Perfumery Material: Freesia, Peppery Zing, Electric Fresh

“Just because I’m resisting the wine doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the bouquet,” he whispered. “You have a very floral smell, like lavender … or freesia,” he noted. “It’s mouthwatering.” We can forgive Edward Cullen wooing Bella in Stephenie Meyer's vampire hit Twilight the semi-true reference of lavender as floral (it's really an aromatic in perfume-speak); the matter of the fact is that freesia is mouthwatering indeed and Edward is a major heart-throb for teenage audiences (there's even an online test about how you smell to Edward Cullen).

In Meet Joe Black freesia is a symbol of the hidden sensitivity of the aging father about to meet his death, played by Anthony Hopkins:
- We do need some answers on the flowers.
- Ah, yes, freesia, freesia. Everywhere freesia. Daddy loves freesia.

Not so for sophisticated and rather cynical Miranda Priesley in The Devil Wears Prada, quoted: "If I see freesias anywhere, I will be very disappointed"...

But it is Hugh De Sélincourt in The Way Things Happen who highlights the unique heart-aching aspects of this vividly huedblossom" "The happiness of that afternoon was already fixed in her mind, and always would the scent of freesia recall it to her mental sight, for among the smells of the roses and violets and lilies and wall-flowers, the smell of the freesia penetrated, as a melody stands out from its accompaniement, and gave her the most pleasure."

Scent Profile
The cheerful bouquet of peppery zing and floral freshness projected at the right intensity, a delicious aroma that radiates for a long distance, is what makes freesia flowers so memorable. High in linalool, a major component in all freesia varieties, this small colourful blossom emits a refreshing, floral woody aroma with a subtle citrusy-terpenic note. The mollified sweet aspects, with the nectarous quality of jasmine smelt through ozone, are given a cheerful piquancy by the spicy top note which pinches you by the nose upon stooping to smell the beautiful flowers. The nuance of the blossoms themselves is beautifully varied: white ones are spicier, colourful ones are "greener". The overall character is clean and with a soapy facet, a fact that makes freesia a favorite candidate for inspiring the added scent of soaps, shampoos, body lotions and so forth. It's no wonder freesias stand for innnocence!

Little did Friedrich Heinrich Theodor Freese (1795-1876), a German physician from Kiel, know that the proposal of the name by his friend and plant collector Christian Friedrich Ecklon would result in such a popular cultivar and perfume "note". But it's perhaps even more interesting to note that a minority of Europeans have specific anosmia for freesia, although most Europeans report that freesia is one of the strongest scents known to them! McWhirter concluded that "inability to perceive the scent is a recessive character. Tests of 1,600 subjects showed that the frequency of the recessive phenotype was high in those of Eastern European and British Celtic descent (at about 10%) and low in those predominantly of Scandinavian, English, Dutch, and German descent (at about 4%)" [source]

History of a Trend
The trend for using freesia notes in fragrances began when Antonia Bellanca-Mahoney first brought out her Antonia's Flowers perfume in 1984. It is a freesia dominant fragrance because this is the flower sthe famous NYC florist was most enamoured with. The great perfumer Bernand Chant (Aromatics Elixir, Azuree, Cabochard) composed it for International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF) using headspace technology to replicate that electric freshness that natural freesia exude. Antonia was adamant that her fragrance should be free of the tricks of scented seduction, she didn't want a fragrance that would "remind her of old ladies", but one that would be light and reminiscent of her flower shop; she hadn't been using perfume for these reasons and she thought it was time to find one to claim her own. She focused on freesias because they "knocked your socks off, like trumpets in an orchestra; everyone else sings backup, even the lillies". The result was the definitive scent that put freesia on the map.
Since then, not only has Antonia's Flowers become a cult favorite, it also has catapulted an entire avalanche of freesia notes containing fragrances which take this jolting, fresh, spring-like note as a departure point of clean, feminine, pretty compositions for every woman.

