#ylang ylang is so hard to temper but

[psalacanthea]

Night Orchid- A Shadowheart-Inspired Perfume Blend

this is a recipe for an essential oil blend which can be used for aromatherapy in an oil warmer or as a perfume.  The recipe is a RATIO, which means that it can be easily doubled or tripled depending on what you’re using it for.  

Inspired by Shadowheart, cleric of the Nightbringer, this perfume evokes a lone, graceful bloom lit by moonlight, rising from dangerously dark waters.  Dizzying white florals intoxicate and beckon, with hints of dampness and green vibrancy. Delicate, rich, and layered, as it fades a hint of sacred ritual incense remains among the wilted petals, forgotten offerings at a forbidden altar.

Can be used in lotions, cologne bases or with a carrier oil, but would not recommend for use in cosmetics that are applied to the face or mouth.  As I have allergies stemming from many synthetic scents, I only use essential oils.  Tangerine oil is photoreactive!  Please do not apply before going into direct sunlight, as it can cause the skin to burn.

Shadowheart Essential Oil Blend

2 drops Amyris (amyris balsamifera) Essential Oil

3 drops Vanilla (vanilla planifolia) Botanical Extract

2 drops Myrrh (commiphora myrrha) Essential Oil

1 drop Ylang Ylang (cananga adorata) Essential Oil

2 drops Tangerine (citrus reticulata) Essential Oil

3 drops Petitgrain [bitter orange leaf] (citrus x aurantium) Essential Oil

Notes:

Wet:  Ylang ylang hits you in the face with a sugary white floral, slowly tempering into the green, watery petitgrain.  As the initial aggressive floral fades, the sweet tangerine is allowed to come through to brighten it all, and the vanilla rounds it out.  Soft hints of the woody-resin scent of the amyris and myrrh are there, but only as background players.

Dry: Vanilla, sandalwood, and resin with gentle hints of the fruity floral smells.  It becomes softer and much darker, with hints of church incense and dusty wood.

Warnings:

Please be aware if you’ve never used essential oils- they should be diluted with a carrier oil before being applied to skin.  Good quality grapeseed oil isn’t a bad choice, and it’s cheap!  I use sweet almond usually.   

Not a food safe blend.  

Store your finished product in a container that is tinted, as exposure to sunlight will make the scent fade faster.

I use Vanilla botanical extract, but vanilla oleoresin is also fine, though it will tint your finished perfume brownish. 

As noted above, tangerine (and all citrus) essential oil is photoreactive (reacts with sunlight). I have very sensitive pasty skin, but I’m always careful to only apply diluted, and have yet to be burned.

Not a warning just a note, Amyris is the most sustainable and affordable substitute for sandalwood; if you can afford sandalwood obviously it's superior, but if you find it for cheap...it's not real sandalwood.

Other BG3 Scents:

Astarion: Midnight Bacchanal

Gale: Faithfully Yours

[ellocentipede]

Bohemienne Life Summer 2020 Collection

Bohemienne Life makes beautiful wax melts, and I particularly love her summer collections. Many of my all-time favorites (Gallowglass, Little Witch, and Mermaid) were included in this sale, so I seized the opportunity to stock up for the year. These melts were purchased over the course of three different sales (a summer pre-order, a summer overstock ready-to-ship sale, and a small autumn teaser ready-to-ship sale), so I also have lots of samples to review!

Gallowglass

Scent description: A blend of bracing fresh mint and watery sea kelp, and full of salty air and driftwood.

I have a love-hate relationship with mint. There are a few perfume/bath and body houses that make mint scents that I love (like Arcana), and Bohemienne Life is one of them. Gallowglass is a really beautiful and refreshing scent that makes my home smell clean and peaceful. The mint really is bracing--it’s a lot like the bright, lightly-sweetened mint of candy canes. There’s a hint of ocean here, but this scent is all about the mint for me. I love this blend in the summer, but it would also be appropriate in the winter.

