They are a newish producer on the essential oil market, and are specializing in producing a range of extracts useing CO2 as a solvent, which as I have written about before, gives you extracts which tend to be a more "total" and gentle version of the fresh plant.
The two extracts I have here in front of me are a lovely Bulgarian Rose and an even more interesting Lilac CO2.
This is to my knowledge, the very first natural Lilac extract to be available to natural perfumers, so I am particularly excited to be able to play with this!
It's been a bit of a dram actually getting these extracts, due to the vagueries of the Australian border security system and the general incompetency of couriers.
My precious little parcel sat with a courier company for over two months while I emailed back and forth with what I at first assumed was an overzealous customs officer. Who kept on trying to tell me that I might be importing dangerous goods and would need to sign a piece of paper promising to pay an inspection fee of $190 to allow them to open the package and find out what was inside it.
I finally worked out that I had been talking to a paranoid and uninformed courier employee for 2 months, got in touch with customs myself, found out what paperwork was actually needed, got this sent through by Ecomaat and told the courier person to send me my f%&** parcel!
5 days, two attempted deliveries to the wrong address and me finally driving down to the head office of the courier company to pick up my parcel myself, I at last sit in front of two tiny little bottles of precious smelly stuff!
I spent the next 2 hours sitting holding them into a cup of warm water, trying to dissolve enough of the stuff to transfer it and then further dissolve it in alcohol so I could begin to evaluate it! (which is why you can't see the label on the lilac bottle, it dissolved.)
To make matters worse, the neck on the Rose CO2 was broken, so I ended up covered in the stuff.
Mind you, this allowed me to start the evaluation, and I have to say it is truly delightful!
This is a really lovely rose. I love rose. And I have quite a collection of different Rose extracts nowadays, including a few others from Bulgaria. And this one is by far the nicest from this region. What usually bothers me with Bulgarian rose is the really sharp topntes, and this CO2 extract is much softer...it has a lovely freshness to it, and gives you a real "White Rose" impression. It is deeper than your classic "Rose De Mai" and also has some lovely apricot warmth to it as well. The bottle doesn't state which rose this is from, but the website mentions both "rose damascaena and rosa alba"...and I suspect this is from Rosa Alba. It would be a great rose to use in a spring floral or flower garden blend...truly delightful! It has great staying power too...the scent has clung to my fingers through 4 washes and is still wafting from the shirt I wiped my hands on some hours ago after the messy decant operation. All up a great addition to the rose pallette!
Ah how I yearned for Lilac...in it's natural form, the scent of fresh lilac is so beautiful and ephemeral...it has a completely unique floral softness and lightness to it, with lovely watery overtones that you just can't copy with anything else...
I was so excited when I read about this CO2, and finally having it here to evaluate..
On first sniff it's a bit dissapointing. It's a very gentle scent, esp compared to the spilt rose CO2 that is filling my workshop at the moment.
I had to actually go outside to evaluate this delicate scent as it just got lost under the rose.
Once I buried my nose into the tissue I had dabbed the alcohol diluted CO2, I did recognize real lilac there...The CO2 is a very gentle, green scent. Delicate and soft, but beautifully fresh and floral. It's a lovely thing, but oh so mild! I wish I could have a more intense version of this, for it is surely one of the nicest things I have smelt recently! I have a bottle of Gardenia abolute and another of Hyacinth abs. that I am tempted to combine with this pretty stuff, but I'm afraid it will dissapear into the background too easily. I'll have a play though...you never know how an ingredient will play with others until you've given it a try.
I would love to create an eau de toillete version of this with just a few ingredients to accentuate and support it...I'm hoping that Ecomaat will find a way to create a more intense version of the lilac CO2 as the scent is beautiful and would make a wonderful addition to the natural perfumers pallette!
All up I'm rather excited with these tw new CO2s...and I'm looking foward to seeing what else Ecomaat comes up with in the future!