Infused waters are a great way to enjoy the natural essence of botanicals in season throughout the year. In summer, we like to cool down with refreshing mint blends – and always keep a fresh pitcher in the refrigerator. Spearmint has a sweet, uplifting profile and blends well with many flowers and herbs that bloom in the summer – like roses and lemon verbena. Below are a few of our favorite combinations:
Mint-Lemon VerbenaRose-MintCitrus-MintBasil-Mint
Simply add a handful of fresh spearmint and your paired botanical of choice to a pitcher, bottle or mason jar of distilled water and refrigerate over night to let the plants flavor the water. Serve chilled and share!
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There is nothing quite like citrus to brighten aromatic blends. We use various citrus elements (neroli, orange blossom, petitgrain, lemon, bergamot) in our formulas, and find these especially refreshing during summer.
This is the season when we are also perhaps most conscious of our body image. But beyond the attendant anxieties, real body consciousness can be a positive, reinforcing experience in self-care. Paying attention to the gifts of the season – produce, flowers and scents – and incorporating them into our daily lives is an easy and simple way to be present and in tune with ourselves and nature.
]]>We love to use Maison Fleurette’s invigorating Lemon-Thyme Body Scrub as part of a summer beauty ritual – to detox, exfoliate and soften the skin. We blend Pacific sea salt, which naturally breaks down cellulite and exfoliates tired, dry skin, with organic, cold-pressed coconut oil for deep moisture. Fresh organic lemon peel is high in rutin, helping to protect the capillaries. Essential oils of thyme and rosemary also work to stimulate circulation, tighten, brighten and cleanse – while the delicious aromatic melange lifts our spirits.
This is one of our most popular products year round, and many clients liken the scent to a delicious lemon dessert. Unlike almost all other scrubs on the market, however, we don’t use fillers, additives, fragrance or anything less than pure, organic – and therapeutic – ingredients. Like all our formulas, our body scrubs are self-preserving. The delectable scent is bright and sensuous, but never cloying or overpowering. It’s just one of the little ways we feel great in the skin we’re in.
Long known for its cooling and calmative properties, vetiver (khus) is a staple in Ayurvedic medicine – and a practical solution for taking the edge off the hottest months of the year. In India, the long, fragrant grass is woven into mats and pillows, and boiled down with raw sugar to create refreshing beverages.
The rich, earthy essential oil extracted from its roots is widely used in aromatherapy as an anti-stress formula, and perfumers value its fixative properties – meaning it ends up in the vast majority of Western perfumes in some form. Vetiver finds more distinct expression in Guerlain’s Vetiver for Men and Dior’s Eau Sauvage, among others.
In our Essence of India Bath Salts, we add a touch of pure organic essential vetiver oil to an elegant formula inspired by time spent in the Hindu temples of India. Himalayan pink salts, rich in minerals, are blended with organic coconut, jasmine and cardamom. Use a handful in a bath after the sun sets, allowing the formula to cleanse and nourish your skin. In dry heat, a daily ritual with either Maison Fleurette bath salts or our body scrubs can keep your skin naturally glowing and moisturized.
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If you have been in the Mediterranean in the Spring, you may well recall the heady aroma of orange blossom laced through warm nights spent outdoors. Italy, Spain, Tunisia, Southern California – all have ample supply of citrus trees whose fragrant white blooms herald a season of sunshine.
Used for millennia in bridal bouquets from Asia to Europe – both for its beauty and calmative properties – orange blossom has a long historical association with feminine qualities. As a beverage and cuisine staple, orange blossom water is prized throughout the Middle East for its distinct flavor and calming effect, finding harmonious blend in coffee, desserts and tonics – including “white coffee,” an infused beverage that calms the nerves and aids in digestion after a meal.
For perfumers, it is the bitter orange (citrus aurantium) in particular that is most prized. This aromatic sour fruit is also widely used in Persian cuisine to flavor soups, stews and sauces – and for French marmalade. Bitter orange peels are used to produce essential oil, its leaves bear petitgrain, and the flowers are used to make neroli and orange blossom absolute.
Orange Blossom is a favorite fragrance of Master Formulator Shalimar Luciano, who uses its subtle yet potent profile in myriad ways, layered with flower essences, essential oils and hydrosols.
Our Eau Fleurette Fleurs d’Oranger is a delightful melange of layered orange blossom – essence, oil and distillate – that can be used in a light spritz on the face and body, while our Orange Blossom Linen Spray is an exquisite refresher for linens and clothing. We especially appreciate these tonics in Spring and Summer, when fresh floral essences can cut through the heat to refresh our senses and lift our spirits.
SHOP EAU FLEURETTE ORANGE BLOSSOM
This modern twist on a traditional cake – often found under a glass in the cafes throughout Tunisian cities and towns – uses an orange blossom syrup for a delicate aromatic flavor. Link below
Link to Recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.co.uk/recipes/tunisian-orange-almond-cake.html
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But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its color are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers.
– Arthur Conan Doyle, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
Precious, rare and costly, rose essential oil is widely coveted for its aromatherapeutic and healing qualities. Creme Fleurette organic rose oil comes from the Bulgarian Rose Valley, where producers use centuries-old techniques to preserve the essence of one of the rarest flowers in the world. Two tons of rose petals yields one ounce of pure essential oil – that’s 60,000 rose buds for a fairy-sized bottle! Only harvested for a brief season each year, the flowers are carefully hand-picked in the morning, right after the dew – and then immediately distilled into into an essence prized the world over by the finest perfumers. Creme Fleurette features this precious substance in abundance, our signature expression of beauty in healing.
Some of the many healing properties that have been attributed to the rose flower are: