The Great Honey Hunt and Perfumery : crossposted from Manna Oils
My last outing getting what we natural perfumers have been calling 'bee goo' (for those who care, beekeepers call the substance "floor honey") was frustrating--the guy lived several towns away, he would regularly clean out his hives and only THEN remember I'd asked for all the scrapings, etc. after he'd thrown it all away--and I ended up with a two-quart tub of fairly dry material. I dutifully separated combs from wadded up wax, pulled out the propolis screen bits (which resembled the metallic strips of sheet metal H.R. Giger used to use to airbrush textures onto his paintings that looked like tall skyscrapers or computer microchips), and the very small amount of rather too-thick and dehydrated floor honey and soaked them all separately in alcohol, from October to today. It smells...very light, sweetish, and "not honey enough". It was all too dry, which was not surprising as he gave me the very last scraping he took at mid-October and all the real goodies had been long cast out.
My one tiny pint Ball jar of hive cappings I was given in a paper cup at the State Fair five years ago smells better and stronger, and it should not.
So I finally pull up the local beekeeper's association, look up all the local members (four men, all who strikingly live either near where I do or the one who lives in the apartment building next to the office I'm currently typing inside) and emailed each one, telling him what I wanted and asked if he might help me out.
The bee goo/floor honey is all the detrius of the hive--the honeydrippings from the combs above, bits of propolis, bits of wax, anything from the hive that adhered to the wrong places, dead bees...but thankfully, it does NOT include bee poo, which most of us were under the idea it did. I was informed by one of the new beekeepers that bees never eliminate within the hive, they fly outside to do that. The floor honey also contains bee pheromones, which is part of why we all want it--it's a perfume fixative, a perfume note all its own, and it's got that animalic, sexual scent that people seek from items derrived from animals (like musk sacs, civet oils, etc.), but it does NO HARM to any animal or insect. It's one of the few animal-based products that you can use to make a sensual perfume with no guilt.
The first (and so-far only) beekeeper to reply was the fellow next door to my office, a tall, young fellow who showed up in his building's lobby with a shopping bag full of wonderful, oozing stuff. He keeps bees on the tops of many of the taller buildings in downtown Indianapolis and each produces slightly different honey. I was handed an array of honeycombs ranging from the palest yellow to almost fully-black, a large nugget of propolis that he emphasised was "medicine" (it's antibacterial, antibiotic, and good for people with lung issues, for example), a jar of floor honey, and two waxy-crumbly squares of what he referred to as "melted wax", one very dark brown, the other an amber yellow; both pressed together.
This last item has to be the most amazing thing I have ever smelled in my life! It's actually a wax-and-propolis mix that was slightly burned on one side by the smoker, and it's got a deep, rich, sexy honey scent with the faint smell of an outdoor bonfire. A guy wearing this stuff would get me out of my pants in a moment, lemme tell you!
I can't wait to tincture and mascerate these things! However, I leave you with the very funny (and only mental image) of my walking out of my house swinging an empty gallon bottle of high-octane, triple-distilled vodka and yelling out to my friends: "I'm all out of vodka! Must have more vodka!" (I also use 151 rum and am seeking 191 proof Everclear....)
Love you,
Grey :)
P.S. Am working on the shelves and backing to the Perfumer's Kazoo and wil have new, exciting photos soon!
Current Location: Sadly, at the rabbit....
Current Mood: sticky but happy
Current Music: Coldplay
My one tiny pint Ball jar of hive cappings I was given in a paper cup at the State Fair five years ago smells better and stronger, and it should not.
So I finally pull up the local beekeeper's association, look up all the local members (four men, all who strikingly live either near where I do or the one who lives in the apartment building next to the office I'm currently typing inside) and emailed each one, telling him what I wanted and asked if he might help me out.
The bee goo/floor honey is all the detrius of the hive--the honeydrippings from the combs above, bits of propolis, bits of wax, anything from the hive that adhered to the wrong places, dead bees...but thankfully, it does NOT include bee poo, which most of us were under the idea it did. I was informed by one of the new beekeepers that bees never eliminate within the hive, they fly outside to do that. The floor honey also contains bee pheromones, which is part of why we all want it--it's a perfume fixative, a perfume note all its own, and it's got that animalic, sexual scent that people seek from items derrived from animals (like musk sacs, civet oils, etc.), but it does NO HARM to any animal or insect. It's one of the few animal-based products that you can use to make a sensual perfume with no guilt.
The first (and so-far only) beekeeper to reply was the fellow next door to my office, a tall, young fellow who showed up in his building's lobby with a shopping bag full of wonderful, oozing stuff. He keeps bees on the tops of many of the taller buildings in downtown Indianapolis and each produces slightly different honey. I was handed an array of honeycombs ranging from the palest yellow to almost fully-black, a large nugget of propolis that he emphasised was "medicine" (it's antibacterial, antibiotic, and good for people with lung issues, for example), a jar of floor honey, and two waxy-crumbly squares of what he referred to as "melted wax", one very dark brown, the other an amber yellow; both pressed together.
This last item has to be the most amazing thing I have ever smelled in my life! It's actually a wax-and-propolis mix that was slightly burned on one side by the smoker, and it's got a deep, rich, sexy honey scent with the faint smell of an outdoor bonfire. A guy wearing this stuff would get me out of my pants in a moment, lemme tell you!
I can't wait to tincture and mascerate these things! However, I leave you with the very funny (and only mental image) of my walking out of my house swinging an empty gallon bottle of high-octane, triple-distilled vodka and yelling out to my friends: "I'm all out of vodka! Must have more vodka!" (I also use 151 rum and am seeking 191 proof Everclear....)
Love you,
Grey :)
P.S. Am working on the shelves and backing to the Perfumer's Kazoo and wil have new, exciting photos soon!
Current Location: Sadly, at the rabbit....
Current Mood: sticky but happy
Current Music: Coldplay