About Me
Growing up in Venice, CA was a fragrant experience. Something was always in bloom, and cheap fragrance oils, natural perfumes, incense, and marijuana were everywhere. The boardwalk brought salt, sand, and sometimes the tar that washed ashore from offshore rigs and stuck to the soles of your feet. The canyons smelled of sage, and when we were lucky enough to go riding, of the distinctive leathery, hairy, salty sweat of horseflesh.
I wore perfume growing up and considered the slight headache and sore throat part of the experience. On the evening of my wedding I wore a gardenia fragrance that smelled lovely but gave me a slight headache, something I was familiar with by then.
When COVID collided with perimenopause, I became interested in the history of botanical aphrodisiacs. I was no longer practicing, but my background as a Research RN at UCLA gave me the tools, and the pandemic gave me the time, to pursue a renewed passion for fragrance. I read everything I could, took classes with the living legend Mandy Aftel, and began creating fragrances as a way to reconnect with my waning libido. Hormone replacement therapy helped tremendously, but fragrance helped me make peace with my body in a way I hadn’t been able to reach through intellect, exercise, nutrition, or meditation alone.
Initially, I found botanicals to be a way to experience fragrance without the sensory overload, headaches, or sore throats. I appreciated the intimacy they required, and the option to reapply instead of being forced to smell a scent I was no longer enjoying.
My perfumes tend to find people who don’t want their fragrance to announce their arrival, and others whose sensory issues make wearing a perfume that lasts six to eight hours feel like a punishment after hour four. It’s also why I recommend an electric incense warmer over smoky charcoal disks with ignition chemicals, and why, in some situations, I enjoy eau de colognes as a kind of liquid incense.
Making kyphi and other historical preparations, and studying vintage perfumes by recreating them and their components, has expanded my palette to include selected aroma chemicals. Today Full Petal Alchemy makes perfumes, incense, body oils, and vintage reproduction studies, along with a gentle, all-natural neem and nerolina face wash that has a small cult following.
Botanicals remain at the heart of all of it, which is why I describe my work as botanically centered.
My ideas about aphrodisiacs have evolved over the years. For me, they were never about attracting a partner. I’ve come to realize that applying precious oils to my body, treating it with reverence, and trusting myself and my body are key to enjoying physical intimacy. My dry body oil diptych, Altar Blanc and Altar Noir, embodies this work. Feeling safe is sexy.