One would think that flowers would have been one of the first ingredients that would be used to make perfume but in fact, flowers weren’t used for that purpose until the 9th century. Before that, perfumers as far back as four thousand years ago used herbs, spices, resins and bark. Extracting the oils from flowers by distillation was first introduced by a Persian chemist named Avicenna and his procedure is still in wide use today. Until Avicenna’s discovery, it was a laborious process to use flowers in perfume, requiring hours of effort to pulverize the petals finely enough to extract some of the oils. Years later, the Hungarians would be the first to make modern perfume from flower oils blended in a solution of alcohol.

Most flowers are fragrant but some are exceptional enough to be used in perfumes. The best known and one of the most popular throughout perfume history is the rose, generally known as the queen of flowers. Perfumes made of roses were favorites in Greece and Rome. By gathering the flowers at night they would be at their best since they begin losing their scent after sunrise. Cristalle by Chanel uses roses as the chief ingredient along with aldehydes to enhance the bouquet, amber and patchouli.

CRISTALLE BY CHANEL(WOMEN)

Price : $103.19

Jasmine is another flower used in perfumes, also harvested just before dawn. Processed immediately before their fragrance fades, special care must be taken to keep the fragile petals from bruising and affecting the balance of the bouquet. Special baskets for just this purpose are kept for transporting them. Jasmine is used with vanilla and bergamot by Guerlain in the manufacture of Shalimar Light perfume, a refreshing feminine fragrance that is airy, pleasant and light.

SHALIMAR BY GUERLAIN (PURE PERFUME SPRAY REFILLABLE 1/4 OZ)

Price : $88.85

Violets are also favorites but produce so little essential oil that they’re rarely used these days. Instead a synthetic replacement is used, usually combined with oils that resemble that of the violet.

Flower of fruit are also used in many perfumes. Those who know the heavenly scent of orange and lemon blossoms will understand why they are a popular ingredient in many floral perfumes. Jasmine, mimosa and lily blossoms as well as lily of the valley are also quite common in perfumes. Unopened flower buds of clove add spice to perfume concoctions and a member or the orchid family, vanilla, also is a favorite ingredient.

A few terms may come in handy for understanding floral perfume descriptions. When you hear a perfume referred to as a “single floral” it means that the fragrance is dominated by one particular flower such as rose or lily. “Floral Bouquet” means it contains the scent of several flowers and “bright floral” is a combination of the two.

Tim Walt

We’ve all tasted vanilla in various foods and frozen treats and appreciated its remarkable flavor. Perfumers have long known that the scent of vanilla is even more inspiring in perfume than it is in food and have used it for hundreds of years to impart a warm, velvety fragrance to everything from incense to perfumes for royalty. These days, nearly everyone can enjoy a fragrance of sensuous vanilla weaving its way through the other notes of a fine perfume. 

KENZO FLOWER BY KENZO (EAU DE TOILETTE SPRAY 3.4 OZ)
Price : $39.24

Vanilla, however, is very costly to grow and manufacture, requiring intense labor from nurturing the plant through pollination and harvest. Vanilla planifolia, a member of the orchid family, is a vine that can climb up to three hundred feet high and often is grown in the shade of larger trees due to its sensitivity to the rays of the sun. The beautiful blossoms of the orchid must be pollinated in order to produce the pods from which the oil for perfumes is extracted by distillation. Insects and hummingbirds are not considered reliable enough so workers begin at dawn to pollinate each blossom, which opens in the morning and closes forever by afternoon. The process is so labor intensive and the fruits of that labor so valuable that each individual pod is marked to prevent theft. 

 

SHALIMAR BY GUERLAIN (EAU DE TOILETTE SPRAY REFILLABLE 3.1 OZ)
Price : $79.29

So you can see why vanilla is so highly prized and is an ingredient in so many of the finer perfumes. Shalimar Light by Guerlain blends vanilla with jasmine petals and bergamot to produce a light and invigorating scent that is unmistakably feminine and alluring. Kenzo uses vanilla with violet and rose to make Kenzo Flower, a refreshingly light floral fragrance. Jean Paul Gaultier, the renowned designer, created a perfume by the same name using amber and wood essences with vanilla for an irresistibly male fragrance that exudes confidence. The use of vanilla in perfume is limited only by the skill and imagination of the perfumer.

JEAN PAUL GAULTIER BY JEAN PAUL GAULTIER (HAIR STYLING GEL 4.2 OZ)
- Price : $22.95

Vanilla has also been produced synthetically due to the exorbitant cost of producing the natural product. In creating the aroma artificially, perfumers have put the wonderful fragrance of vanilla within reach of nearly everyone who enjoys its wonderful scent. In fact, synthetic vanilla often retains its aroma longer than the natural version due to its chemical composition. 

The rich, warm bouquet of vanilla has been prized for hundreds of years and rightly so. As far back as 1000 B.C., vanilla was a treasure both for the cupboard and for personal wear. This very basic yet indescribably delicious scent is a must for everyone’s perfume collection.

Tim Walt