Gardenia Essential Oil - reproducing the scent using natural perfumes (no synthetics)!

Notoriously expensive Gardenia 

My mother recently was diagnosed with breast cancer.  Besides skype, letters, calls, visits, I wondered what we could do to show her more support and care during this time.  I thought, I'll make her one of my natural perfumes.  


She's not a fan of perfumes for typical reasons - 99% of perfumes contain synthetics and poisonous petrols and cause at the very least, headaches and allergies.  When I explained natural perfumes have no yucky stuff, she was game.  


Mind you, pretty much every thing I've made her ilicits the same response: "Interesting."  I don't get much more than that.  Tiger Mom, hear her roar.  So I knew I was setting myself up.  But that's what daughters do for their mothers.


Mom likes flowers, fruits, nothing musky.  That latter part wasn't going to be much of a problem since the word musky for me conjures large sweaty men in hairsuits dragging in buffalo carcasses.  Flowers and fruits was not going to be a problem.  Easy.  Until she mentioned she loves Gardenia.

Frangipani, or Plumeria blossom

So I did my research, and that's when I fell off my stool, sprouting a plum on the side of my knee.  Gardenia essential oil is $6000 U.S. dollars a kilo (roughtly 33 oz).  Come again?  A baking power?
I would need to come up with something that smelled like Gardenia oil but would not cost me a vital organ.  

Jasmine Sambac, or Pikake flower

I thought of Pikake, or jasmine sambac, a small white flower used in Hawaiian leis and known for its lush sweet fragrance, not as deep as Gardenia, but it was a start.  I also had some frangipani (another tropical flower used in making leis) - also known as plumeria.  Together these might produce the floral note I was looking for.  If anyone has any ideas, let me know.   Remember, goal is to cheer Mom up, preferably without her using the word "interesting."   I will report on my progress in a week.






To browse our selection of natural perfumes, please visit Mermaid Lane Perfumes.