Rough Washed Linen 

Scent description: A combination of cashmere, amber, musk, and laundered linen to create that hard-to-capture aroma of warm rough washed linen.

I took a chance on this scent because it sounded so clean, refreshing, and interesting--and I’m really glad that I did. Yes, it’s a clean linen scent, but it’s also so much more than that. I swear that I smell a hint of orange here, but my nose could be playing tricks on me. The musk is beautiful--like a golden skin musk. There’s a very light hint of resinous, golden amber that elevates this linen scent to something very elegant and refined. I will very much enjoy melting this one and I hope that it makes an appearance again in the future!

Little Witch 

Scent description: Energizing potion of sage, soft mint, lavender, black tea and elder flowers.

I’ve reviewed this scent before along with Gallowglass (https://ellocentipede.tumblr.com/post/189723505153/bohemienne-life-spring-summer-2019), but it’s a favorite of mine and I thought that I’d revisit it again. This is a gorgeous mint tea scent, much like a smooth Moroccan mint tea. I always look forward to melting this one--it makes my home smell clean, happy, and refreshed.

Unicorn Sprinkles Cookies 

Scent description: Warm from the oven cookies, with fluffy Cotton Candy, Rainbow Candy Drops, Sugared Lemon with Unicorn sprinkles.

These really smell just like the description. There’s a base of sweet, warm sugar cookie, and it is absolutely coated in a thick layer of rainbow sprinkles, fruity gum drops, and clouds of pink and blue cotton candy. This is a really fun scent for the end of summer and the beginning of fall, and it’s making me wistful for fair season!

Bloom

Scent description: Neroli & shea butter.

This is a simple blend that is really nice for spring and summer. I’m a huge fan of neroli (orange blossom), but sometimes it can be a bit sharp and perfumey. The smooth shea butter takes care of that here--smoothing the edges of the neroli and creating a beautiful, smooth, waxy orange blossom scent. This is a very pretty and happy scent!

Zen 

Scent descrtiption: A blend of green tea, spearmint & Lemon grass.

This is a lovely lemony tea blend. I get lots of smooth, green tea, the barest hint of refreshing spearmint, and a slice of lemon floating on top. This is a lot like Little Witch, but with lemon instead of a hint of floral.

Mermaid 

Scent description: An intoxicating blend of fresh coconut, plumeria, lotus, driftwood, Ylang Ylang, freesia, fresh rain, lily of the valley, night blooming jasmine.

Mermaid is my very favorite ocean scent (at least in wax form!), and I was so, so happy to see it offered in one of the ready-to-ship sales. I’d been hoarding a sample of it forever, since Kyme said that she was no longer able to offer it due to not being able to source one of its ingredients. It’s possible that the scent used for this batch is the very last that she had, but I’m hoping that that’s not the case and that instead she’s been able to track down the ingredients again. Mermaid smells like sun-warmed waxy, tropical florals (I get more plumeria than anything else), Coppertoney coconut (one of my favorite scents in life), with a hint of dry, bleached driftwood and a nip of warm ocean rain. It’s gorgeous and has wonderful throw and longevity.

Raspberry Boom Boom

Scent description: Raspberries, white cake, cream cheese, rose, apples and amber.

Oh this is lovely. This is the ultimate foodie raspberry scent. The raspberries are ripe, sweet, and tart, and the cake and cream cheese are just right. This is definitely a foodie scent, but it’s not overly sweet thanks to the tartness from the raspberries. I don’t specifically smell the rose or apples, but I imagine that they’re rounding out the scent into something more refined than a simple “raspberry cake”. Really lovely--I’m so happy that I took a chance on this one.

Rose Quartz

Scent description: A refreshing crisp blend of lemon, bergamot, apple, Jasmine, cedar, orange blossoms, fern, white musk and amber.

