You're reading - DIY - How to make Peau Pourri with Recipes
DIY Craft Project - How to make - Peau Pourri - with fixative, essential oils - Recipes for rose-lilac, lavender-geranium, lemon-thyme and herb garden peau pourri.
How to make Peau Pourri
During the winter months I love either simmering Peau Pourri or the aroma of dry potpourri near by.
Making Peau Pourri is nothing more than a concoction of dried blossom, herbs, seeds, seed pots and essential oils to intensify the aroma.
A fixative will also retard the oil evaporation and make the Peau Pourri fragrance last longer.
My biggest problem is deciding what scent I want.
I usually go for Christmas fragrances, Woodsy/Earthy or Spicy Scents.
To make dry Peau Pourri for apothecary jars, bowl or sachets, look at your plant material and decide what scent and colour you think is appropriate.
What is the overall effect that you're looking for, flowery, woodsy or spicy?
Here's the hard part - keeping it simple and limiting yourself to a mixture of four or six different flowers and leaves and only three - four spices and other different ingredients.
It's tempting to throw everything that looks and smells good, but you could also end up with an adverse result of what your were hoping for.
My first attempts with simple.
Lavender, fragrant rose and peony petals are always pretty in a bowl. They also retain their colour and fragrance particularly well.
Flowers and Floral Scents -
Ingredients for Peau Pourri
- english lavender
- fragrant rose petals and buds
- peony petals
- lilacs
- carnations or pinks
- add whatever you have, dries well and retains their colour
Suggestion for floral essential oils with floral scents:
- jasmine, lily-of-valley, gardenia, rose, honeysuckle.
I have used my favourite perfume as well. Flowers didn't mind. :)
Woodsy - Earthy Scents
- Cedar shavings
- Barberry
- Juniper needles and berries
- Cedar needles and berries
- Pine needles
- Rosemary
- Pinecones - small
- Thyme
- Sage
Most common essential oils to use with Woodsy/Earthy Scents are:
Sandalwood, myrrh, barberry, patchouli and frankincense.
Spicy Scents
- allspice
- anise
- lemon geranium leaves
- tangerine peel
- cloves
- cinnamon
- lemon balm
- lemon grass
- lemon or orange peel
- pennyroyal
- nutmeg
- bay leaf
- basil
- pennyroyal
Vanilla or lavender oils work with spicy Peau Pourri.
Spices
When using Spices - use whole Spices instead of ground. The Aroma lasts longer.
Cinnamon sticks, broken in small pieces adds to the Peau Pourri texture as well.
Fixatives
I usually use Orris Root, but sweet flag will also work.
An alternative to Orris Root would be Oak Moss.
Orris Root - I just dig up the root. Wash it - let dry. Coarse chop (dice) the root - let dry and grind it when I need it as a fixative.
Use 2-4 Tablespoons of Orris Root per quart of dried flowers and herbs.
Or 1 cup of oak moss per quart of dried flowers and herbs.
If I'm using essential oils I mix the essential oils with the Orris root.
Essential Oils
Lots essential oil choices available.
These oils are available from craft stores.
Just use a few drops per batch, wait a couple days or a week and see if you need anymore.
Mixing Peau Pourri 1. Mix several drops of essential oil with your fixative. Let it sit for a couple of days in a glass jar with a tight lid. 2. Combine all of the dry material that you are going to use in glass bowl or jar. 3. Sprinkle the dry material with the oil fixative mixture and mix well. 4. Pour all of the mixture into a wide mouth jar, leaving enough room for Peau Pourri to be shaken. 5. Set the jar in a dark, warm place. Turn the jar over and shake twice a week to blend the mixture. 6. In about a month your Peau Pourri should be ready with a well-blended fragrance.
Recipes for Peau Pourri
Try some of these recipes and then experiment with your own.
Rose Lilac
- 3 cups of rose petals
- 2 cups of marjoram
- 2 cups of lilac flowers
- 1 ounce of Orris root ( mix essential oils with fixative if needed )
lavender Geranium
- 4 cups lavender
- 2 cups of rosemary
- 2 cups of rose geranium
- 1 ounce of Orris root ( fixative mixed with essential oil if needed )
Lemon Tyme
- 1 cup of Thyme
- 2 cups of Lemon Balm
- 1 cup of Nutmeg
- 1/2 ounce Orris Root ( fixative mixed with essential oil if needed )
Herb Garden
- 2 cups Thyme
- 1 cup Rosemary
- 1/2 cup Lavender
- 1 cup of Mint
- 1/4 cup Tansy
- 1/4 cup of Cloves
- 1/2 ounce of Orris Root ( fixative mixed with essential oil if needed )
Ps.. These recipes can also be used on a simmering "Peau Pourri" pot.
Need to check the "Peau Pourri" once in awhile to make sure the mixture hasn't gone dry.