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Honey notes in perfumery

“Nothing resembles a soul like a bee; it goes from flower to flower like a soul, from star to star, and it brings back the honey as the soul brings back the light.” Victor Hugo Quatrevingt-Treize.

Bee, a great alchemist of nature, is the emblem of Guerlain. It crosses the destiny of the house of Guerlain, undeniable alchemist of beauty. It can be adorned by skilled hands with gold leaf in a myriad of bees exactly 69 which seem to correspond to the 69 provinces, which existed in France at the time (it was then called "abeille dorée" or "white bee"), like so many seals of the imperial emblem, and this regardless of the size of the bottle: it will be the first custom-made perfume of Empress Eugenie.

At Guerlain, the lexical field of flowers, fruits, gardens and even bee products is immense: Senteurs des champs, Le jardin de mon curé, Esprit de fleurs, Double extrait de mille fleurs, Bouquet de l’impératrice, Bouquet du comte d’Orsay, Pâte d’amande au miel, Crème à la fraise pour le teint, Rose du moulin, Guerlilas, Guerlarose, Poudre aux fleurs, Jasmiralda, etc.

 

 

For almost 160 years now, this little bee has been buzzing around our house, from creation to creation. The Aqua Allegoria range, created in 1999, is designed to be a true hymn to nature. The fragrances are directly inspired by the bee's concept: to draw from nature, with respect, the most beautiful things it has to offer, in order to magnify it.

Each year, in spring, Guerlain creates a garden of scents, between allegory and joy, and thus celebrates nature, a place of emotions where we gather.

Since its creation, our catalogue has seen more than 25 creations, 3 of which have really stood out: Mandarin Basil, Herba Fresca and Pamplelune. The bottle is embellished with the symbol of the beehive, and a bee has been delicately placed on the cap.

The bee and honey have of course inspired the new cosmetic line: Royal Bee. With its main ingredient being honey and its flowery but rather honeyed fragrance.

 

Perfumes and their honey accents

Honey and honey-like notes are quite present in Guerlain fragrances: Rose Barbare, Mon Précieux Nectar, l'Abeille, Flora Nymphéa in Aqua Allégoria (discontinued), Chant d'arômes, Après l'Ondée and l'Heure Bleue.

The honey note is interesting, because it brings roundness, for some it can be regressive. It is nourishing, sunny, mellow, brings a lot of tenacity and naturalness, it has multiple facets: herbal, hay, tobacco, gourmand, fruity, leather, etc.

I liked to work on it in l'Instant pour Femme, with the idea of a citrus honey. The idea of this perfume was to make a "Guerlinade" sunny with honeyed mandarin, jasmine, magnolia, sunny notes and in the background benzoin and sandalwood.

Perfumers can add honey notes to perfumes using for example beeswax absolute, which smells like honeyed wax, herbaceous, tobacco and hay, aniseed, spicy, fruity, animalic, leather, all depending on the combinations and the honeyed ingredients.

 

Here are some honey notes with their descriptions

  • Robertet Honey.
  • Beeswax Absolute: quite buttery, very honey-like, broom-like.
  • Miel Blanc: symrise.
  • Genet Absolu Calabria: wax, cassia, butyric, quite dark, yeast note.
  • Tabac Turc Absolut: honey, animal, leather.
  • Miel Blanc (wax base): honeyed odour, encaustic.
  • Absolute hay LMR/IFF.
  • Miel de Provence (Firmenich base): tobacco, aniseed, honey, curry, immortelle, coumarin, hay.
  • Phenyl acetic acid: honeyed, fruity, dirty, a little blackcurrant.
  • Phenyl acetic aldehyde: very vegetable, wet, cold, pinkish, honeyed.
  • Phenyl acetate and phenyl ethyl acetate.
  • Cinnamic alcohol of symrise.
  • Nectarol: rather particular note, a little "anti-moth".
  • Phenylacetate isobutyl: pear, hedione, rose.
  • Hydratropic Aldehyde: not very powerful, reminiscent of a cereal bar, apricot.
  • Acetophenone: white glue note, a bit medicinal.

Some flowers such as honeysuckle or seringa, cassia, mimosa, broom, immortelle, privet, pittosporum, also have honey facets.

Honey brings a warm, sweet and animalic touch to floral, oriental or chypre accords, as in Gentleman by Givenchy, Poison by Dior, Rose Barbare by Guerlain, Féminité du Bois by Serge Lutens, Rose Ikebana by Hermès, Rahat Loukoum by Serge Lutens, Ambre Narguilé by Hermès, Fumerie Turque by Serge Lutens, Miel de Bois by Serge Lutens, Gucci by Gucci.

 

Honey notes in Sylvaine Delacourte perfumes

You can find the honey notes in Vanori from the Vanilla Collection and in Osiris from the Orange Blossom Collection by Sylvaine Delacourte.

You can try them thanks to the Discovery Boxes (5 Eaux de Parfum x 2 ml) and rediscover this raw material as you have never smelled it before.