We’re looking forward to introducing you to michael orkin. Check out our conversation below.
michael, we’re thrilled to have you with us today. Before we jump into your intro and the heart of the interview, let’s start with a bit of an ice breaker: When was the last time you felt true joy?
True joy I experienced yesterday! To my surprise, after having done a lap in the pool I sat at the pool’s edge, in the sun, with my feet dangling in the cold water and a feeling happened upon me, so familiar, so wonderful, I would call it true joy. It was a refreshing feeling, being wet and in the sun. Simultaneously, feeling a little bit cold and a little bit hot. The sensation was reviving.The smallest of things can easily escape our attention- much like a highly volatile compound from an aromatic plant… so valuable in its feeling and so easily lost. If I wasn’t ready to enjoy and savor the moment it may escaped me and gone unnoticed.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
What stands out from our raw materials is our distillation design and the effectiveness of whatever product it finds itself, the final product will be enhanced at a giant level up. The care and knowledge we bring to the process is evident to any nose, our floral waters, aka hydrosols are not like everyone else’s. These are superior, highly saturated botanical distillates with prized aromatic nutrients that have the intensity of essential oils.
My brand, Michael David Aromatics is imbued with a history colored with lineages and experiences of artistry, technology, extraction, that also includes builders musicians and dancers, these qualities are stored in my creative DNA, aesthetics that built beauty from beauty and beauty from the simplicity.
My love affair with plants began early. In my youth, I knew through experience how smelling a lime blossom brought me the feeling of wonder and contentment. This is not extraordinary. What is extraordinary is that collectively we ask science to prove that a lime blossom can and does have that effect.
Currently, my business and brand is being retooled to match what I see as a need in the clean and green beauty marketplace. There’s an abundance of makers and boutique beauty brands out there whose end-use products, and clients, will benefit tremendously from my work.
At this time Michael David Aromatics offers a handful of special limited run items that I craft. More importantly,
Im working on a unique floral water collection that I’m selling on-line at michaeldavidaromatics.com to fuel products for other makers and larger brands.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. Who taught you the most about work?
Jack Chaitman, the pioneering designer of this distillation apparatus, has by far, taught me most about work. He has worked very hard and very long, and ran circles around me even at a younger age, Jack being 12 years my senior. I’ve never seen anyone possess this quality, since or before. I think he’s accustom to working so hard for so long that delirium would regularly send him into fits of creative genius that allowed him to pioneer these distillation designs. He continues to work, digging and finding, seeking and achieving. There’s a wildness in him, and sometimes I wonder what ultimately drives him. I’m not sure why he was blessed with such a colossal amount of ‘outside the box’ thinking but perhaps it was always his identity. I have never seen a man, such as he is, turn ideas on their head to find a common sense and tremendous outcome.
What fear has held you back the most in your life?
The fear that has held me back the most in my life is my fear of getting it wrong, fear of failing, fear of disappointing, my fear of not being good enough. Have I listed enough? In summation… rejection. What I realize in the frozen-ness of fear is that action and creation are impossible. And in that impossibility, I am not truly alive. In time, I recognize that I’m a part of something much larger, and somehow getting it wrong is entirely insignificant. I soon remember that plants have no means of protecting themselves by way of movement, they cannot run from predators, inclement weather, viruses.They muster the genius of their internal lab that produces all manner of chemistry that supports them in the face of life threatening obstacles. Sometimes I want to shake myself, remembering that getting it wrong and being afraid to express myself is not a good enough reason not to risk living what I want.
Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
The people closest to me would say that quality and integrity matters to me. That when I follow something to its end, beauty and aesthetics are meaningful to me.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. When do you feel most at peace?
I feel most of peace when I’m moving my body. And when sensation floods my awareness. Suddenly I drop in and everything seems at peace and tolerable. All the unanswered questions are being answered right now, in the moment through movement. Perhaps it’s more a moving meditation or something equivalent, but invariably the resistance, the forces of gravity on my body come to meet awareness, and that somehow equals peace.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://michaeldavidaromatics.com
- Instagram: @mdbotanicaldistiller
