With Valentine’s day visiting us next week it seemed the moment to launch our perfumes and celebrate with our friends in Mildura. And so I’ve created a perfume oil to mark the occasion: loveRevolution

So I’ve been turning my hand to re-inventing my motivation for this Valentine’s Day thing. Less of a commercial affair, more of a loveRevolution event. More about adorning the mind with roses and perfume offerings, and giving self-love and acceptance so that we have a stable base to be kinder and more compassionate. Especially to the self. (And being kind and compassionate to the self is not a narcissistic, selfish act.)

Self-love and acceptance requires us to make a gentle and quiet inner space to connect. We need to breathe and bring awareness to our thoughts and feel our body sensations. Then we can generated the thought and feeling of loving kindness to ourselves, fill up our tired body from the heart with acceptance, and soothe our chattery distracted mind.
This taking time to practice self-love, requires us to swim against the current of the socially expected speedy busy life. That life of stress, distractions and disconnection.
It requires an inner revolution to move through life in a different way. And we need reminders that punctuate the day and bring us back to our intent. So to celebrate Valentine’s Day I’ve created a perfume that re-focuses us inwards, into that loving intimacy with the self. (Rather than a fragrance that reaches out inviting people to notice us.) It’s a perfume that supports the loveRevolution.

When I began designing loveRevolution it was my excuse to work with the botanical symbol of love – the rose. I have recently left a garden of 25 years in the making that was full of roses that I preserved and used in both my Chinese medicine practice and my perfuming. So it is deeply soothing and sensory to uncap the Damask rose and Rose maroc that I have been missing from my old garden.

In loveRevolution the Amyris and Peru Balsams anchor the oil and Violet leaf reaches up to the Rose and Archeangel angelica that is the heart. The top notes of Lemon and Black Pepper add spice and sharpen the mind to engage with the soft aromas. I love its buttery subtlety and how the sweet and sharp aromatics combine to keep my interest in being close to myself.

A perfume oil is subtle and sits deeply in the skin, inviting you in. It tends to evolve quickly with the top notes dampening into the heart of the perfume. Often the base notes will remain longer with an oil parfum than with an alcohol base. You might miss out on the volume of fragrance that opens out of the alcohol but you can gain with the skin holding the fragrance for longer. This will depend on your body type and individual chemistry as to how it individually plays out.

I think we all know a bit about the history of Valentine’s day… that historically there are a number of martyred Saints in the catholic church who were associated with
defiance, romance and star-crossed love. There are at least two St Valentines and the Feast of St Valentine was probably introduced by the church to eclipse the pagan celebration of Lupercalia… So it seems here for the count. And I’m keen to set a different motivation for this Vday.

Every time I use loveRevolution I remind myself to turn love inward to start the revolution: for a kind world where children can live a safe and free existence, where people make time to connect and care, and a world that only has ethical scrupulous politicians with banks motivated by interdependent profit and generosity… Yes please! That’s all for the revolution.