CHAPTER 4

Blending by Scent Group

Just as essential oils from the same botanical family blend well together, they also mix nicely within scent groups. Also called fragrance groups and fragrance families, there are a number of ways that scents have been classified into groups—some more complex than others. Let’s take a look at a few of them.

Fragrance Classifications

As previously mentioned, Carl Linnaeus revolutionized and standardized the classification of plants according to physical structure and development. He didn’t stop there and went on to categorize their odors as well. His focus, however, was on their medicinal value, as he placed them into the seven categories of foul, fragrant, garlicky, goaty, musky, nauseating, and spicy.14 These names are not what I would call inspirational for blending scents. German psychologist Hans Henning (1885–1946) called his system of classification the smell prism, which was based on what he believed were the six principal odors. In 1927 the American psychologists Ernest Crocker and Lloyd Henderson related their odor square to four kinds of olfactory nerves.

Coming from a totally different viewpoint and purpose, Eugene Rimmel (1820–1887), an eminent perfumer of London and Paris, laid out his 18 classifications of scents in The Book of Perfumes. Although some of his categories seem rather specific and limited, they actually contain more than the named scent. For example, the category he calls violet also includes cassie and orris root. Today, the perfumery categories can vary widely and sometimes an explanation is necessary. For example, the category called green generally includes herbs, mints, and pine; oriental includes heady spices as well as some resinous scents; chypre (French for cypress) includes woodsy/mossy scents; and fougere (French for fern) includes lighter herb/fern scents. More recent perfumery categories are entitled fruity, gourmand (an edible food smell), and aquatic, or oceanic, which accommodates synthetic fragrances.15

In addition to the square and prism shapes applied to categories, the circle is interpreted as a fragrance wheel. Developed by perfume aficionado Michael Edwards in the early 1980s, the wheel places fougere at the center and arranges the four categories of floral, fresh, oriental, and woody around the outside. These four categories are further divided into three or four subgroups.

As you may have guessed by now, scents can be rather subjective, and there is no universal, definitive classification system for them. However, through my studies I have found a method for categorizing scents that offers a simple, straightforward blending guide. This is the set of six scent groups recommended by aromatherapist, author, and lecturer Julia Lawless.16 Illustrated in figure 4.1, the groups consist of woody (woodsy, earthy), herbaceous, citrus, floral, resinous, and spicy. In a number of cases, these groups actually describe something about the plants or plant parts within the categories. Like Michael Edwards’s groups, these work well as a wheel, which helps to show their interrelationships. I also like this approach, because what Pagan doesn’t like the symbolism of working with a circle? In addition, displaying the scent groups as a circle brings out the dynamic nature of this blending method. Another reason I like these categories is that they honor and stay true to the natural world more so than other classifications.

Three Ways to Blend by Scent Group

There are three ways to use the scent groups. The first is single-group blending, which works because the members within each group tend to have similar chemical compositions and go well with each other. As a result, most of the florals blend well together as do the spices, citrus, and other groupings. As the name implies, select all of your oils from one group. When blending by scent group, three oils usually work best, since incorporating more tends to get tricky and can bog things down.

Figure 4.1 The scent group circle

As with blending by botanical family, working with the smaller scent groups may require us to be more creative in how we express our intentions. On the other hand, scent groups can also provide extra focus for certain powers. For example, the citrus group is especially supportive of psychic work, divination, and communicating with the spirit realm. The floral group is especially helpful for creativity, the emotions, love, and spirituality. If you find that a scent group is limited for expressing your intentions, you might still find it useful for blending a ritual perfume or creating a deity offering.

Table 4.1 Essential Oils and Their Scent Groups
Woody	amyris, birch, cajeput, cedarwood, cypress, eucalyptus (blue gum), fir, juniper, oakmoss, patchouli, pine, sandalwood, spikenard, spruce, valerian, vetiver
Table 4.1 Essential Oils and Their Scent Groups (continued)
Herbaceous	angelica, basil, carrot, catnip, citronella, clary sage, helichrysum, hyssop, labdanum, lavender (spike), marjoram, mugwort, niaouli, oregano, parsley, peppermint, rosemary, sage, savory, spearmint, tagetes, tea tree, thyme, yarrow
Citrus	bergamot, eucalyptus (lemon), grapefruit, lemon, lemon balm, lemongrass, lime, litsea, mandarin, orange
Floral	cananga, chamomile, geranium, jasmine, lavender (true), lavandin, neroli, palmarosa, rose, ylang-ylang
Resinous	camphor, frankincense, galbanum, myrrh, opopanax, storax
Spicy	allspice, anise, bay, benzoin, caraway, cardamom, celery, cassia, cinnamon, clove, coriander, cumin, dill, elemi, fennel, galangal, ginger, hops, lovage, myrtle, nutmeg, pepper, petitgrain, snakeroot, star anise, tarragon, turmeric

Once you have selected and purchased your oils, follow the steps as laid out in chapter 2 to create your aromatic treasure. This will be the same for all of the blending methods, as the actual steps for mixing and assessing remain the same. It is the planning and selecting of oils that differs. As with botanical families, when you purchase a new oil you may want to label it with the name of its scent group as well. This makes it easier when you are planning new blends or gathering your oils for mixing.

