This blend is inspired by a yoga class I took today from the ray of light that is Danni Pomplun. I had not taken a class with him before, but thanks to YogaWorks live online classes I can take a class pretty much anytime of the day. I actually reconnected with a long lost friend through it. Because Danni was/is such a ray of light, I first felt like making a blend with Sweet Orange or another citrus. But throughout the class he talked about making it “juicy” and when I think of juicy I think of Davana (Artemisia pallens). YUM. Davana reminds me of a fresh-from-the-farm red grapes (I had fresh grapes for the first time last fall and they were incredible. What we get in grocery stores are like B&W Xerox copies of the real thing.) I didn’t know anything about Danni when I started making this blend, but when I researched him a bit, I realized that Davana perfectly captures his extraordinary spirit. Davana is considered to be “a diamond in the aromatherapy world.” For this blend, I really didn’t do too much thinking… I started with the 5-4-3 formula (top, middle, base drops). Davana is a middle note, but since it is sweet, I decided to treat is as my top note (5 notes). I decided to pair it with something herbaceous, and landed on Sweet Marjoram (Origanum majorana). (I sniffed around and Basil (Ocimum basilicum) was just too strong.) SM is also a middle note, but instead of 4 drops I chose 3 so as not to compete too much with Davana. SM helps to fortify the spirit - its name means “joy of the mountains” - I love that. As a base I went with Myrrh (Commiphora myrrha), considered an ancient healer (like yoga itself). All three together made something quite exceptional.