Somehow this smells exactly like the feel of rose quartz to me--it’s bright, light, airy, and softly pink. It doesn’t really smell like the notes to me--it’s very well-blended. It smells like a light pink musk, a hint of orange blossoms on a breeze, and morning dew. A lovely, elegant, and calming blend.

Pumpkin Cake Pops

Scent description: Fluffy pumpkin cake doused in bourbon, then rolled in spiced cinnamon sugar.

This smells like bananas foster to me! It’s like caramelized bourbon sauce over warm banana pumpkin bread. This is a wonderful gourmand blend for autumn.

Voodoo Praline Cookie

Scent description: Aroma of rich salted caramel pecan pralines, butterscotch brûlée and soft warm cookies.

I fooled my husband with this melt--he thought it was an actual brownie! How gorgeous is this? The pecans look so incredibly realistic. The scent is wonderful. This smells like actual pralines. The pecan note is gorgeous and smells wonderful with the sweet butterscotch. This is one for the foodie lovers!

Samples generously included:

Blackberry Bay

Scent description: A blend of blackberry, bay laurel, spiced apple cider, oak moss & woods.

This is a fun twist on a blackberry scent! It’s like a warm, blackberry compote, not a fresh-off-of-the-vine berry. This compote is sizzling on a wooden kitchen table in a cabin in the woods. In the kitchen hang strings of dried bay laurel and bayberry wreaths. I would not have selected this for myself based on the notes, but if this available in the autumn pre-order I will definitely purchase more. It’s a really nice autumnal (and even wintery!) scent that’s not your typical apple-pumpkin-spice variety. A lovely atmospheric blend with hints of spiced foodie goodness.

Brigid

Scent description: Celtic goddess of fire as well as an Irish saint. Honey, juicy red apples, mahogany wood smoke, and sweet amber musk.

I would likely not have tried this on my own in spite of my fondness for Brigid--the apples and wood smoke notes would scare me off. I’m so, so grateful that Kyme included a sample in my order, because this is gorgeous and will be a favorite for me in the autumn and winter. I get a lot of wood smoke, but it’s surprisingly not harsh or acrid (maybe it’s the mahogany making it so nice and smooth?), but really warm, cozy, and inviting. The honeyed apples are both sweetening and perking up the smoke. A gorgeous atmospheric scent.

Half Baked

Scent description: A blend of Applejack, Whisky and mild Woodsmoke.

Holy smokes this is good. This is the ultimate autumnal wood smoke blend. I hope it’s offered again in the presale! This smoke is so smooth and gorgeous--it’s cozy and atmospheric. The apple jack is lightly spiced with cinnamon and complements the smoke beautifully. I love this!

Lavender Latte

Scent description: Fresh coffee is blended with coconut milk and lavender honey, served with a warm sugared beignet.

I tend to avoid coffee scents, but good gravy this one is gorgeous. It is the milkiest, creamiest, lovely sweet coffee scent ever. The lavender is the icing on the cake for me--it’s smooth and gentle and almost toothsome, like sugared lavender buds. A beautiful cozy and comforting scent!

Lemon Lavender Tea Cakes

Scent description: Sweet little tea cakes infused with bright lemon zest and herbal lavender buds, topped with a dollop of decadent sweet coconut cream and a steaming cup of tea.

Typing out that description made me hungry! I get lots of the bright, zippy lemon zest in this blend, followed by smooth, warm tea and a hint of cake and cream. This is a gourmand blend, but it’s really fresh and refreshing due to the prominence of the lemon. It’s really nice, and I imagine would be a crowd pleaser!

Pink Chocolate

Scent description: Fluffy chocolate coconut cake and pink sugar frosting.

This does smell like a white chocolate coconut cake! This would be great in a spring/Easter collection--it smells like a cake that would be in the shape of a bunny or lamb. It’s sweet, but not overly sweet--the mild and milky coconut tempers the chocolate and sugar. A super fun and happy scent.

