Potpourri –
The Nuts & Bolts of It

Potpourri…we have all heard of it and have bought it. Usually we're disappointed by the stuff sold in the stores…it looks good on display but the fragrance only last a few days before it's nothing more than a pile of dry, lifeless, herbs and flowers with no fragrance to it all.

The art of making a great, long-lasting potpourri is a combination of several elements. If one of these elements is missing, it results in a poor quality potpourri with no lasting aroma. To make truly fine potpourri it must contain one or more elements from these five different categories: Fragrant Leaves and Flowers, Spices and Seeds, Essential or Fragrance oils, fixatives, and Petals and leaves for Color and Texture. A good potpourri usually has one main scent and several secondary ones. These are the key elements that make-up a long-lasting, premium potpourri.

The oils used to scent potpourri are important as well. There are many, many fragrance and essential oils on the market today; some are of good quality and some are very poor in quality. Many manufacturers will dilute their oils with alcohol to produce more for less. Essential oils are the pure plant distillates that are naturally derived from the fruits, leaves and roots through stem distillation, effleruage, extraction and expression. Some essential oils can be extremely expensive such as rose absolute and jasmine. The reason for their high price is due to the fact that it takes several pounds of petals to produce just a few drops of essential oil. Fragrance oils are chemically/synthetically produced scents combined to create the aroma of a particular plant, flower or fruit. Some fragrances that can be derived as an essential oil but are very expensive are often made synthetically to make them affordable. Other fragrance oils include ones that can’t be derived from plant material such as Pumpkin Spice, Spiced Cider, Strawberry, and Cucumber, just to name a few. There are many fragrance oils today that ARE of premium quality and can hold a long lasting scent if mixed properly with the potpourri. Fragrance oils are also often used in bath and body products because the essential versions can cause allergic reactions and skin irritations. When available, affordable, and cosmetically safe, createdwithnature.com uses the pure essential oil and not the fragrance oil.

Createdwithnature.com doesn't skimp on the oils we use nor do we try to cut costs by using poorly made oils that will lose their fragrance quickly and old botanicals and spices that have improperly preserved and have lost their own natural aromas. Our potpourri is made with premium quality oils, properly preserved botanicals and spices, and a good quality fixative that will preserve the scent in the potpourri and distribute it evenly. We make our potpourri to last as long as possible so it doesn’t sit around in a bowl and become lifeless and scentless after a few weeks. All of our potpourri blends are cured and aged properly so that the oils will fuse together and mellow to create enchanting and captivating scents that will arouse the senses and fill the air with a pleasing aroma.