The garden of an imaginary herbalist/alchemist

A long time ago, there was little difference between medicines, skincare and perfumes, and one would purchase these multitasking products from the same apothecary establishment, often run by monks. These alchemists would grow the ingredients in their herb gardens (London’s Covent Garden and Spitalfields are actually toponymic references to this), and then add exotic elements brought by merchants from faraway lands. Gradually, these types of products went their separate ways.

However, we still have a particular perfume style (sometimes called aromatic) that refers to these times. Aromatic perfumes typically have sage, verbena, chamomile, wormwood, rosemary, lavender, geranium, bay, and more exotic and rare herbs in their formulas. Could they be descendants of some lost medicine recipes?

This selection includes scented adventure stories referring to antique herbal blends, but also formulas where perfumers have adapted the herbal aromas to work in modern perfume styles.