Gardenia, Wild Poplar Bud and Bushman Candle Enfleurage.

Gardenia, Wild Poplar Bud & Bushman Candle Enfleurage ☽•☾ organic, whole plant☽•☾I first fixed the enfleurage pommade with two of my handmade absolutes: wild Vermont poplar bud and bushman candle. The poplar bud is from fallen branches of wild poplar I harvested in the spring, then tinctured and reduced to an absolute. It smells tangy, resinous, with notes of red wine and incense. The absolute/resinoid of bushman candle comes from Sarcocaulon mossamedense, a succulent that grows in parts of Namibia and Angola. It produces a waxy bark that, once it falls away and desiccates in the desert heat, is collected by the Himba, and traditionally used for incense, cooking, and, when lit, as a candle. I tinctured the pieces of bark for 6 months, then used natural evaporation to slowly concentrate the solution into an absolute. The absolute is sticky, hard, at 100% concentration and smells like brown sugar and brown butter, musk, and frankincense; it has a crackling fiery energy like wood smok