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Carrots and other vegetables in perfumery

Fruity notes are very present in perfumery. They are diverse and can be fresh, like pear or apple, green like blackcurrant bud and sweet like raspberry or mango.
Fruity notes are still popular but a new trend is emerging. There are more and more notes expressing nature and the countryside, particularly in natural perfumes. This focus on nature is very much in vogue and is right now being expressed through new players such as vegetables.

 

Carrot seed

The carrot is a member of the umbellifers, along with fennel, angelica and parsley. As the root does not give any extract, it is the seeds that are distilled.

Very surprising in the perfumer's palette, carrot, or more precisely carrot seed, is an essence obtained by steam distillation.

The carrot seed note is woody. It has a fresh, green overtone on a powdery, spicy, slightly earthy base.
It is a wonderful accompaniment to the other powdery notes such as violet, mimosa and is also close to the scent of the iris rhizome.

As iris root is very expensive, carrot seeds, fifty times cheaper than the precious iris rhizome, can help to sublimate its delicious powdery notes.

In the base notes, carrot essence becomes more caressing, with accents of dried apricots. Combined with blackcurrant buds, carrot seed can give the illusion of mango scent.

Carrot seed production in France is about 1000 tons per year. It is the second choice quality that will be chosen to give the carrot essence. There is an Indian quality that is not as good as the French one.

It is subject to quality differences due to the sorting of the seeds after the selection of fertile seeds. On the other hand, the rather unstable essential oil has other problems, which makes this raw material difficult to source.

Perfumes containing carrot seed

The great perfumer Edmond Roudnitska used a high percentage of carrot seed essence in Rose by Rochas in 1949.

Carrot seed is also used in the following perfumes:

  • Un Jardin sur le Nil by Hermès 
  • Aquaman by Rochas 
  • Dior Homme by Christian Dior
  • Santal de Mysore by Serge Lutens
  • Iris Silver Mist by Serge Lutens 
  • Santal Blush by Tom Ford
  • Volutes by Diptyque
  • Fleur de Carottes by L’Artisan Parfumeur
  • Hiris by Hermès
  • La pluie by Miller Harris
  • I Love Carottes by Honoré des Prés

 

 

Tomato leaf

Everyone remembers the first claims of tomato leaves in a perfume. It makes you think of a vegetable, when in fact the tomato is a fruit. 

In perfumery, tomato leaf is a perfumer's composition, a chord that is close to leafy scents, but built around a green, bright, crisp and fresh note. 

The tomato leaf was first announced in L'Eau de Campagne by Sisley in 1976.
It was then present in Passion by Annick Goutal in 1983, in Les Belles by Nina Ricci in 1996, Splash Basil by Marc Jacobs in 2008, in Ninféo Mio by Diptyque in 2010, Corsica Furiosa by Parfum d'Empire in 2014.
It reminds me a little of the blackcurrant bud leaf claimed in Diptyque's L'Ombre dans l'Eau and in their Baies candle. 

Natural green notes, lentisk, violet leaf, angelica or synthetics like cis 3 hexenol and triplal, combined with blackcurrant bud can give that natural tomato leaf or blackcurrant leaf effect.

 

Surprising newcomers

The fragrance and raw material creation company Symrise recently surprised us with the launch of new vegetable notes. A daring alternative to enrich the perfumers' palette.

Symrise in association with Diana Food, acquired by Symrise, developed a new and rather complex upcycling technology, the SymTrap™, that made it possible to offer bold natural ingredients through vegetable waste.

Here are 5 new vegetables combinations created by perfumers:

  • The artichoke (Articoeur) became royal when it became the passion of Louis XIV.
  • The asparagus (Lilystem) with its nutty taste, appreciated by all gastronomes from antiquity to the present day.
  • The leek (Atlantide) originates from the Middle East and is the emblem of Wales. Used to ward off evil spirits.
  • Cauliflower (Hot Chouchou) is slightly animal.
  • Onion (Wool Peel) is slightly sweet.

Here is a summary of the effects of these vegetables in a fragrance published by Symrise: Artichoke is soft, velvety, creamy. The asparagus offers salty and nutty-cereal facets at the same time. The leek alone combines nuances of iodine and mushroom. Spicy and powdery, cauliflower can be used in perfumery for new animal facets, 100% vegan. As for the onion, it brings sulphurous, fusing, tropical notes. 

 

Conclusion

Vegetable notes are apparently very interesting, technically speaking, they will certainly enrich the perfumer's palette and offer even more creativity in the future.

However, some questions to be asked:

  • Will these new compositions create a revolution in perfumery as was the case with the discovery of synthetic materials at the beginning of the 20th century?
  • Are we witnessing a turning point in perfumery towards a so-called green perfumery?
  • Will these notes be accepted as selling points by consumers?

 

Sylvaine Delacourte fragrances

Discover Sylvaine Delacourte's brand with her Orange Blossom, Musk and Vanilla Collections. You can try them thanks to the Discovery Boxes (5 Eaux de Parfum x 2 ml) and rediscover these raw materials as you have never smelled them before.