Who is Hip Lilly?

Hip Lilly is all about being real. Real is in, synthetic is out. Hip Lilly Aroma Couture ™ are natural perfumes made with 19th century traditional fine perfumery methods. Each perfume is a unique blend based on traditional alchemist recipes, in an organic jojoba oil base. Hip Lilly perfumes are 100% natural and organic, only using the highest grade pure essential oils with no expense spared! Most commercial perfumes these days are made from cheap chemicals and alcohol. These are potentially hazardous to our health. They are absorbed through our skin and added to our toxic chemical body burden. Why risk it when nature provides such heavenly scents?

* Hip Lilly is natural, Hip Lilly is organic, Hip Lilly is divine!

What Is Natural Perfumery?

Natural perfume is art for the nose and senses! It allows for the highest degree of aesthetic expression. Natural perfume uses as its raw materials the concentrated plant and animal essences that people have used for centuries. At Hip Lilly we only use botanical (plant derived) essences. These are the building blocks of evocative and sophisticated scents with real personality! Natural perfumes interact with the chemistry of the wearer. They evaporate into the air and modulate over time. Synthetic perfumes are one-note scents that linger in a persistent fashion, with little character!

With all the chemical analysis in the world, natural substances cannot truly be pinned down to a formula and replicated in a laboratory. Only nature can create the smell of real jasmine and the price differential reflects this. The cost of one pound of synthetic jasmine is around $35, whilst the cost of one pound of natural jasmine around $1500. Synthetics can approximate the dominant qualities of the natural essences, but they cannot capture their true complexity and subtlety.

Natural essences possess a vitality that eludes synthetic fragrances. They can have a powerful effect on our emotions. Natural perfume is like a precious jewel, worn differently by everyone and treasured by all.*

Natural Perfumery Blending Principles

Traditional perfume blending is about building a beautiful, lasting scent with essential oils the way a musical chord is composed, with high, middle and low notes that complement each other. In traditional perfume these translate into top, middle and base notes. The depth or weight of a specific essential oil's aroma is based on its volatility, or how fast it disappears, relative to other oils. The easiest way to think about "top", "middle" and "base" notes is in terms of how tenaciously its scent lingers. Think of the base note as the anchor note, that grounds the scent and enables it to last longer. The lower notes tend to dominate the blend. Middle notes give top notes depth and enables them to linger longer also. Combinations of notes make up chords. Some oils mix well together, others not so well. Ultimately, creating beautiful perfumes is an art of creating beautiful scents from and for the senses. It requires patience, skill and above all, passion.

Click here for a comparison of Aromatherapy, Natural Perfume & Synthetic Perfume

*Adapted from Mandy Aftelier