Perfumery Material: Ylang Ylang/Cananga Odorata

"Poor man's jasmine" isn't quite the enthralling description, is it? And yet this is how Ylang-Ylang (pronounced "ee-LUNG-ee-LUNG") is affectionately refered to by perfumers, because the lowest grades of the oil are quite economical, especially for a flower essence. The inclusion of this naughty-looking yellow blossom in fragrances is legion to mention; contrary to what one might expect, not due to the lower costs, but due to its exquisite, heady, tropically sweet scent that is close to that of jasmine. Legendary perfumes such as Chamade by Guerlain, L'Air du temps by Nina Ricci, Patou's Sublime or Opium by Yves Saint Laurent are put on angel's wings thanks to this intoxicating blossom.

Botany & History
The botanical name Cananga Odorata is derived from the Malaysian word, “kenanga” which is the vernacular for the genus. The Genus Cananga has two species; only one of them is used in perfumery. Cananga odorata is the source of cananga and ylang-ylang oil and absolute while Cananga latifolia, which produces a functional oil, is also commercially used for other purposes.

The large, yellow-green, strongly scented flowers almost resemble tiny human parts, so it comes as no surprise that according to The Essential Oils Book by Colleen K. Dodt, ylang ylang:
“…. is believed to be antidepressant, aphrodisiac, sedative, calming, euphoric…It has been found effective in reducing sexual difficulties resulting from anxiety, stress, and depression.” Its effect is indeed exhilarating, introxicating, aphrodisiac!

Cananga odorata originated in South East Asia, discovered around 1740 in Malaysia by the French botanist Pierre Poivre, and it was introduced to the Comoros Islandes in 1909. It naturalized as far as Papua New Guinea, the  Pacific Islands and the Philipines; basically climates of humid warmth. It has also been introduced into tropical countries in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and even the Americas, specifically as an essential oil plant.

Production of Ylang Ylang Aromatic Essences
The essential oil of cananga odorata is produced via steam distillation, resulting in two distinct products: cananga oil for the soap and toiletries manufacturingand ylang ylang oil, typically available in variations of grades (there are five of them and another one is a blend of the first 3, with the Superior Extra grade from Mayotte island off Madagascar being reseved for high quality fine fragrances; this is the one that Guerlain harvests for their exclusive boutique scent Mayotte in Les Parisiennes line). Ylang-Ylang Absolute is also available for the discerning perfumer: Extracted via volatile solvents, washing with alcohol the concrete rendered from the ylang ylang petals.The absolute has an intesely sweet-floral odour with a typical balsamic floral note. It aids diffusion and lingers for hours.  Last but not least, there is an ylang-ylang CO2 essence, a quite expensive and fine product distilled by carbon dioxide; a certain amount of pressure is applied and then the gas changes to liquid ensuring the preserving of the flower's odour profile.

Ylang Ylang in Perfumery & its Key Role at Guerlain &Chanel
For all its atrributes, ylang ylang is a very frequent floral essence in fine fragrance perfumery and a constituent in Vanille Galante. It naturally encompasses salicylates and eugenol (a spicy ingredient); the former in the form of benzyl salicylate is the basic ingredient in the Ambre Solaire suntan lotion, with its white flowers tinge, which is synonymous with summer vacations to many Europeans (The ingredient first entered the composition for its sunscreening properties and later overstayed thanks to the fond reactions of users to its smell).This is why many ylang ylang dominant fragrances produce the association with suntan lotions: so many people have used a suntan lotion aromatized with salicylates/ylang ylang in their lives! (for more fragrance notes associations refer to The Vocabulary of Scent)

For all practical purposes the scent of ylang-ylang has been instrumental in more legendary fragrances than we're anticipating. Fine grade ylang ylang is making its presence known even more than jasmine does in the iterations of Chanel legendary No.5 (and is an intergral part of other Chanel classics such as No.22, Bois des Iles and Cuir de Russie). It is notably a signature trademark of most Guerlain fragrances, including many of the revered classics, such as Mitsouko and L'Heure Bleue. Guerlain indeed value so much the production of ylang-ylang in Mayotte that they bought 20% of the plantation of Combani. Jean Paul Guerlain personally inspected the hectares with ylang-ylang there in the years from 1995 to 2002. Vicious tongues eventually squealed on him using illegal workers to pick up the flowers (because the cost on Mayotte was very high compared to neighbouring islands labourers), resulting in him abandoning the plantation and choosing to operate in the neighbouring island of Anjouan from then on.

