Floral family

Nearly every perfume in existence can lay claims to containing either jasmin or rose the king and queen of perfume ingredients. This is by far the largest of all categories and encompasses the oils and absolutes that can be obtained from fragrant flowers. They range from the costliest of iris absolutes to geranium oil. Sometimes extraction processes fail to deliver a viable ingredient so a combination of perfumers’ talent and scientific research has lead to the development of interpretations of the natural scent of the flower. In deed, the scent of flowers that are so rare that they cannot be cropped can be available to the perfumer, not as a natural ingredient but as what is called a reconstitution. These include lily of the valley (sometimes called muguet), honeysuckle, sweet peas and freesia. These single Floral notes are the basis of many simple perfumes and although termed simple they may still be comprised of up to 100 separate ingredients.

Other well used notes that may not be immediately seen as floral include carnation – where the floral note has a soft clove-like spiciness, hyacinth – a very green and earthy floral and perhaps most surprisingly – lavender – which although classified as a ‘herb’ is regarded for its predominant floral character.