Constructing a Freesia Note for Fragrances
Even though a type of freesia oil can be extracted, all freesia notes in perfumery are uniformely synthesized, usually with copious amounts of linalool (the dominant constituent in over half of freesia cultivars), hints of jasmine synths and green notes. Natural freesias in some breeds also display other related monoterpenoids; 2-penylethyl acetate (sweet, honey-like) and benzyl alcohol (fruity smelling) as well as limonene (fresh lemony, sweetly citrusy), ocimene (green and terpenic with vegetable nuances), and alpha-terpinolene (fresh and delicately lilac-like) in supplementation of the linalool. Perhaps one of the most intriguing facets of freesias is that they display ionone (violet) characteristics while living, but they lose those notes when cut!!

The amateur or natural perfumer may opt to recreate a freesia note as need be via using white verbena essential oil, which has plenty of the floral woody ingredient linalool. This is not however a note you often see cited in natural blends, probably because its main use is acting as a "modifier" rather than a dominant character-giving note. Freesia in mainstream perfumery is paired with other clean, crystalline floral "notes" of lab-synthesis, such as cyclamen and lily of the valley, or magnolia, or the shriller, rosier peony.

List of fragrances with a dominant freesia note include:

Amouage Reflection woman
Antonia's Flowers Antonia's Flowers
Burberry Body
Cacharel Noa
Calvin Klein Eternity
Caswell & Massey Freesia
Cerruti Cerruti 1881 pour femme
Chanel Allure Eau de Toilette
Clinique Happy
Dior Tendre Poison
Dior Forever & Ever
Diptyque Ofresia
DKNY Pure
Escada Moon Sparkle
Estee Lauder Pleasures
Fragonard Freesia
Giorgio Armani Aqua di Gio
Gucci Envy
Gucci EdP II
Guerlain L'Instant Magique
Issey Miyake L'Eau d'Issey
Jennifer Lopez Still
Lancome Miracle
Maitre Parfumeur & Gantier  Freezia d'Or
Paul Smith Paul Smith Women
Ralph Lauren Romance
Victor & Rolf Antidote

pics via openwalls.com, indulgedecorblog.com

Dior Escale a Parati: fragrance review & bottle giveaway

Dior doesn't get high points for originality or cultural authenticity, bearing in mind this new "port of call" in their summery Cruise collection is inspired by Brazil as announced a while ago on these pages. Escale à Parati  vividly recalls in the top notes the effervescent composition of classically French L'eau Impériale by Guerlain extended on the petals of (lots of) soapy & tartly clean orange blossom. 

The effect is pleasant, exhillarating, more specifically it's what the French call "pétillant", recalling the use of orange blossom in its "cleansed up", non indolic form in another summery, uplifting cologne Lancome's Ô de l'Orangerie (for a review and comparison of all the O de Lancome fragrance editions please refer to the link) but not as soapy as the limited edition from 2009 Prada Infusion de Fleurs d'Oranger .

The progression in Escale à Parati goes into predictably classic "cologne" notes in the mould of 4711 by Muehlens, uniting herbal and aromatic essences with a lightly sweet note (in the Dior it's tonka bean with its cut hay and lightly vanillic touch). Francois Demachy highlights the verdant tartness of the essence itself with the leafy scent of mint, arguably another trick in which Guerlain has paved the path in via their Guerlain Homme.

There are no discernible fruits to speak of in the mix nor the overt sensualism & sexiness associated with Brazilians (a most carnal people), which makes the whole Brazilian experiment sound more of a marketing positioning on the part of LVMH than an authentic pilgrimage to the vast culutral tapestry of South America. This in itself makes the launch (especially after 2 years since the last, as opposed to the annual churning out at the beginning of the series) rather incomphrehensible; one would think there are enough summery colognes in the Dior range already, why the need for one more? Undoubtedly because Brazil is an untapped market with the potential of exponential growth...

