Good JUJU: Uses for Alchemy Florida Water

A survey of old recipes finds the use of bergamot, orange oil, lavender, clove, orris, cinnamon and Peru balsam all in a heavily alcoholic diluent, like the Christiani formula from 1877. The recipe that calls for rose, neroli, musk and jasmine would have been crazy expensive to make (impossible today).

The formula for our Florida Water, like all of our products favors botanical ingredients - The aroma is spicy, floral, herby and fresh in keeping with a cologne profile, and is lavender forward.

Our Florida Water is a perfumed spirit which begins with a tincture of organic lavender blossoms with the addition of the essences of fruits, woods and flowers. Create your own rituals or borrow from some ideas below.

WAYS TO USE Alchemy Florida Water

Intent transforms: with any of the suggestions below it is helpful to first take a moment to become present in your breath and in your space. Infuse the action with the balance, shift, harmony, peace or protection you seek.

1. To Generally Freshen: spritz liberally. Car, Home, Office

2. To Fragrance the body: scent the bath and use as a skin toner after (not the face). Add to hair rinses. Mist into the shower steam. Add to foot baths. Use as and aftershave.

3. Clearing the energy of a space: Add to floor washes, dish water, etc, dumping the water away from the home. Lightly mist your broom bristles or dusting cloth. Pay special attention to corners and other stagnant places.

4. For warding: Any opening, like a door or window, is an invitation to energy to enter your space - Lightly spritz Alchemy Florida Water at all four points of doorways into your home. Alternately, you can mist onto a cloth, cotton ball or small broom and burnish the doorways.

5. To signal a shift in energy: Set the tone by using the fragrance to signal the start of meditation or yoga practice: creating the scent association will help the body relax as soon as you smell the aroma in the future. To do this, put a little of the cologne in your hands and gently inhale and exhale three times before you begin your practice. Spritz onto a small cloth, wool bead or handkerchief and carry with you for a refresher as needed.

6. Protecting the perimeter: Charge sea salt crystals in the sunlight and gently mist. Sprinkle around the perimeter of your house. Inside, sprinkle around the edges and in corners of rooms. Sweep the room, moving everything towards the door, inviting unwelcome energy to leave the house. (You could charge up some of our Florida Water Soaking Salts, which contain Celtic Sea Salt and the plant magics, and use them as an alternative).

Fragrance is an important aspect of making a space welcoming and comfortable. Your mood is affected and so is the energy that the space evokes for visiting friends and family.

Fragrances and germ theory:

From Hippocrates until the 1800s many people thought disease and illness were caused by ‘bad air’ (and the evil eye). Pomanders, poseys, incense, pot pourii, toilet waters, and the like were used to protect the body and the home. A lot like we do to cleanse our spaces of bad energy today.

Florida Waters hit the market at a cucial point when people began to choose fragrances for pleasure and not just to ward of dis-ease and the evil eye.

In the 1890s Florida Water was in wide commercial use: with dozens of brands* and manufactured by pharmaceutical companies for packaging by local merchants.

• more about miasma / plague preservatives and fragrance

Want to know more about the history? More spiritual uses?

*Catherine Sullivan, Searching for 19th Century Florida Water Bottles

Miller’s Mysteries: 30 Ways to use Florida Water (good historical info)

Further Reading: jeanhuets.com Comprehensive Treatise of Perfumery and Kindred Arts, Cristiani (google books) also A Treatise on Pharmacy by Edward Parish, and Drugists General Receipts, 1886

A final note: “Florida” means “flowery” and isn’t a specific reference to the southern state. But then, that’s where the state gets the name, too.