List of Fragrances Highlighting Ylang-Ylang Notes:
NB. This list features perfume with predominant ylang-ylang notes, there are of course hundreds of other fragrances listing it as a secondary note.The links below direct to reviews.
Annick Goutal Songes
Boucheron Boucheron Femme
Cacharel Loulou
Calvin Klein Escape
Caron Nocturnes
Chanel Bois des Iles
Chanel Coco Mademoiselle
Chanel No.5
Chanel No.5 Eau Premiere
Chloe Chloe (original, 1975)
Dior J'Adore Eau de Cologne Florale
Elizabeth Taylor White Diamonds
Estee Lauder Beautiful
Givenchy Amarige
Givenchy Harvest Collection, Amarige Ylang-Ylang de Mayotte Harvest 2006
Givenchy Ysatis

Guerlain (discontinued) Aqua Allegoria Ylang & Vanille
Guerlain Chamade 
Guerlain Cologne du 68
Guerlain L'Instant de Guerlain
Guerlain Mahora/Mayotte
Guerlain Samsara
Guy Laroche Fidji
Grossmith Hasu-no Hana, Phul Nana, and Shem el Nessim
Hanae Mori Hanae Mori (i.e. "butterfly")
Hermes 24 Faubourg
Hermes Vanille Galante 
Jean Paul Gaultier Classique
Jean Desprez Bal a Versailles
Kenzo Jungle L'Elephant
Lanvin Arpege
Lancome Poeme
Laura Biagotti Venezia
Nina Ricci L'Air du Temps
Patou Sublime
Rochas Byzance
Teo Cabanel Alahine
Tom Ford Black Orchid
Tom Ford Black Orchid Voile de Fleur
Van Cleef & Arpels First

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Perfumery's Raw Aroma Materials

photo of ylang ylang via Flowers Eddie Tam Makawao, Maui December 24, 2006 via hear.org

Open Poll: Fragrances to Get you Warm in the Cold

Today it's a holiday and I'm in a rush to exploit the time to finish a few magazine articles I need to submit shortly. As I stay inside hearing the wind howling outside my window panes, the trees making a sweeping sound, and the logs in the fire crackle, I warm my hands against the cup of steaming jasmine tea, thinking to myself  how fragrance has the potential to not only create a mental mood, but to actually produce a physical reaction beyond the wishful. I positively feel elated and caressed in a warm hug by my scent of the day choice of Serge Lutens Jeux de Peau, a delicious, milky-spicy-golden scent that radiates all around, like the purr of a fat kitty lazy in front of the fire.

So, in the interests of providing more scent options:
Which are your favourite warming fragrances when it's all cold outside?

Let us know in the comments! (and if you stumbled on this piece, read on what people vote for)

More on the Upcoming Louis Vuitton Fragrance

We had broken the news on the new, upcoming Louis Vuitton fragrance a while ago, mentioning that the brand had also issued a commemorative perfume for elite clients sometime in the 1980s (and we depicted the bottle too). What you may not know however, is that there were also three Louis Vuitton fragrances in the 20s and 30s, all of which were soon discontinued. Louis Vuitton (or rather LVMH) announced that Jacques Cavallier-Belletrud will be the perfumer behind the new fragrant creation. A Grassois, Jacques Cavallier composed Stella by Stella, Dior Addict and YSL Cinema among many many others.  According to WWD Cavallier started work for them this Tuesday, carefully adding he will journey the world on search of exotic and precious new juices. Mais oui!
So basically they're building up anticipation for a launch that will go down in history: the last bastion, the brand who resisted fragrance for long in our times, has succumbed. 

You can read our speculation on what the upcoming Vuitton perfume might entail on this link.

Caron Poivre & Coup de Fouet: fragrance reviews & comparison

Poivre by Caron plays out like J.S Bach's double concerto for 2 violins in D minor, 1st movement: Two complimenting themes, carnation and clove, in contrapuntal dialogue, one finishing off the phrase of another in a leitmotif which manages to punctuate time with its own special seal. Despite its name, which means pepper in French, and the vicious-looking studded with peppercorns bottle, Poivre features the hot "king of spice" in a supporting role. To bring the musical analogy full circle, let's just say pepper in Poivre is the basso continuo.

Poivre is the kind of fragrance that creates the feeling J.S Bach compositions stir in my soul and has been a longtime companion for as far back as I was aware of Caron; if not as far back as Bach. There is such contextualised coherence that everything in the world seems at its rightful place, everything in perfect, clashing harmony. If the composer once walked 200 miles to hear Dieterich Buxtehude play the organ, I'd walk on hot coals to get an ounce of Poivre parfum in its vintage state.