Stache

Scent description: A blend of warm woods, supple leather, rich amber, and spices.

Ooooh this is a treat. This smells like a desert market--warm dry spices, hot sun, a hint of sand, rich resins, fragrant, precious woods, a hint of worn saddle leather. Utterly gorgeous. I will absolutely purchase this one if made available!

Bohemienne Life’s beautiful products may be perused and purchased at https://www.bohemienne.life/ 

[babewith-abow]

RULES. Repost, do not reblog! Tag 10! Good luck! 

 Tagged by: @thebrokenrobin​ 

 Tagging: @biestmodus, @theredhoodoutlaw, @lucklessprincess, @billyandhismultiples, @eclairegrey, @redcladnerd, @bcrnentertainer

 BASICS. 

 FULL NAME:Artemis Lian Crock 

 NICKNAME(S): Artemis, Arty(Artie), Blondie, Tigress

AGE: 26

BIRTHDAY: May 29th (Ares)

ETHNIC GROUP: Mixed (Vietnamese and Caucasian) 

NATIONALITY: American 

LANGUAGE: Multilingual (English) 

SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Bi-sexual 

ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: Demiromantic  

 RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Single (getting over the loss of a love)/Verse Dependent 

 CLASS: Middle 

 HOME TOWN/AREA: Gotham City, New Jersey  

CURRENT HOME: House in Palo Alto, California 

PROFESSION: Vigilante Crimefighter/ Part Time ER Doctor

 PHYSICAL.

 HAIR: Long waist length fair amber blonde hair, with her ‘identity collar’ it shortens to shoulder length and turns jet black.

EYES: Dark Thundercloud Gray, with her ‘identity collar’ they turn almond shape but seem to retain the same shade of gray.

NOSE: Straight-Edge

FACE: Heart shaped 

LIPS: Full with a defined cupids bow.

COMPLEXION: Tanned 

BLEMISHES: Rare, usually stressed caused

 SCARS: Multiple and varies by verse, the most prominent one on her cheek from the dagger Harm attacked her and Zatanna with during her youth. In the verse V: Living a nightmare; she becomes reckless in life which results with more intense scars. in the verse V: Never saved; Her eariler scars are caused by her father or herself.

 TATTOOS: Verse dependent. Usually simplistic bolt of lightning or arrow on her rib cage.  

PIERCINGS: Verse dependent, but always has single simple first hole ear piercings . 

HEIGHT: 5′5″ 

WEIGHT: 138 lbs 

 BUILD: Slender, Athletic

FEATURES: Fiery ‘i dare you’ look in her eyes, the skin of one corner of her mouth is a fraction darker from it being torn open and force to heal naturally

 ALLERGIES: None

 USUAL HAIR STYLE: Pulled back in a low pony tail. 

 USUAL FACE LOOK: Slightly hostile or annoyed/bored. 

 USUAL CLOTHING: Archer uniform- A midriff-baring costume that highlighted her build. Its colored in various shades of green and consisted of a mask extending from the hairline to the cheekbones, a sleeveless top with a stylized arrow tip on the front, fingerless gloves, pants with black knee pads, and black combat boots. A black utility belt and pouch strapped on her left leg filled with assorted tools, a quiver along her back with a bow and a multitude of multi-purpose arrows. Tigress uniform- a predominantly burnt orange and black costume, with a hard orange mask that covers her forehead, nose and cheeks resembling a stylized tiger’s face. A black sheath behind her back which stores her sword and also wears a black belt to store her weapons.  Civilian clothing- A dark colored crop top adored with some colored (usually brown), slim, leather jacket and dark washed jeans with dark brown or black heeled boots.

 PSYCHOLOGY. 

 FEARS: Drowning, Losing her breath, Losing people to death, dying alone, being alone forever, ending up like her parents.

 ASPIRATIONS:  To make sure to bring good to the world everyday (find someone to dedicate the rest of  her life to).

