“Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram; The marigold, that goes to bed wi’ the sun, and with him rise weeping.” ~ William Shakespeare
Apr 20, 2021“Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram; The marigold, that goes to bed wi’ the sun, and with him rise weeping.”
Me running the Mackinac Island Lilac Festival Run. I’m in the lilac colored shirt
It’s springtime and our thoughts should turn to flowers. Everything is suddenly in bloom and we can almost anticipate the smells that will soon follow. One of my favorite memories of running is in the spring when it’s still a little nippy, and as I’m running through town I can stop and smell all of the lilacs that are in bloom. Smell is the strongest of the senses, and I cannot smell the fragrance of lilacs without this memory popping into my head.
Which brings me to the very calculated scents I wanted to incorporate into the first Harvest + Harmony soaps. Shakespeare was a big fan of flowers and he wrote constantly of how they factor into our thoughts and our lives and how to indoctorate them into our feelings on love and life. His favorite was lavender. Lavender is grown in many parts of the world, and is part of the mint species. And while most of the flowers are used as ornamental plants for landscaping and gardening, they are also used for cooking, fragrance and essential oils. Who hasn’t had a lavender scented candle at some point? We also use the word when referring to a specific color, “What color did you paint the room?” Lavender. Or, “I just bought the cutest shirt, it’s lavender and soft and flowing.” I bet we’ve all used it in some form of descriptive color. Lavender has been used for centuries in medicinal potions and in cosmetics (think Cleopatra), and is known for it’s soothing and calming affect on people. So lavender was my first choice in choosing a fragrance and as a flower to place on top of the Harvest + Harmony soaps.
And then there was Marjoram. It sounds so exotic, but the truth is in most parts of the world it is synonymous with Oregano. It’s a perennial herb that doesn’t look very fancy when you grow it, yet has the same aromatic scent as other mint varieties. It’s pretty much Oregano, and is used mostly in cooking as seasoning for soups, salad dressings and other sauce-type dishes. As for me, I chose this specific scent because it was known by the Ancient Greeks and Romans as the symbol of happiness. And that made me happy.
So, those are my first “two cents” in my search for the perfect soap fragrance.
1. Marjoram – because it was known as the symbol of happiness and was also referred to as ‘pot marjoram’ which may or may not explain the symbol the Greeks and Romans gave it (but that’s for another blog)
2. Lavender – because Shakespeare loved it, it’s grown all over the world, and it’s an all-time and old-school favorite. And it’s so pretty to look at
I hope you enjoy these two very specific and very thought out scents for my Harvest + Harmony soaps. Pay attention to the smells around you, you’ll be surprised at how they bring back memories. There is such beauty in Native Bee Habitat Wildflower gardens and in lavender fields and in herb gardens and in everyone’s backyard garden. The poets sure loved flowers. I hope you do too.
“If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk through my garden forever” Lord Tennyson
For those that are interested, here’s a link to the local Lavender Festival in Michigan
(1) The Original Michigan Lavender Festival 2020 | Facebook
