Aromatic Crystals

Excerpted from the book: "Secrets of Aromatic Jewelry"
by Annette Green and Linda Dyett

Despite scientists' insistence on their inefficacy, gemstones and quartz crystals returned to favor in the 1980s as a means to treat illness and improve mood. The allure gems hold for aficionados has largely to do with their origin. "All gems, with the exception of coral and pearls," notes the Tantric scholar Harish Johan, "are the purest and finest consolidation of minerals that were formed due to extreme heat and pressure inside ... the molten Earth." Therefore, he concludes, gemstones are 'energy in crystalline form.' Typically, crystals that are transparent or nearly so are laid on the chakras, Sanskrit for energy centers located on or aligned with the spine. The effect is said to be healing, helping to improve any faltering vibrational patterns in the body.

Devotees have allied quartz crystals with fragrance in a unique new species of aromatic jewelry that they regard as synergistic. The concept is simple: a minuscule fragrance well is drilled into a crystal, and a few drops of fragrance are inserted with a pipette. The preferred fragrances tend to be alcohol-free perfumes or essential oil— such as rosemary to purify, lavender to calm. Sometimes particular gemstones are matched with particular scents-lavender and amethyst, both violet in color, are said to have a strong calming effect. Since the drilled well is not stoppered, the scent is free to diffuse. Even after slow evaporation, the scent, as is always the case with aromatic jewelry, lingers on the walls of the container. And when the crystal is worn as jewelry, which is its intended use, the fragrancing process is speeded up by the wearer's body warmth. Moreover, the transparency or translucency of the crystal allows the fragrance itself to contribute its color to the jewel.

The first crystals designed with fragrance wells were developed in the late 1980's in a northern California cottage-industry venture by a Brazilian artist, Kendra Grace, and her American geologist husband, Brian Cook, who devised a method for drilling the wells without marring the stone. With holes also drilled for stringing on a cord, these crystals, known as Aromajewels, avoid metal mounts. Indeed, except for the faceting, they are about as basic and undecorated as jewelry can be. They present as pure, unadulterated charms—amethyst, rock crystal, citrine, tourmaline, aquamarine—which fulfill the age-old intention of protecting the wearer by suffusing her surroundings with scent. Perhaps more then any other species of contemporary aromatic jewelry, these crystals can lay claim to being called amulets. Limited quantities of Aromajewels, now made into earrings as well as pendants, are sold at jewelry and alternative health fairs around the country as well as by mail order.