 POSITIVE TRAITS: Empathetic, Kind-hearted, Loyal, Dedicated, Loving, Street and Book smart, Accepting

 NEGATIVE TRAITS: Stubborn, short-tempered, aggressive, forceful, closed off, envious

ZODIAC: Ares

TEMPERAMENT: Choleric 

 SOUL TYPE: The Warrior  

VICE HABITS: Biting her nails, pulling her hair, picking at her scars

 FAITH: She doesn’t know what’s up there but she hopes there’s something, there should be with all the crazy shit that she’s seen in life.

GHOSTS: Was skeptical until the day she met Greta, she still tries to visit her grave and leave her flowers.

 AFTERLIFE: She hopes, but doubts. 

 REINCARNATION: Anything is possible with the events she’s gone through in life  

ALIENS: Her best friend is a martian so yes. 

 POLITICAL ALIGNMENT: She barely had time for college never mind voting or keeping up with campaigns.

 ECONOMIC PREFERENCE: She lived in the same run down apartment in the same crime prone neighborhood for 17 years of her life, she doesn’t care. 

SOCIOPOLITICAL POSITION: She doesn’t care because she doesn’t care to get close to a lot of people

EDUCATION LEVEL: Master’s in Human Biology and Bachelors in Comparative Literature from Stanford University

 FAMILY.  

FATHER:  Lawrence Crock

 MOTHER: Paula Nguyen-Crock 

 SIBLINGS: Jade (Crock) Nguyen

 EXTENDED FAMILY: Lian Nguyen-Harper (Niece), Roy Harper (Brother in law)

 NAME MEANINGS: The true meaning is unknown and possibly related to greek words  αρτεμης (artemes) “safe” or αρταμος (artamos) “a butcher”

HISTORICAL CONNECTION: Artemis was the greek goddess of the moon and hunting, the twin of Apollo. 

 FAVORITES

 ANIMALS: Dog’s more so the big an medium built not the small breeds, Orca whales, African Wild Dogs and Hyenas

FAVORITE DEITY: Anubis the jackle headed deity associated with mummification and the after life in Egyptian religion or Athena the goddess of wisdom , craft, and war.

MONTH: Any month other then June

SEASON: Autumn 

 PLACE: Star City

WEATHER: Cool and Cloudy 

SOUND: Thunderstorms

SCENTS: Lavender, Singed clothing, Irish spring (Deodorant Soap), Amber, Ylang Ylang, ‘Dragon’s Blood’. 

TASTES:  Her mothers Pho recipie and spicy things

 FEELS: Friendship. Love. Hope. Acceptance.

 NUMBER: 12 

 COLORS: Rich Ocean Blues, Light and Emerald Greens, light yellows and dark purples

EXTRA. 

TALENTS: Expert Archer and Swords-woman, trained in multiple weapons handling and in improvising things as weapons. trained in numerous fighting styles. took art lessons.

 BAD AT: Letting people in, getting over things/forgiving, getting things done in a timely fashion, taking care of herself.

TURN ONS: People who can take what’s she’s giving (Arty loves being a dom though she is a great sub), hickies, surprisingly spanking

 TURN OFFS:  Uncleanliness/ Bad Hygiene

 HOBBIES: Traveling, conquering her fear of water by learning to surf, running, reading, archery, musicals, boxing.

 FC INFO. 

 MAIN FC/S: Natalie Dormer, Hayley Kiyoko

 ALT FC/S: Candice Accola 

OLDER FC/S:Blake Lively 

YOUNGER FC/S: Lily-Rose Depp

 VOICE CLAIM/S: Stephanie Lemelin

[biofunmy]

Why Does Everything Smell, So Peacefully, of Lavender?

Not long ago Erin Wexstten, the 35-year-old founder of Oxalis Apothecary, a plant-based skin care brand, ticked off all the ways she uses lavender in her life.