The second way of using scent groups is what I call good-neighbor blending. As this name implies, each group mixes well with members from its neighboring groups. The woody oils go with the spicy and herbaceous oils, the citrus with herbaceous and floral oils. All around the circle, each group blends well with its neighbor on either side.

Figure 4.2 Good-neighbor blending by scent groups.

When blending this way, select your three oils from two groups at a time. For example, woody and spicy or woody and herbaceous. That said, remember these methods are simple guidelines. Once you are familiar with your oils and you feel that combining spicy, woody, and herbaceous scents would create a good blend, go for it.

The third way of using scent groups is to select an oil from an opposite group. As you can see in figure 4.3, these are not quite straightforward. The woody and floral groups and the spicy and citrus groups are directly opposite in the circle, and these combinations work nicely. However, although herbaceous and resinous are opposites and some of their members go well together, this pairing of groups does not always work as well as the others. Even though they are not opposites, the pairing of the spicy and floral tends to work well. Using one of your three oils from an opposite group adds interest to a blend and opens the door for a wide variety of possibilities.

Figure 4.3 Opposite-group blending

The following tables provide information on which oils are known for working particularly well together. These details are offered to help you get started and not to limit selection. Gaps in the tables where my experience and research did not find a match does not mean that a combination does not work. Let your intuition and imagination guide you.

Table 4.2 The Woody Scent Group
Woody Scent	Within the Woody Group	Neighboring Groups Spicy Herbaceous		Opposite-Group Floral
amyris	cedarwood, oakmoss	coriander, ginger	citronella	lavandin, palmarosa
birch	juniper, pine	benzoin, clove	rosemary	jasmine, ylang-ylang
cajeput	cedarwood	clove	labdanum, niaouli	geranium, lavender (true)
cedarwood (Atlas)	amyris, cypress, vetiver	cardamom, ginger	clary sage, rosemary, yarrow	jasmine, lavender (true), palmarosa
cedarwood (Virginia)	amyris, patchouli	benzoin, ginger	carrot, citronella	lavender (true), palmarosa
cypress	juniper, pine	benzoin, cardamom	clary sage, marjoram	lavandin, palmarosa

Table 4.2 The Woody Scent Group (continued)
Woody Scent	Within the Woody Group	Neighboring Groups Spicy Herbaceous		Opposite-Group Floral
eucalyptus (blue gum)	cajeput, cedarwood, pine	anise	sage (Spanish), mugwort, thyme	lavender (true)
fir (balsam)	cedarwood, cypress, juniper	benzoin, tarragon	lavender (spike)	lavender (true)
fir (silver)	cedarwood, pine	tarragon	labdanum, marjoram	lavender (true)
juniper	cypress, vetiver	benzoin, elemi	clary sage, rosemary	geranium, lavender (true)
oakmoss	vetiver	anise, bay, ginger	clary sage, tea tree	palmarosa, ylang-ylang
patchouli	cedarwood, sandalwood	clove, snakeroot	angelica, labdanum	geranium, lavender (true), rose

Table 4.2 The Woody Scent Group (continued)
Woody Scent	Within the Woody Group	Neighboring Groups Spicy Herbaceous		Opposite-Group Floral
pine	cajeput, juniper	celery, hops	sage, savory	lavandin, lavender (true)
sandalwood	patchouli, vetiver	clove, pepper	clary sage, labdanum	jasmine, lavender, palmarosa
spikenard	oakmoss, patchouli, pine	clove, dill	labdanum, lavender (spike)	geranium, rose
spruce	cedarwood, pine	benzoin	lavender (spike), rosemary	lavandin, lavender (true)
valerian	patchouli, pine	petitgrain	rosemary, yarrow	lavender (true)
vetiver	patchouli, sandalwood	ginger	angelica (seed), yarrow	jasmine, rose, ylang-ylang

Table 4.3 The Herbaceous Scent Group
Herbaceous Scent	Within the Herbaceous Group	Neighboring Groups Woody Citrus
angelica (root)	clary sage	patchouli	lemon, orange
angelica (seed)	clary sage	oakmoss, patchouli, vetiver	lemon, orange
basil	citronella, hyssop, spearmint	juniper, oakmoss	bergamot, lime
carrot	lavender (spike)	cedarwood, cypress	bergamot, grapefruit
catnip	peppermint, rosemary	eucalyptus (blue gum)	eucalyptus (lemon), lemon, lime
citronella	basil, peppermint, sage (common)	cedarwood, pine	bergamot, lemon
clary sage	yarrow	juniper, pine	bergamot, lemon
helichrysum	lavender (spike), tea tree	oakmoss, vetiver	bergamot, lemongrass, litsea
hyssop	rosemary, sage (common)		lemon balm

