Libby Patterson LBO Organics

Profile: I grew up in northeastern Ohio. When I was very young my father built a home on a lake. I love water, and grew up at the pool at the country club, and on the lake in my back yard. We summered on a larger lake in Michigan that always had beautiful water lilies blooming. I walked every day in the woods, and valleys, exploring the wildlfowers. I was very interested in how to plant my first herb gardens by an early age and was influenced by watching my mother and father’s gardens. It never occurred to me that one day I would become a perfumer but I was drawn to the herbs, and their folklore histories, the flowers, and all nature’s intelligence.

Herbs, Flowers and  Love Potions at Libby Patterson's Studio

In 1975 I began studying the Egyptian pyramids, and found information there, in the meditative state that sparked my interest to study more in depth, about perfume. Then in 1978 I met the people from Findhorn and went to a lecture about Rudolph Steiner, found Jeanne Rose’s Herbal and it was at the time THE only modern book out on the subject. By then I had begun experimenting. It would be in the mid eighties I took a class with Avraham Sand, who suggested we keep notes on our patient results with the essences. I was doing quite a bit of massage and healing work then. Thought it was a great idea, and also started to treat friends, and develop a client roster, for simple perfumes, mostly love potions, attractants. Meanwhile I had a fashion career going, and eventually I decided beauty was really about what is penetrating us, under our skin, in the form of essences, flowers, and smells, through the cellular, inhalation and in the etheric body.

Photo: Swanton Landscape

In 1992 I moved from the east coast to Taos, New Mexico. My long career in fashion drew me there, and I stayed to start Angelic Aromas. With thirteen products, featuring all the chakras: root, sex, solar, heart, throat, third eye and crown, plus angel glow, mermaid’s relief, and a couple others, I launched, and within several months of success  I was found within the top 500 stores in the country, and discovered by Hollywood insiders. The company grew fast, and within a couple years I had to move first to Santa Fe, then San Francisco Bay Area to manage the day to day business distribution, which became key to being on the west coast where 90% of my clients were.

After my 10 year retrospective of the library of Angelic Aromas 500 formulations, in 2003 I finally started in a new way. Not from a price perspective, costing, but from a luxury perspective, allowing myself to create, using the most expensive ingredients, and making composed perfumes. Structurally everything changed for me, after that moment, and all the reins, leashes came off and now there was a deeper fuller opulence to everything. It felt right to me and my clients.

Libby uses only 100 percent organic and botanical ingredients

In 2005 I started to spend more time with clients in LA. By springtime in 2011, I was spending most of my time there, working on my "gratitude perfume project" educating people about the importance of organics, over synthetics, one for the health benefits, and two because it makes sense for preserving the heritage of our native aromatics.

Sunflower by Libby Patterson

 I have been lucky to be granted access to many properties, all along the coast, and inland on large tracts of land, ranches, and land trusts to collect and harvest sustainably for my raw wild perfumes. I created additions to my product line that would give the international client access to the simple soliflore work, built around simple plants all people recognize, and also scent memories from the meadow, forest and ocean. I am always adding to my collection from the SLOWCOAST REGION highlighting local and native plant species.

LPO Organics Tea Collection

My new moon and full moon brunches have been successful in  launching my tea collections, that I serve for people twice a month in my ocean side perfume studio. Come visit.

Libby Patterson of LPO Organics on the Beach

On American Perfumery: I am able to use all my skill sets in art, fashion, botany, and business as an indie American and NATURAL perfumer. Each day I am able to contribute to people’s happiness by creating by hand, a scent memory, and the scent journey that is completely transformational even if just a simple lavender soliflore, or a rose medley flower water. The sky’s the limit for creativity, and I am a prolific designer and always composing.

White Flower on Red Earth by Georgia O'Keefe 1943

Favorite American Artist:   Without a doubt Georgia O’Keefe because of her intimate portraiture of flowers.  I love and live by her quote: “When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower.” Upon reflection I became the flower, and I capture that blossom of or spark of love inside of all of us in a perfume. I create time in bottle and aromatic aphrodisiacs, which still to this day is what I am known for and  what many of my clients want in a perfume.

–Libby Patterson, Founder and Master Perfumer for LPO: LIBBYPATTERSON ORGANICS

Thanks to Libby Patterson of LPO Organics there is a reader's choice for the US only of The Soliflore Set which includes four 10 ml rollerball perfume oils (Coastal Woods, Lavender Woods, Lemon Verbena and Rose Geranium), OR From the Aphrodisiac Collection  5ml ($150) PURRRR  (the "I'll have what she is having" of the collection) OR From the Landscape Collection  30 ml Taos Heart Opener  (a nod to artist Georgia O’Keefe who first took a trip there in 1929) OR  from the THE GRATITUDE PERFUME PROJECT: created on the SLOWCOAST Libby Patterson’s  2014 Young Buck (valued at $210). If you would  prefer a sampler of the  LPO ORGANICS Soliflore Set, Purrrr, Taos Heart Opener and Young Buck, Libby will accomodate that as well.

Editor's Note: Libby Patterson was one of the olfactory artists at FRAGments which was held on June 14th in Los Angeles.  Her work was not familiar to Managing Editor Tama Blough who wrote a wonderful review of White Tara Love Goddess.  Libby's website is an amazing journey in olfaction check it out here, All photos are by Libby Patterson and cannot be used for reproduction without her permission

To be eligible, leave a detailed comment with what you find fascinating about  Libby Patterson and your choice of the luxury organic fragrance you would like to win. This is a USA only Draw closes August 13, 2014

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