A rose garden, a biochemist's curiosity, and the chemistry hiding in plain scent.
My grandmother had roses in her garden, and as a young child my mother and grandmother encouraged me to stop and smell the roses. Each blossom had its own unique beauty and fragrance, and I can still remember leaning in to discover how different one rose smelled from the next.
Last month, I found myself doing exactly the same thing.
While walking past my neighbor's rose garden, I stopped to admire the many varieties in bloom. As I enjoyed their fragrance, something unexpected happened: my biochemist light bulb switched on. Instead of simply smelling roses, I began recognizing familiar aromas from individual terpenes.
I became so excited that I hurried back to my house, grabbed several bottles of pure terpenes from my lab, and returned to the garden. There I stood, comparing the aroma of individual terpenes with the fragrance of different roses, confirming what I thought I was detecting.
"It was one of those moments that reminds me why I love botanical chemistry."
That experience also reminded me that many of the ingredients that make Resonant Botanicals' products so distinctive are the very same compounds nature uses to create the fragrances we enjoy every day. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to introduce one of the most fascinating groups of compounds we use in our formulations: terpenes.
In our pain-relieving products - Royal, Royal Gold, Neuro-Soothe, and Painless Sport - we intentionally incorporate several important terpenes, including beta-caryophyllene, linalool, myrcene, para-cymene, and others.
Two of my favorites are geraniol and eugenol. As I discovered in my neighbor's garden, these two terpenes can also contribute to the characteristic fragrance of roses.
Why use terpenes and essential oils together?
Essential oils are remarkably complex. Lavender essential oil, for example, contains a broad mixture of naturally occurring compounds. Linalool - a terpene that contributes much of lavender's familiar aroma - is only one constituent within that larger chemical profile.
By beginning with carefully selected terpenes and then building around them with complementary essential oils, we're able to create formulations with compelling botanical aromas while intentionally selecting ingredients for the properties we want in the finished product.
Terpenes make up only a small percentage of our overall formulations, but they can play an outsized role in both fragrance and function.
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Nature has spent millions of years perfecting this remarkable chemistry. The next time you walk through a rose garden, take a moment to appreciate not only the beauty of the blossoms, but also the fascinating terpenes that give each flower its own distinctive fragrance.
At Resonant Botanicals, we have a slightly different take on an old saying: don't just stop and smell the roses... stop and smell the terpenes that make up the roses.
Your body - and your nose - will thank you.