History of Creation
In 1953, Félicie Wanpouille -savvy of the emergence of a different aesthetic inaugarated with the New Look by Dior- asked perfumer Michel Morsetti for a fragrance that would be out of whack with its times. Morsetti had already created (at least 2) classics in the Caron stable: Farnesiana (1947), Rose (1949), and Muguet du Bonheur (1952).  The fifties were all about good-mannered lactonic florals and sheer floral chypres continuing from the late 1940s. Only Youth Dew was braving the wave, making it possible later for Cinnabar, Opium and all the rest of the Medina-spice caravan-brocard tapestry orientals that followed. Michel Morsetti obliged and in 1954 Poivre emerged; impulsive, rich, sinful, drop dead sexy! "Parfum de la femme moderne" as per the vintage advertisements: the perfume of the modern woman.
The bottle design with the peppercorn studs was no doubt a throwback to classic pomanders which relied on cloves for their antimicrobial prophylactic properties; perfume as medicine...

Scent Description 
The original 1950s advertisements featured a Chinese-style dragon, in tune with the firecracking pyrotechnics of the fragrance's fiery breath.  The daredevil spices open the scene, intense clove, flanked by pepper, and they come back again and again in an endless recycling and expansion of the leitmotif, a structure that is reminiscent of older ways of composing, but maxed out to orgiastic effect. The lush floral chord is built on carnation and ylang ylang, the peppery bite of one falling into the solar embrace of the other. As the scent progresses, there is a hint of vanilla, hazy opoponax and leather on the skin, a soft focus camera lens on a racy subject. The combination of carnation and leather brings to mind another Caron legend, En Avion, dedicated to women in aviation.

Coup de Fouet & comparison with Poivre
Poivre was conceived as the original extrait de parfum creation out of which Coup de Fouet (a most brilliant & fitting name, "crack of the whip") emerged as a diluted Eau de Cologne Poivrée. The theme is similar, the effect somewhat lighter in the weaker concentration, with a boosted effect of rose that is orientalised, spicy and raspy, still mighty impressive. Coup de Fouet is as warm as a fur coat and as commanding attention. It prompted writer Susan Irvine to  state it's "what Cruella de Vil would have worn"; so if you're the soft type crying over those poor 101 Dalmatians and can't manage a streak of bitchiness, don't even bother.
Coup de Fouet nowadays is offered at Caron boutiques as the Eau de Parfum analogue of Poivre extrait, the latter also available there from the fabulous crystal samovars affectionately referred to as "urns".
Both concentrations are totally passable (nay, downright alluring!) on men as well.

Reformulation of Poivre and Coup de Fouet
Contemporary batches of both fragrances seem to insist on a mustier, soapy rose and have less of a spicy oriental character, falling into the limbo state of floriental. Sadly Poivre (and Coup de Fouet as well, since they share those notes) faces IFRA restrictions on spicy materials which no doubt will leave future generations wondering what all the fuss was about anyway. Tragic, in view of Poivre (in the classic peppercorn flacon in Baccarat crystal) ranking as #3 of "top most expensive perfumes in the world" [$2,000 for 2 oz]....
When this happens the dragon loses its fire, the whole world gets out of whack and Bach isn't be there to save the day.

Notes for Caron Poivre: (add rose for Coup de Fouet)

Red pepper, black pepper, clou de girofle (clove), carnation, ylang ylang, jasmine, opoponax, cedar, sandalwood, vetiver, oakmoss, musk.



Painting "The Sense of Hearing" by Jan Brueghel the Elder. Ads via beckerstreet.com and vintageadbrowser.com

Guerlain Myrrh & Delires: new fragrance

Guerlain is issuing an exclusive boutique-circuit fragrance in 2012!

According to Fragrantica, Myrrh & Delires is "a soft oriental composition based on mysterious myrrh with additional floral notes (rose, jasmine), precious woods (with the leading role of patchouli), vanilla and musk". Myrrh & Delires will join the L'Art et la Matière line in the characteristic oblong bottles.

In the history of fragrances, myrrh is one the first sacred essences offered to gods with frankincense and gold. Symbolic and mysterious, tears of the myrrh tree are amber-like, coming for Somalia or Arabia. Solar, aromatic, mossy, myrrh is multifaceted but quite radical to work in a fragrance. In fragrances, myrrh was quite never used. Fortunately, its oriental texture and smell suits perfectly in this ninth creation that Thierry Wasser softly composed by few floral notes with fruity, spicy nuances.

You can find reviews of the previous Guerlain L'Art et la Matiere scents in our archives linked.

pic via lamodadubai.com