Silent flowers

It is the despair of perfumers that some flowers, although very fragrant, such as lilies, do not give off their soul.
It is impossible to have a natural scent of lilac, lily of the valley, carnation, buddleia, gardenia, honeysuckle, pittosporum, seringa, sweet pea, violet, wisteria, heliotrope or hyacinth.

Whatever the extraction process, steam distillation or extraction by volatile solvents, nothing works.
A perfumer has to reconstitute the smell of these flowers, we call that a reconstitution and everyone has his own way of perceiving and restoring it.
A reconstitution is a mini-perfume made up of about ten components, both synthetic and natural.

Without this work, it would not have been possible to obtain a perfume like Diorissimo by Dior in 1956.

 

Lily of the valley

Here is an idea of a typical scheme for a Lily of the Valley reconstruction:

1. Start with a few components of the rose of your choice:

•     phenylethyl alcohol (green leaf side of the rose)
•     rose oil (richness of the rose)
•     hydroxycitronellal (lily of the valley green side of the rose)
•     rhodinol (geranium and mint side of the rose)
•     citronellol (fresh and lemongrass side of the rose)
•     linalool (fresh side of the rose)
•      lilial, a green note

2. Indol, an animal note found naturally in white flowers
3. Heliotropin, a powdery note
4. Ylang-ylang essence
5. If you want it to be greener, more vegetal, add triplal or violet leaves

This is an example, nothing is set in stone, and anyone can achieve a result quite close to the smell of lily of the valley with other components.

In addition to this reconstitution, the talent of the perfumer plays an important role. In the case of Diorissimo, it was Edmond Roudnitska who gave this lily of the valley accord its own history and unique signature.

At Guerlain, they also had lilies of the valley. The first was created by Jacques Guerlain in 1908 and revisited by Jean-Paul Guerlain in 1998.
It has been reissued at the House of Guerlain since 2005, for a single day, May 1st, with the same fragrance but in a different bottle each time.
In Aqua Allegoria, Lilia Bella (now discontinued), had the same scent. The oldest lily of the valley would be Floris in 1847.

 

 

Carnation

There is a natural product, Egyptian carnation absolute, which is not used much because it does not smell like the spicy carnation we all know.
In the past, it was used because it smelled good, although perfumers consider it to be a bit "outdated", perhaps they will rediscover it one day.
Not to be confused with the marigold called tagetes, which is also natural but does not smell like marigolds either.

This carnation note can be found in Origan by Coty, L'Air du Temps by Nina Ricci, Opium by YSL, Bellodgia by Caron, Tabu by Dana, L'oeillet by Prada.
At Guerlain you will discover it in Après L'Ondée, L'Heure Bleue, Quand vient l'Eté and Metallica.

To create a carnation, you need to combine a rose note or a real rose, clove or eugenol note, vanillin, heliotropin, a jasmine effect and balms.
Then, all shades are possible, greener, honeyed or orange.

 

Tuberose

Tuberose exists naturally but at a very high price. In the past, it was processed by enfleurage, but this is no longer possible, except by special order.
It is now obtained by extraction with volatile solvents. Tuberose is native to India and has a narcotic smell, a little medicinal at the beginning, but after a few seconds it offers a phenomenal scent between honeyed nectar, exotic, poisonous, candied, ggourmand and erotic. It really does have a unique scent.

Some brands can't afford natural tuberose because it costs about €5000 per kg of absolute.
So you can always resort to reconstitution, which will always be a little different from the natural flower smell, whatever the flower.
It is a mixture of different notes: natural jasmine or a composition of jasmine, ylang-ylang, indol, coconut, orange note (like methyl anthranytlate), heliotropine, mimosa, and other trace elements.

We should not forget the Tubéreuse Criminelle by Serge Lutens in 1999 and Tubéreuse by Caron.
Would the oldest be the one from Santa Novella in 1939? No, there was also one by Floris in 1870.
You also have more floral bouquet: Fracas by Piguet in 1948, Chloé in 1975, Poison by Dior, Jardins de Bagatelle by Guerlain and Mahora (now called Mayotte by Guerlain).

 

Other examples: sweet pea and violet

Sweet pea, a mixture of spicy honeyed notes, salicylates, lily of the valley type notes (lilial), aldehyde, cyclamen, with many green notes such as styralyl acetate or pipole acetate.
The reseda was a reconstruction as well as the pink bouvardia.

For violet, we have synthetic molecules called ionones.
In this particular case, it is not a reconstitution because the molecule itself already smells a lot like violet.
On the other hand, in nature, we have the essence of violet leaf which does not smell like a violet, but has a very singular green smell.

Synthesis has given us molecules that have enriched the perfumer's palette, allowing to recompose flower scents that cannot be found in their natural state.

 

Sylvaine Delacourte perfumes

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.