Table 4.3 The Herbaceous Scent Group (continued)
Herbaceous Scent	Within the Herbaceous Group	Neighboring Groups Woody Citrus
labdanum	clary sage	patchouli, vetiver	bergamot
lavender (spike)	rosemary, sage	cedarwood, oakmoss	lemon balm
marjoram	rosemary, tea tree	cedarwood, cypress	bergamot
mugwort	rosemary, sage	amyris, patchouli, pine
niaouli	basil, tea tree	cajeput, eucalyptus (blue gum)	lime
oregano	citronella, rosemary	cedarwood, pine	bergamot
parsley	clary sage, tea tree	oakmoss
peppermint	catnip, marjoram	eucalyptus (blue gum)	lemon

Table 4.3 The Herbaceous Scent Group (continued)
Herbaceous Scent	Within the Herbaceous Group	Neighboring Groups Woody Citrus
rosemary	oregano, thyme	pine	lime, litsea
sage (common)	clary sage, hyssop	pine	lemon
sage (Spanish)	clary sage	cedarwood, juniper
savory (summer)	rosemary	oakmoss, pine	lemon balm
savory (winter)	rosemary	pine	lemongrass, litsea
spearmint	basil	eucalyptus (blue gum)	eucalyptus (lemon), mandarin
tagetes	clary sage	sandalwood	bergamot, orange (sweet)
tea tree	marjoram, niaouli	juniper, pine	lemongrass
thyme	marjoram, rosemary	cedarwood, fir (balsam), pine	bergamot, grapefruit, lemon
yarrow	clary sage, hyssop	valerian, vetiver

Table 4.4 The Citrus Scent Group
Citrus Scent	Within the Citrus Group	Neighboring Groups Herbaceous Floral		Opposite-Group Spicy
bergamot	lemongrass, litsea	basil, tagetes, thyme	cananga, lavandin, rose	dill, myrtle, pepper
eucalyptus (lemon)	grapefruit, mandarin	niaouli, spearmint	geranium, palmarosa	dill, elemi
grapefruit	bergamot, lemon	rosemary	lavender (true), neroli, palmarosa	anise, bay, galangal
lemon	lemongrass, lime	catnip, sage (common)	lavender (true), rose	benzoin, elemi, fennel
lemon balm	lime, mandarin	clary sage, savory	rose (Damask), ylang-ylang	dill, hops

Table 4.4 The Citrus Scent Group
Citrus Scent	Within the Citrus Group	Neighboring Groups Herbaceous Floral		Opposite-Group Spicy
lemongrass	bergamot, orange	angelica, savory, tagetes	geranium, lavender (true)	coriander, dill
lime	lemongrass, orange	basil, niaouli	jasmine, lavandin	myrtle, nutmeg
litsea	bergamot, lemon balm	basil, rosemary	lavender (true), ylang-ylang	cardamom, ginger, petitgrain
mandarin	lemon, orange	sage (common)	jasmine, rose	cinnamon, clove
orange (bitter)	lemon			anise, clove, star anise
orange (sweet)	lemon, lime	labdanum, tagetes	lavender (true), neroli	cinnamon, clove, dill, nutmeg

Table 4.5 The Floral Scent Group
Floral Scent	Within the Floral Group	Neighboring Groups Resinous Citrus		Opposite-Group Spicy
cananga	jasmine, lavandin, neroli, rose		bergamot, lemon balm	cardamom, pepper
chamomile (German)	geranium, jasmine, neroli	camphor	bergamot, lemon	benzoin, cumin
chamomile (Roman)	jasmine, lavender (true)	camphor, frankincense	bergamot	cumin, tarragon
geranium	lavender (true), neroli	galbanum, myrrh	grapefruit, lemongrass	clove, pepper
jasmine	chamomile, rose	storax	litsea, mandarin	benzoin, petitgrain
lavandin	geranium, ylang-ylang	storax	bergamot, lime	bay, cinnamon

Table 4.5 The Floral Scent Group
Floral Scent	Within the Floral Group	Neighboring Groups Resinous Citrus		Opposite-Group Spicy
lavender (true)	chamomile, neroli, palmarosa, rose	galbanum, myrrh	bergamot, lemon, lime, orange	allspice, star anise, tarragon
neroli	jasmine, rose	opopanax	lemon, orange	coriander, ginger
palmarosa	cananga, geranium	storax	eucalyptus (lemon), grapefruit	cardamom, clove, pepper
rose (Damask)	jasmine, lavender (true)	frankincense	bergamot, lemon balm	benzoin, clove, ginger
rose (Maroc)	chamomile, ylang-ylang	storax	bergamot, lemon	benzoin, clove, ginger
ylang-ylang	chamomile (German), jasmine	storax	lemon balm, litsea	clove, pepper