“I personally have lavender everywhere,” she said. “Hand soap, dish soap. I have sachets you stick in the drawer. It makes the underwear smell nice. Dried bunches. They make for a beautiful piece in a vase.”

Ms. Wexstten has spread the lavender love through her products, including Feel Good Potion, containing essential oil of lavender, and Reverie body oil, deodorant and a wildflower clay mask, which contains lavender in powder form as a gentle exfoliant.

“I call lavender the quiet queen — she’s purple majesty,” Ms. Wexstten said. “It’s an abundant plant. It isn’t a precious, exotic plant. It’s used everywhere.”

Indeed, these days there’s hardly a household, grooming or wellness product that hasn’t been infused with lavender’s sweet, antiseptic-clean aroma: candles, diffusers, shower gels, liquid hand sanitizer, face mists, eye masks. It’s even in food and — shudder — cocktails.

To feed the demand, hundreds of lavender farms have sprouted up in recent years far from their well-known location of Provence, France: in places like Maine, Kansas and West Virginia, where growing lavender on coal-stripped mountains is being explored as a land reclamation project.

The lavender selfie, typically a young woman wearing a prairie dress and a straw hat posing amid rows of purple blooms arcing to the horizon, has become an image ubiquitous on Instagram every June and July during harvest season.

The lavender field has become such a visual cliché on social media that Simon Porte Jacquemus, the French fashion designer, decided to subvert it by holding his spring 2020 fashion show in an actual field in Provence. “I wanted a place that looked like a postcard — almost too much like a postcard, even,” he told WWD.

Even when you’re not seeking it out, lavender has become hard to escape. A look around my own apartment revealed three bars of lavender bath soap; a lavender “relax” aromatherapy bar by Treestar; a vial of Ms. Wexstten’s Feel Good Potion; Sleep Well Therapy Balm by Scentered; Dr. Kerklaan Natural Sleep Cream with CBD extract and calming sensation citrus and lavender; a lavender-scented candle; a bouquet of dried lavender in a vase in the bathroom; and a small pillow stuffed with lavender to be placed under one’s nose at bedtime.

Many of these items are my wife’s. But lavender has entered the men’s grooming world too, in products like Jack Black post-shave cooling gel and overnight balm from the Art of Shaving. (And the bath soap was mine.)

Nature’s Chill Pill

If not a precious plant in modern times, lavender once carried the whiff of semi-luxury. If you stayed in a nice European hotel, your room had crisp linens scented with lavender. That bath soap would have been a special imported treat costing $15 a bar, not something I might have gotten at the corner CVS.

Lavender was a key ingredient in the bougie domestic fantasy sold by retailers like Williams Sonoma and L’Occitane en Provence. It wafted gently over the entire oeuvre of Peter Mayle, the author of “A Year in Provence,” among other books.

Now you can buy Downy Infusions Lavender Serenity fabric softener.

Linda G. Levy, the president of the Fragrance Foundation, an organization that promotes and supports the perfume industry, has noticed lavender as a highlighted ingredient in luxury fragrances like Libre, new from YSL, as well as popular perfumes like Ariana Grande’s Cloud, which features a top note of lavender and won the foundation’s fragrance of the year award this past June.

“Lavender is easy for consumers to translate,” Ms. Levy said. “It’s something they can understand without having to do a lot of research.”

Unlike ylang-ylang or vetiver, two other frequently used botanicals, “you hear ‘lavender’ and a visual comes to mind,” she added.

For Ms. Levy, it conjures a trip she took to Fayence, in the south of France. “Litter on the street there is lavender,” she said. For someone else, lavender may bring to mind a grandmother who used a sachet to freshen a dresser drawer.

Jeannie Ralston, a New York journalist turned Texas lavender farmer who wrote a memoir about her experience, “The Unlikely Lavender Queen,” believes lavender’s popularity comes, in part, from the way it activates all the senses, especially when standing amid rows of it.

