating a potpourri seemed the obvious choice.  Doing deeper background research into the history of fragrances and potpourri, especially scents and aromatics known for their healing properties, the idea of creating a scent became all the more apparent, significant and above all, necessary.

When one looks back to the long history of potpourri, it seems that scenting our surroundings has been an ongoing fundamental human need to make us feel better.  The rich mixture of dried herbs, spices, fruits and flowers, no doubt has given heady fragrance to our lives for thousands of years.  For the Egyptians, Hebrews and later the Greeks, scented oils and herbs were used to create the mindset of sacred rituals and religious rites.   In ancient times, aromatic flowers such as lavender and thyme were strung up in the burial chambers of Egyptian tombs as well as being used in the mumification process.  The Romans used scented oils extracted from plants, it is claimed, not only to douse themselves, but to sprinkle on their statues during banqueting nights.

After the Dark Ages, with the advent of renewed trade and the movement of the Crusades, fragrance yielding plants were brought back from Persia and cultivated in France which would set the seeds for perfume development.   In the 12th century, dried rose petals, herbs, bay leaves, spices and garden flowers were used to scent the air of dark and dank medieval castles.   In simpler homes, these scented botanicals were either strung up in the kitchen or incorporated in the insulated flooring composed of hay and rushes that provided warmth and absorbed the humidity.   Herbs and spices were put into pots and doused with spirits to lend pleasant smells to living spaces.  In Florentine Renaissance, this same combination of natural foliage and scented dried flowers was put in small sachets to place in drawers and cupboards.  The sachets were even integrated into the seams of clothes to mask the not so frequent attention to human hygiene and clothes laundering.   

In Elizabethan England, as exploration opened new trade routes so too arrived exotic spices from faraway lands.  Combined with herbs and flowers from ornamental gardens, a type of recipe for potpourri was born.  The mixture was made into pomanders to wear around the neck to scent the air of the wearer.  The pomanders were used medicinally employing a particular recipe of combined scents to make a person feel better or to ward off diseases as in medieval times.

It was in the middle of the 18th century France, however, that potpourri attained its more modern usage.  Decorative bowls around the home began to appear that held a fragrant mix of dried flowers or a recipe of a slightly mouldy and macerated composite consisting of orange peels, cinnamon and scented oils to obtain a similar effect as a room fragrance. In fact, the English word derived from the French pot-pourri   which literally translates to ‘putrid pot’.   The English Victorians went on to create their own potpourri art form.  With the intention to create deliciously fragranced arrangements of dried botanicals and essential oils, the natural fixative of orris root ensured a potpourri that would keep its form and colour.

Fast forward to the 21st century, it is common to find potpourri in many homes, hotels and businesses.  These last few years, especially as people remain at home, our living spaces have been perceived in important ways and creating a more conscious lifestyle has awakened.  We not only want our spaces to look pleasing, we want them to smell good too.  Modern psychology and neuroscience studies are showing that scents are the only sensations that travel directly to the part of the brain that triggers emotions.  Our memories are triggered by smells.  What the ancients might have intuited instinctively, scientists now understand as a fact

Always looking to nature as its source to connect with mindful living, Lady Ripple began its creative collaboration with the fabulous Florence-based scent artisan Alba Chiara De Vitis of Alchemia Essenze.   Vision boards were mapped together highlighting quintessential images of Tuscany:  long walks in nature; the penetrating stillness of summer fields; ancient cypress and cedar wood trees; dense forests with rivers flowing through them;  breezes that carry the smell of ginestra (Tuscan broom), rosemary, myrtle, and lentisk leaves; and the deep earthiness of oak moss underfoot.   Always with conscious living in mind, a scent wanted to be created that would evoke calming memories and well-being from those sacred Tuscan scenes.  After 18 months of consultation, trying and testing different scents and essential oils, the vision of Sentience Potpourri was born.  In fact the textbook definition of sentience is a “capacity to experience feelings and sensations as distinguished from thought and an ability to feel with the emotions and perceive with the senses.”

Unlike the modern methods of making potpourri that incorporate synthetic fragrance oils and artificially coloured botanicals (which can actually be toxic for the human respiratory system), Sentience is 100 percent natural, 100 percent organic and 100 percent sustainable.  Sentience was created with the vision of Tuscany in mind that Lady Ripple yearned to express.  Employing the very same centuries-old Florentine practice of steam distillation from plants, essential oils were alchemized in their purest form.  Hand-made and cultivated, Sentience is comprised of 100 percent natural botanicals and oils, made the artisan way.  All of its aromatics are grown and cultivated in Tuscany & Italy according to the season.  Using oranges that would have otherwise have gone to waste, the fruits and herbs are air dried and then soaked in the Sentience signature oil:  Lady Ripple appreciates this idea of infusing life back into nature once again.

In the world today, there are little few examples of this type of artisan potpourri being produced sustainably.  One cannot forget as well, Sentience is the Lady Ripple tribute to the bees, and a reminder that without them, no bloom would be possible. Breathe in and enjoy its potency and all the history, passion and care that went into creating it.  Just as people are wearing the Lady Ripple bee jewellery as a symbolic gesture to save the bees, the scent of Sentience is intended makes a difference in the art of mindful living that is inseparable from our well-being.