Perfume Notes: 112 posts

A Greek legend tells a story of the flower blooming from the blood of Hyacinthus, a youth accidentally killed by Apollo. Remembrance is the meaning tied to it. Unlike the more delicate lily of the valley, everything about hyacinth is bolder and more vivid–the masses of star shaped flowers on thick stems, the heft of blossoms, the headiness of perfume. This intoxicating sweet fragrance, almost oily in its magnificent richness, has been praised in the Persian poetry, mentioned in the Bible as Lily of the Valleys and loved by the Marquise de Pompadour. It inspired people to sell their possessions during the bulb craze of the seventeenth century and influenced perfumers to capture the enthralling fragrance which is rich, voluptuous, yet intriguingly spicy and green. Indeed, its unique qualities make hyacinth a fascinating note to explore.

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Spring came into my house with the bouquet of tulips, their crimson petals touched with the delicate scent of wet foliage and rain drenched earth. As I sat on the floor, caressing the satiny buds, the memories of past springs rushed forth, scattering like pearls from a broken necklace. Some were sweet, others were less so, and yet all of them were tinged with something ineffable that makes heart skip a beat.

The smell of acacia blossoms after the rain… wearing short sleeves for the first time in months… tasting first strawberries… the chestnut trees coming into bloom overnight, as if someone had orchestrated this breathtaking transformation by magic—these are the details that conjure the exuberance of spring for me.

For the past few years I have been living in places where spring is a mildly unpleasant transition between the dreary winter and the scorchingly hot summer. It has been a consolation that some fragrances have never failed to afford me a glimpse of the idyllic spring—blue skies with a few wispy clouds, tree branches dotted with sticky buds, rain drops on apple blossoms, and elation caused by the seemingly trivial things. Seasonality when it comes to perfume is an issue of few rules and many subjective viewpoints, but smelling the acacia trees jeweled with the delicate clusters of white blossoms makes me wish for a fragrance that captures the intoxicating scent marrying orange blossom, jasmine and a hint of coconut. If one cannot have an ideal spring, then one can search for that spring via perfume. …

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If the light pouring through stained glass windows, dancing in vibrant red and orange and flickering on the skin, had a scent, it would be the fragrance of damascones, aroma materials derived from the Bulgarian rose oil (rosa damascena). Encompassing rosy and fruity aspects, damascones have a vibrant and potent scent, marked by woody and tobacco like qualities, depending on the type. Some derivatives of damascones have very interesting nuances, from green apple, stewed plums and ripe figs to nuts and woods. First isolated between 1970 and 1980, damascones and damascenons produced a true breakthrough given their fascinating olfactory profile and intense fragrance.

Nahema by Guerlain (1979) was one of the first fragrances to incorporate damascones into its rose veiled structure. Damascones decorate the rose notes in the way that gold jewelry enhances the beauty of princesses from the Arabian Nights tales by which Nahema was inspired. …
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“Each rose that comes brings me greetings
from the Rose of an eternal spring,”
Rabindranth Tagore, Bengali poet

If jasmine is the King of flowers, rose is most certainly the Queen. Whether one prefers the smiling and effervescent roses, like Hermèssence Rose Ikebana, Les Parfums de Rosine Un Zest de Rose and Parfums 06130 Yuzu Rouge or the somber oriental and chypre like Serge Lutens Rose de Nuit, Montale Aoud Queen Roses and Frédéric Malle Une Rose, the diversity in the world of roses is both fascinating and astounding. Just as aromas of fresh roses can range from apricots to violet jam, the fragrances exploring roses can offer a great variety. Attempting to provide a full overview of roses in the modern perfumery is an impossible task, therefore I shall limit myself to offering a few favorite examples of the rose focused fragrances that demonstrate a particular character and style.

The classical aldehydic florals cannot be envisioned with a rose, glowing in their hearts like a precious jewel, its honeyed sweetness and vegetal richness supporting an opalescent veil of aldehydes. Chanel No.5 is the archetypal aldehydic floral, while Guerlain Liu is Jacques Guerlain’s answer to Ernest Beaux, whose other creation Chanel No.22 gathers a bouquet of white flowers, rose caught among lilacs, orange blossom and jasmine and anointed with myrrh. …

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For lending a sweet and powdery quality to fragrance, a central role in the perfumer’s palette is played by the ionones, a group of fragrance materials that range from violet sweetness to woody floral tonality. Prior to their discovery in 1893 by Tiemann and Krüger, the violet note was derived from Parma violet (Viola odorata L., fam. Violaceae). Violet is a flower replete with hidden meanings and legends. The ancient Greeks made it the official symbol of Athens, while Napoleon Bonaparte selected the violet as his “signature flower.” The popularity of violet scented fragrances was particularly high during the 19th century.

The discovery of the ionones led to the substitution of the violet toned synthetics for the extremely expensive violet flower oil. Viola odorata is still used, however for its leaves rather than flowers. Violet leaf lends a cut grass and sliced cucumber note to fragrances, quite different from the sweet and powdery scent of violet flowers. …

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