The Evolution Of Fragrance: Back To Its Floral Roots!

Every action provokes a reaction, a fact that is seldom truer than in the fickle world of fragrance.

Our senses are both subjective and sensitive, so to overload them is never going to make them very happy and it seems that the fragrance-wearing population has said enough is enough to all the fruity, floral scents that currently dominate the fragrance world.

While i may love them, for others these saccharine scents appear to be  giving some of us toothache!

Because of this, an opening has been created for serious, sophisticated and complex scents. 

Actress Rita Hayworth with a collection of fragrances

 

Hurrah I hear you cry!

Now days It’s not enough to simply glue a label onto a bottle alluding to its integrity, people want to know that the best ingredients have been sourced to create an intricate and beautifully structured accord.

‘Accord’ How posh, go me!

Elegant, expensive ingredients smell precisely that, and right now the general mood is for the juiciest, darkest and most intense notes.

They are sophisticated, substantial and seductive.

There has been a massive resurgence of white flower scents in the last couple of years: tuberose, gardenia, orange blossom, jasmine and lily of the valley.

Lily of the Valley

Indeed, I had Lily of the valley in my wedding bouquet and it smells divine!

They might sound old fashioned, but they are, in fact, the grandes dames of perfumery.

They’ve been around, they’ve seen it all and they have the power to give authority and old-world elegance to an accord.

A recent addition to Tom Ford’s Private Blend line, Jasmin Rouge, is a fab example of such a fragrance, which is essentially an interpretation of the modern white flowers. 

Ford took time to source sambac jasmine sepals absolute, a rarely used jasmine derivative, which has the sweetest, most heady scent.

Combined with sage, the jasmine takes on a spellbinding dimension.

Tom Ford isn’t the only one!

Valentino has taken its existing Valentina scent and created the Assoluto, concentrating the white flower accord at the fragrance’s heart (tuberose, orange flower, jasmine) and adding to it a more classic chypre base.

Instantly, this fragrance takes the Valentino wearer from girl to woman.

The other old school floral star of this new generation is Rose. 

The current trend is for darker, velvety rose or antique rose, worlds away from some of it’s competitiors.

Givenchy’s new Dahlia Noir is a perfect example of this.

 Using the deepest red roses and combing them with iris and mimosa the perfume is reminiscent of the mythical flower, the black dahlia.

Givenchy’s Creative Director, Riccardo Tisci, describes it as

“a fragrance crafted like a couture gown’’

Who knew so much went into fragrance creation eh!

Dior has also looked to the darker side of the rose for its latest addition to La Collection Privée Christian Dior: Ambre Nuit. 

 

Turkish rose essence was sourced and then “donned in evening wear” by being combined with amber.

In an age in which so many things in life are disposable and replaceable, there is something very rare and dare I say it, beautiful about this return to the ‘old school’ way of creating timeless fragrances. 

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