“You’ve got the smell, but to look at it, it’s almost like a pointillist painting,” Ms. Ralston said. “It’s a beautiful, sensual experience to be in a lavender field.”

Dahlias planted tightly to the horizon can be beautiful, too. And roses also evoke grandmotherly nostalgia. But lavender promises something those plants don’t, something very much desired in this age of fractious politics, climate dread and unceasing demands on our time: escape.

Though the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans believed in its benefits, as both a cosmetic and a medicinal plant, lavender’s true time has come in the stressed-out early 21st century.

Clinical studies in both animals and humans have shown the plant to have calming effects, reducing anxiety and helping to bring on sleep. The key ingredient is linalool, an alcohol component of lavender odor. Sniffing it has been likened to popping a Valium.

Dr. Andrew Weil, the integrative medicine guru, hangs dry bundles of lavender in his bedroom as a sleep aid and cooks with the herb. In yoga studios, it’s a common practice for the instructor to end class by daubing essential oil of lavender on spent students’ temples. And the oil has long been used in aromatherapy.

Now, artisanal wellness brands and billion-dollar pharmaceutical companies alike have packaged and marketed lavender to a freaked-out populace. No longer is it just a nice way to freshen your linen drawer. It’s become a magic ingredient: a plant-based Prozac put into therapy balms, sleep creams and stress-relief moisturizing lotions, like the one from Aveeno, a division of Johnson & Johnson, which claims on the purply bottle that it “calms & relaxes.”

For consumers, especially millennials fluent in Goop-speak and hungry for ways to unplug from 24-7 work and digital lives, lavender has come to mean calm.

Anit Hora, 39, the founder of M.S Skincare, a vegan skin care line made in Brooklyn, sprays lavender mist around her office when things get hectic, and has hung dried bunches in her bathroom, pressing them to scent her shower. She also named the brand’s restorative lavender body oil Aum, after the yoga chant more commonly spelled “ohm.”

“It’s very calming to chant ‘ohm,’” Ms. Hora said. “And that’s the effect I wanted this to have.”

Ms. Wexstten’s Feel Good Potion is “there to reduce stress and anxiety in a world full of chaos,” she said. (The label instructs users to “apply to temples, third eye and wrists. Breathe deeply.”)

While Ms. Wexstten doesn’t think there’s a lavender boom, she said, “I think people are paying attention more, handling their self-care. In an old-world apothecary, lavender is not a new thing.”

Barbara Close, 59, grew up going to such apothecaries with her aunt, who lived outside Paris, and became familiar with the European tradition of using lavender and other herbs for grooming and health purposes.

“She loved to take me to these little herboristeries,” or herb shops, Ms. Close said. “They’d make her passion flower tincture.”

In 1995, Ms. Close founded Naturopathica, which operates day spas in Manhattan and East Hampton and sells skin care products and herbal remedies. It began as an herb shop like the ones she had known in France. “We had tinctures and teas, essential oils,” she said. “Back then, it was a strange concept for most people.”

Twenty-five years later, once-obscure herbs like echinacea are sold at CVS, adaptogens like Siberian ginseng and reishi are being touted as answers to any number of problems, and don’t get us started on turmeric. “Lavender,” Ms. Close said, “has gone along with that growth.”

According to the alternative medicine guides and lavender farmer websites, the herb is a cure-all for many, many ailments: anxiety, insomnia, migraines, depression, flatulence, hair loss and more.

“Some books have two, three pages of attributes that lavender possesses, and a lot of it seems far-fetched,” said Charley Opper, 68, an owner of Cache Creek Lavender Farm in Rumsey, Calif.

Mr. Opper makes body mist, bath soap and 21 other products from the lavender he grows, and he sticks with the folkloric wisdom that dates back to Pliny the Elder. “What I tell people is it’s a sleep aid, a relaxant and it does have anti-bacterial properties to it,” he said.