This particular Escale fragrance is fit for sharing between the sexes and the shade of the juice is really inviting, but the lasting power is comparable to the other Escales, i.e. not much. Nevertheless, when it's hot, one doesn't mind respritzing to feel the coolness of the citrusy breeze.

ior's Escale à Parati is meant to be shared between the sexes, providing a light air inspired by the Costa Verde and its atmosphere of fun, dance and music. The fragrance includes citrusy and woody notes of bitter orange (bigaradier), lemon, petit-grain, rosewood, mint, cinnamon, red berries and tonka bean.
Available as 75 and 125 ml Eau de Toilette from June 2012 at major department stores.  

One new bottle (from which 5ml have been decanted for reviewing purposes )for a lucky reader. Draw is open internationally till Monday 7th midnight. (draw is now closed, thank you)
Share in the comments to enter the draw, which is your favourite summery cologne and why? 

In the interests of disclosure, got the promo bottle through a distributor.  Collage by Eric White

Perfume in the Office: Uncharted Territory

"Moore, an evaluator with the Fragrance Foundation, says perfume is not the expression of power it was for women in the Eighties but has instead become part of the daily grooming routine ''and that's not about to change''. ''Wearing fragrance is quite acceptable now but there still have to be certain codes for work,'' she says. ''Fragrance is an incredibly personal thing - the olfactory memory is primal and how you smell fragrance is unique to you. Everyone has preferences and sensitivities.'' One women's Beautiful is another's Poison. Which is where the problems emerge at the office."

The environment of the office is a minefielf of potential faux pas of every conceivable magnitude. When fragrance, one of the most subjective and highly personal things a human being can use, mingles, the situation can be explosive. But is it better than body odour? In a turn of phrase that recalls Mad Men imagery, Natasha Huges writes: "There was a time when the office was a lot smellier - when real men didn't wear deodorant, people smoked at their desks, air-con was non-existent and dry-cleaning a luxury."

That time wasn't too far back. But that should probably not be carte blanche for overdousing with potent fragrances in the workplace; the only subtle point is there are no rules, so we make them as we go along.

Read the whole article on the Casey Weekly.

And you, do you have examples of toxic perfume (or BO) in your workplace? Please share them in the comments. 

cartoon via nextforwomen.com

Good News on the Regulations Front: Macrocyclic and Cinnamyl Phenyl Propyl fragrance Ingredients Proven Safe

"The Research Institute for Fragrance Materials, Inc. (RIFM) now has available, from its web site at www.rifm.org, human health safety assessments on Macrocyclic and Cinnamyl Phenyl Propyl fragrance Ingredients. Found in the Publications section of the RIFM site, Toxicologic and Dermatologic Assessments for Three Groups of Fragrance Ingredients: 1) Macrocyclic Ketones, 2) Macrocyclic Lactones and Lactides, 3) Cinnamyl Phenyl Propyl was published in Food and Chemical Toxicology, Vol 49, Suppl 2S, Dec 2011 and is already one of the journal's top ten downloaded publications. Included in the review of the three groups are 24 related Fragrance Material Reviews (FMRs).  Printed copies can be ordered from the RIFM Online Store."

These popular materials, used in different scented uses (fragrance, functional products, air care,cosmetics) and carrier/disolving purposes have proven to be "practically nonirritating, have a low sensitization potential, no genotoxicity potential and a low order of repeat dose toxicity".

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/01/4456540/macrocyclic-and-cinnamyl-phenyl.html#storylink=cpy

News via  The Sacramento Bee where you can read the whole article.

photo showing the hull of a boat that was painted with a coating containing macrocyclic lactones, with the exception of the stripe down the middle via gizmag.com

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/01/4456540/macrocyclic-and-cinnamyl-phenyl.html#storylink=cpy

The winner of the draw...

...for the Aftelier mini-atomisers is Coach Fabulous. Congratulations and please email me using Contact with your shipping data so I can have this in the mail for you soon!

Thanks everyone for the enthusiastic participation and till the next one!