Ingredients
We know and love our luxury ingredients at Olfactory Department. A careful blend of the precious elements listed below can be found in all of our home fragrances.
Blackcurrant Bud
Cultivated in Burgundy, France, the fruit of the blackcurrant bush is famous for its use in liqueurs and aperitifs. But it is the bud that is employed in perfumery: green and fruity with a liqueur-like bote, blackcurrant bud is a high-end ingredient that constitutes one of the rare natural fruity notes in the perfumers’ palette.
Cinnamon
Grown in Sri Lanka and Madagascar, Ceylon cinnamon is prized for its use in food and fragrances. The Bark of the cinnamon tree can be ground into a spice and also distilled to produce essential oil. Both soft and hot, evocative of sweets or exoctic lands, its woody, warm, suave scent is instantly identifiable.
Geranium
Native to South Africa, the geraniums that decorate our balconies are not know for their fragrance. But rose geranium, once cultivated on the island of Reunion and now mainly in Egypt, contains in its leaves an essence with multiple olfactory and curative properties. Its rosy, minty and lemony notes are a common presence in perfumery.
Immortelle
Native to the Mediterranean basin, immortelle is grown in the Balkans for perfumery. It owes its name to its tiny golden-yellow flowers, which never fade. their dark, spicy, boozy scents conjure curry, sandy dunes or the Corsican maquis.
Jasmine Sambac
Fruity, green, with hints of orange blossom and cut grass, jasmin sambac leaves a truely unique fragrance in its wake. In India, it is woven into garlands, used as offerings to the gods and to decorate women’s hair. In Europe, it has recently become a regularly featured ingredient in the formulas of leading perfumes.
Jasmine Grandflorum
The jewle of Grasse, where it is commonly called “the flower”, jasmin is native to India. its leading global producer today along with Egypt. It’s tiny white flowers, fragile-looking but powerfully scented, yield an absolute with floral, warm, opulent, creamy and slightly animalic facets. Indispensable in grand classic florals, jasmine embodies a refined, voluptuous sensuality.
Lemon
Born from crossing of the bitter orange tree with the citron tree, the lemon tree thrive in hot sunny climates, from Argentina to the Mediterranean Basin. Its tart, sparkling, zesty, juicy essence, obtained by cold-pressing the peel, is essential to eaux de cologne, but it also brings unrivaled freshness to many masculine and feminine fragrances.
Lavender
Native to the Mediterrnean Basin, lavender was imported by the Romans to Provence, its nost iconic producer today. The scent of the blue flower and of its hybrid, lavandin, has always been synonymous with cleanliness and sooth freshness.
Mimosa
Native to Australia and cultivated in India and Morocco, mimosa grows wild in south of France, and environment in which it thrives. Its powdery, downy scent is one of winters loveliest in the Northern hemisphere. Its absolute gives off floral and green facets, as well as straw tones that add roundness and warmth to compositions.
Narcissus
Narcissus, so delicate in its appearance, gives off a fragrance that is heady, complex and boarding on narcotic.
Orange
Imported from Europe in the 15th century by Portuguese seafarers, sweet orange soon became a highly prized fruit. Grown in warm, sunny climates from Florida to the Mediterranean Basin, it is now consumed throughout the world. Juicy, fruit and mouthwatering, but also clean, fresh and sparkling, orange essential oil has long been favoured by perfumers, in fine as well as functional fragrance.
Orange Blossom
Orange blossom, developed in Grasse before being cultivated in Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt, is so delicate that its buds are hand-picked, one by one. When processes into an oil called ‘neroli’ orange blossom absolute or a floral water, it is beloved of perfumers and pastry chefs alike. its fragrance - bright, sparkling and green for the essence while warm, honryed and animalic for the absolute - conjures images of femininity, childhood and the freshness of pleasant summer afternoons.
Orris
Orris, extracted from irises grown in Tuscany and southern France, is one of the most costly raw materials in the perfumers palette. It takes five or six years after planting for the scent molecules needed for the precious absolute to develop in the rhizomes. the complex, delicate scent is floral, powdery, woody and buttery, with a hint of violet.
Patchouli
Once seen as a scent favoured by the courtesans and hippies, patchouli has been a key ingredient in today’s perfumery. Its warm, woody and complex fragrance provides the perfect setting for fresher notes to run free, especially in chypre and oriental perfumes.
Pink Pepper
Native to South America, pink pepper is now widely cultivated in Brazil and Madagascar. The tiny red furits, which grow in bunches, unveil a spicy scent with uplifting, resinous facets reminiscent of black pepper. It is prized for its sweet yet hot character as a condiment as well as in feminine and masculine fragrances, to which it adds a modernity and freshness.
Rose
Beyond compare and rich with symbolism, the rose is without question one of the most emblematic flowers in perfumery.
Sandalwood
Known to humankind for 3,000 years, sandalwood is now a rare tree, growing primarily in Australia and New Caledonia, where it is sustainably harvested. Its wood is one of the most precious in the world, and they creamy, warm, woody, milky fragrance of its essence makes it one of the most expensive ingredients in the perfumers palette.
Tuberose
Native to Mexico, the tuberose found the perfect adoptive home in India, where is it highly fragrant, waxy-petaled flowers are used as decoration or offerings. Its potent, heady, opulent scent is often associated with carnal, erotic femininity.
Vanilla
Indeospensadble in pastry, vanilla is the very embodiment of gourmandise. Native of Mexico, the little pod has crossed the oceans and taken root in Madagascar, where most of its production is concentrated today.
Ground into a powder and treated with supercritial CO2 extraction, the pods yield a potent extract with a spicy, leathery, complex and textured character.
Vetiver
Vetiver originated in India and is now cultivated mainly in Haiti. the tropical plant’s tangled roots contain a richly scented essence that can be extracted by distillation. Its fresh, citrus, green, woody, smoky smell is almost a perfume in its own right.
Violet
A specialty of the Alpes-Maritimes region, the violet flower, with its delicate powdery scent, os the olfactory expression of the 19th century. But the leaf has been used in perfumery since the beginning of the past century to enrich the perfumer’s palette.
Today, the leaves are mainly produced in Egypt. After extraction, they yeild an absolute with green, wet, earthy and leathery facets, which weaves in and our of formulars while remaining discreet.
Ylang-Ylang
A traveler drawn to tropical climates, ylang-ylang first appreared in Southeast Asia before settling in Madagascar and the Comoros, its main producers today. Its long, slender petals waft their intoxicating scent at night fall. Turned into absolute or essential oil, it gives off floral, spicy, fruity, solar and creamy notes.
shop our bougie range
This premium range of scents were hand crafted to conjure a specific state of mind - the longing for travel, a transformative personal journey, or an evening with music and poetry…a removal from the ordinary.
When nothing but the best will do after a long day, light up a mood to suit the occasion.