In all his years, Mr. Opper said, “I’ve only run into one or two people that said they did not like” the scent of lavender. And he has found a receptive audience for both his products and his message by driving three hours south each weekend, where a demographic of plugged-in, maxed-out tech workers are eager to buy nature’s chill pill.

“I go to Silicon Valley, and I market my products in Palo Alto and Menlo Park,” Mr. Opper said. “The essential oil that I sell at my stand is well sought after at this point.”

Crop This

But where does the most special, elite lavender come from? The royal purple fields of Valensole, France? Partly, yes. But also: Bulgaria.

Though the country has been slow to catch on as an Instagram destination, its temperate climate is ideal for growing lavender. To some noses, the Bulgarian strains are preferred over the French.

“It has a more distinct, exotic scent,” said Ms. Wexstten, who sources Bulgarian lavender for her products. “It doesn’t have that candy-like scent that a lot of lavender can have.”

The largest seller of essential oils in the world, the Utah-based doTerra, operates a distillery in Bulgaria, and production has increased exponentially to match demand, said Dr. Russell Osguthorpe, the company’s chief medical officer. The company sold about 38 kilograms of lavender oil in 2008, and sourced 152,000 kilograms to support sales in 2018.

“We have spent a long time optimizing our lavenders for their aroma because we use them in aromatherapy. You might even call it a pharmaceutical standard. Not all species of lavender are created equal.”

(Not all lavender is even grown in a field: It’s likely that the $3 bottle of lavender oil at the chain drugstore, or the liquid hand sanitizer at the supermarket, derives its lavender scent from synthetic perfume made in a laboratory.)

If the small and medium-size lavender farms stretching from the Sequim Valley in Washington State to the East End of Long Island don’t significantly contribute to industrial-scale production, they perform another role. No longer do Americans have to go to France to stand in a lavender field or picturesquely fill a straw basket with all-natural products.

When Ms. Ralston and her husband, Robb Kendrick, a photographer, started their commercial lavender farm in Texas, back in 2000, the couple had little experience with lavender. But the herb proved easy to grow and easier still to monetize.

“We ended up with 97 different lavender products,” Ms. Ralston said, ticking off a list that included bath balms, bath salts, bath oils, essential oils, eye creams, sachets and “lavender smokes,” or dried and bundled stalks to put on a fire. “We actually sold lavender-scented pencils at one point. And my husband said, ‘That’s enough.’”

One year, at the annual lavender festival the couple started, 17,000 people tramped through their fields in the Texas Hill Country.

“Lavender seems to be crack cocaine for a certain set of the population,” Mr. Kendrick said to Ms. Ralston at the time.

Thy sold the lavender farm to an employee in 2006 because they wanted to live for a time in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and raise their sons to be bilingual. But Ms. Ralston, a founder of the digital magazine NextTribe, said there are times she wishes they had held on, watching how the American lavender craze has, yes, blossomed.

Aimee Crane, who four years ago started Bee Loved Lavender farm, has brought culinary lavender to northeast Ohio. Jim Morford has brought homemade soaps, lotions, creams and infused teas to Kansas (“You really have to want to grow it in our hot climate,” Mr. Morford said). And Kaia Nustad has brought the joy of lavender to the Carmel Valley in California (and to Etsy).

Last year, Ms. Nustad hosted 54 weddings on her eight-acre plot, and has sold thousands of lavender bouquets to brides. “Millennials love it for weddings,” she said. “It’s the new boho thing.”

Ms. Nustad discovered lavender’s popularity by accident, in 2014, when she visited a farm near the “lavender trail” in Washington. And two years after planting her own farm, she still asks herself what it is about lavender that makes people respond the way they do.

But, she reasoned, “I’ve never had a sad person on my farm. When you look out over the fields, it’s calming. It’s that serene calming feeling, like when you stare over the ocean.”

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