Perfume Notes: 112 posts

20 Must Try Osmanthus Perfumes (Ukranian)

I love osmanthus so much that I planted two shrubs in pots and placed them in front of my apartment building, hoping their honeyed scent might brighten the autumn days for anyone passing by. Someone else must have loved them too, because one morning I discovered that one of the plants had been stolen. I carried the remaining shrub up to my balcony, where it now perfumes only my private space. The pleasure is no less intense—each evening when I step outside, the air is saturated with the fragrance of apricot, honey, and soft leather.

Known in Chinese as 桂花 (guìhuā) and in Japanese as 金木犀 (kinmokusei), osmanthus is native to China and has long been cherished for its intoxicating aroma. Its scent is a paradox: honeyed and luminous, yet with a leathery undertone that lends it mystery and depth. In perfumery, osmanthus is one of the most captivating raw materials, versatile enough to form the backbone of a composition or to lend a delicate accent of fruit and warmth.

“Twenty perfumes you must smell” is, of course, a debatable list. I’m sure others would select different favorites. What follows is simply my own choice: fragrances that, in my view, reveal osmanthus in all of its guises, from floral to fruity, radiant to shadowed. Not all of these perfumes use natural osmanthus absolute—an extraordinarily costly material—but the best blends capture its character through accords of ionones, damascones, theaspirane, and lactones, recreating the apricot-violet-leather bouquet of this prized blossom.

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If I had to pick only one perfume to wear throughout winter, it would be neither a smoky incense nor a warm amber. I could even survive the cold days without sumptuous white florals or dark spices. I couldn’t, however, go through winter without a citrus cologne. More precisely, my ideal winter fragrance is based around the zesty, bright note of mandarin. In preparation for my Citrus and Cologne classes, I decided to offer my perfect citrus selection.

The reason I pick citrus for these months is that it feels uplifting and bright on days when nothing else does. In addition mandarin is unique because it’s the only citrus essence with a pronounced floral facet. Mandarin shares aromatic compounds with orange blossoms, tuberose and Concord grapes, which is why even the simplest mandarin compositions have an unusual complexity.

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Oud is a paradox. The exquisite aroma that set the imagination of Japanese poets and Sufi mystics aflame develops as a result of a disease. When healthy, the wood of Aquilaria tree species is odorless, but once a certain type of mold affects them, they release an aromatic essence to protect their tissues from decomposition. It’s a slow process, during which blond wood turns dark and hard as a stone and develops a fragrance of uncommon complexity. It has the notes of sweet tobacco, incense, leather, and smoked spices, with a lingering undercurrent of bitter honey and crushed mint. While it’s known by many names, including aloeswood, agarwood, gaharu, or jinko, its other name, dark gold, will be instantly recognizable to oud lovers.

Although an ingredient with centuries old history in the Eastern world, it’s a relative newcomer to European perfumery. One of the first fragrances to use this note was Yves Saint Laurent’s M7, created under the direction of Tom Ford in 2002. The composition—its dramatic effect enhanced by a controversial nude male ad–had a cool, herbal top note that fell straight into the tobacco and animalic warmth of oud. It was relaunched a few years ago as M7 Oud Absolu, softer and lighter, but with the original’s vivid character.

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The first time I smelled iris absolute, I stood for a few minutes with a paper blotter under my nose before I regained my senses. In one instant, I saw frozen petals and snow covered trees, and while the image of a winter garden that the essence conjured was vivid, I couldn’t easily describe the fragrance of the material in front of me. It smelled like nothing I had encountered before, and pinning down its radiant but surprisingly potent scent proved difficult.

When perfumers talk about the materials in their palettes, they distinguish between those that provide character and those that give effects. Vanilla, for instance, bestows a touch of sweetness onto anything that brushes past it, be it fruit or leather, while patchouli has so many facets that it will change the whole impression of a composition, to the point of drowning out other more subtle notes. In the same vein, even a small dose of iris can change a perfume and lend it polish and elegance.

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You have to be a sleuth to learn about perfumery. As I already mentioned several times on this blog, there is not one definitive textbook or publication that covers all of the fundamentals but if you’re prepared to search, you can find a wealth of sources. This applies particularly well to the study of perfumery raw materials. Soon enough you find yourself curious about more details than an average fragrance description provides. While articles like the kind I have published in Perfume Notes are helpful, it’s also useful to have a database reference on hand where you can look up the materials you know or scroll through the lists to discover something new. Where does the material come from? How is harvested? How is it processed?

The online raw material catalogs provided by fragrance and flavor suppliers are a great source. They’re typically compiled for potential customers, so they explain the origin of a material, its olfactory characteristics, processing and main components. They might also list regulatory stipulations and other useful details for those who work with these materials. These databases are constantly updated, so I recommend bookmarking them. For your convenience, I have compiled the databases I use the most for my work. I hope that you will find these useful.

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