When vanilla is grown in cultivation the deep trumpet-shaped flowers have to be hand-pollinated - except in Mexico where the native humming birds do most of the work.

A resinoid (often called an oleoresin) by solvent extraction from the 'cured' vanilla beans. An absolute is occasionally produced by further extration from the resinoid. The resinoid is a viscous dark brown liquid with a rich, sweet, balsamic, vanill-like odour.

A perennial herbaceous climning vine up to 25m (82 ft) high, with green stems and large white flowers that have a deep narrow trumpet. the green capsules or frits are ready to pick after eight or nine months on the plant, and then have to be 'cured'. The immature vaniil 'pod' or 'bean', which is from 14-22cm long, has to be fermented and dried to turn it into the fragrance brown vanilla pods of commerce - a process that can take up to six monnths to complete. During the drying process vanillin can accumulate as white crystals on the surface of the bean. It takes as much as 100 pounds of pods to produce a pound of resinoid oil, making it a very expensive natural oil. Because of this, we find that our Dark Vanilla fragrance is just as good and affordable to everyone!

Gender: feminine

Planet: Venus

Element: Water

Dark Vanilla