Table 4.6 The Resinous Scent Group
Resinous Scent	Within the Resinous Group	Neighboring Groups Floral Spicy
camphor	frankincense	chamomile, lavender (true)	bay, caraway, ginger
frankincense	myrrh, opopanax	lavender (true), neroli	bay, pepper
galbanum	frankincense, storax	geranium, lavender (true)	cumin, tarragon
myrrh	frankincense	geranium, lavender (true)	benzoin, elemi
opopanax	frankincense, myrrh	neroli	coriander, lovage
storax	galbanum	jasmine, palmarosa, rose

Table 4.7 The Spicy Scent Group
Spicy Scent	Within the Spicy Group	Neighboring Groups Resinous Woody		Opposite-Group Citrus
allspice	clove (bud), coriander, ginger	opopanax	patchouli	orange
anise	coriander, cumin		oakmoss	mandarin, orange
bay	cardamom, hops	frankincense	cypress, juniper, pine	lemon, orange (sweet)
benzoin	cassia, petitgrain	frankincense, myrrh	birch, spruce	lemon
caraway	cinnamon, ginger	frankincense		orange (sweet)
cardamom	fennel, pepper	frankincense	cedarwood, patchouli	bergamot, mandarin

Table 4.7 The Spicy Scent Group (continued)
Spicy Scent	Within the Spicy Group	Neighboring Groups Resinous Woody		Opposite-Group Citrus
cassia	clove, coriander, ginger	frankincense		grapefruit
celery	coriander, lovage		oakmoss, pine	lemon
cinnamon (bark)	benzoin, coriander, elemi	frankincense	fir (balsam), spruce	mandarin, orange (sweet)
cinnamon (leaf)	caraway, clove, coriander	frankincense	cedarwood (Atlas), spruce	lemon, orange (sweet)
clove (bud)	allspice, bay, nutmeg		cajeput, patchouli	bergamot, mandarin
clove (leaf)	cinnamon (bark), nutmeg		cajeput, sandalwood	grapefruit, orange (sweet)
coriander	ginger, petitgrain	frankincense, opopanax	cypress, pine	bergamot

Table 4.7 The Spicy Scent Group (continued)
Spicy Scent	Within the Spicy Group	Neighboring Groups Resinous Woody		Opposite-Group Citrus
cumin	cardamom	galbanum
dill	caraway, elemi, nutmeg		spikenard	lemongrass, orange
elemi	nutmeg	frankincense, myrrh	juniper	lemon, lime, mandarin
fennel (bitter)	pepper	frankincense		lemon
fennel (sweet)	cardamom		sandalwood	lemon
galangal	allspice, myrtle	opopanax	patchouli, pine	lemon, lime, litsea
ginger	coriander	frankincense	sandalwood, vetiver	lemon, lime, orange
hops	bay, myrtle, nutmeg		pine	lemon balm, litsea
lovage	bay	galbanum, opopanax	oakmoss

Table 4.7 The Spicy Scent Group (continued)
Spicy Scent	Within the Spicy Group	Neighboring Groups Resinous Woody		Opposite-Group Citrus
myrtle	bay, clove, ginger		fir (balsam)	bergamot, lime
nutmeg	petitgrain, turmeric		oakmoss	lime, mandarin
pepper	coriander	frankincense	fir (balsam), juniper	grapefruit, lime
petitgrain	benzoin, clove	frankincense	valerian	bergamot, litsea
snakeroot	coriander		oakmoss, patchouli, pine	bergamot
star anise	coriander		cedarwood, pine	orange
tarragon	ginger	galbanum	fir, juniper, oakmoss, pine	lime
turmeric	clove, ginger	labdanum

Sample Blend

Using the opposite-group blending method, here’s a down-to-earth yet ethereal combination that I like to use for dreamwork. It contains cedarwood, jasmine, and ylang-ylang, which are members of the woody and floral scent groups. All three oils are associated with dreamwork and peace. In addition, cedarwood and jasmine are associated with spirits, and ylang-ylang with communicating with them.

Galadriel’s Dream

Cedarwood: 5 drops

Ylang-ylang: 4 drops

Jasmine: 1 drop

One system for classifying scents that I did not include at the beginning of this chapter was devised by G. W. Septimus Piesse and explained in his book The Art of Perfumery (1855). In it he equated fragrances with musical octaves, which may seem rather curious but is popular for blending essential oils. We will explore this method in the next chapter.

[contents]

14. Gilbert, What the Nose Knows, 18.

15. Groom, The New Perfume Handbook, 262.

16. Lawless, Illustrated Encyclopedia of Essential Oils, 44.