Paris theese days is pure euphoria and Baudelaire' Dawamesk is nothing compared to warm breeze under the linden trees now in blossom. Yesterday I was reading in the gardens of Palais Royal and for several hours I experienced the joy of this special fragrance in the warm sun. The linden is not just another tree producing a pleasant scent but are a marvel of scent engineering. A huge scent factory produces a fragrance that is first, different in the air than close to the flowers and bracts (they are too scented) and second, a marvel of diffusion. Those are molecules mixed in such an intelligent proportion that they can travel in the air creating something like an aura (similar to white flowers in the evening). There are several types of linden trees in Europe. I know all of them, some are in bloom now, other in summer. If linden blossoms are representative for Paris, they were also for Berlin (there is a famous street and famous song).
- cucumber: one of the strangest effect in the smell of flowers in the air is the very strong green cucumber-violet note. If you keep your nose concentrated in the air for several minutes you can actually perceive nonadienal (the cucumber aldehyde) and maybe nonenal.
- aldehydes: over and around the green violet note floats a cloud of fresh low aldehydes, almost all are present but what I perceive is closer to C9 aldehyde
- mimosa - lilac: if you eliminate the strong and characteristic green flowery notes you can actually perceive a very soft and delicate anisic scent that reminds me the mimosa, the fresh lilac, anisaldehyde and even a very subtle hay note like coumarine. In the lilac shape you can feel the very fresh effect like the petals of phenylethyl alcohol (rose) with a very sharp green hyacinth note (phenyl ethyl aldehyde).
- orris - the scent is also very powdery like several ionones
- apple - if you pick the flowers and put to your nose, a very green and apple peel & juice note will appear. It smells exactly like a very strong apple product called hexenal trans 2. In the same fruity sequence, a very green pear and almost a quince seem to coexist.
- honey - a sweet and almost spicy peppery green note is in the background, it evokes several green benzoates and phenylacetates but also beeswax
- indole - I swear there is a trace of indole in this flower, the scent evokes the animal side of the orange flower (but it is not an orange flower scent!!!)
- aromatic - less important to the general scent, you can detect a thyme and tarragon note plus something that recalls a specific green vegetable.
- farnesol - this is the secret of the flowers, but I do not know wich isomer is responsible and if its different from the Givaudan product I use (farnesol is another endangered product in the IFRA "times of terror")
How strange it may sounds but in the green and very fresh flowers the metallic note reminds me the magnolia flower absolute.
Pure linden blossom fragrance does not exist, it was only aproximated (there is one Elizabeth Arden that I do not remember the name with a sweet linden note on top). There is also Tilleul d'Orsay (reformulated so many times since the 50's), Eau du Ciel (Annick Goutal), Guerlinade (1998, actually a very good fragrance more lilac). A metaphor of the scent but spicy, violet, mimosa and aldehydic powdery exists in Soir de Paris (Bourjois, the real one, done by Ernest Beaux, not the disaster from the 90's).
- cucumber: one of the strangest effect in the smell of flowers in the air is the very strong green cucumber-violet note. If you keep your nose concentrated in the air for several minutes you can actually perceive nonadienal (the cucumber aldehyde) and maybe nonenal.
- aldehydes: over and around the green violet note floats a cloud of fresh low aldehydes, almost all are present but what I perceive is closer to C9 aldehyde
- mimosa - lilac: if you eliminate the strong and characteristic green flowery notes you can actually perceive a very soft and delicate anisic scent that reminds me the mimosa, the fresh lilac, anisaldehyde and even a very subtle hay note like coumarine. In the lilac shape you can feel the very fresh effect like the petals of phenylethyl alcohol (rose) with a very sharp green hyacinth note (phenyl ethyl aldehyde).
- orris - the scent is also very powdery like several ionones
- apple - if you pick the flowers and put to your nose, a very green and apple peel & juice note will appear. It smells exactly like a very strong apple product called hexenal trans 2. In the same fruity sequence, a very green pear and almost a quince seem to coexist.
- honey - a sweet and almost spicy peppery green note is in the background, it evokes several green benzoates and phenylacetates but also beeswax
- indole - I swear there is a trace of indole in this flower, the scent evokes the animal side of the orange flower (but it is not an orange flower scent!!!)
- aromatic - less important to the general scent, you can detect a thyme and tarragon note plus something that recalls a specific green vegetable.
- farnesol - this is the secret of the flowers, but I do not know wich isomer is responsible and if its different from the Givaudan product I use (farnesol is another endangered product in the IFRA "times of terror")
How strange it may sounds but in the green and very fresh flowers the metallic note reminds me the magnolia flower absolute.
Pure linden blossom fragrance does not exist, it was only aproximated (there is one Elizabeth Arden that I do not remember the name with a sweet linden note on top). There is also Tilleul d'Orsay (reformulated so many times since the 50's), Eau du Ciel (Annick Goutal), Guerlinade (1998, actually a very good fragrance more lilac). A metaphor of the scent but spicy, violet, mimosa and aldehydic powdery exists in Soir de Paris (Bourjois, the real one, done by Ernest Beaux, not the disaster from the 90's).
Like for lily of the valley, it's not enough to create the "note" (the recognizable scent) but you have to create its dynamics in space, the true 3D effect, the volume.
Since several years I associate linden blossom with Serge Lutens. Before entering the small shop at Palais Royal you are already hypnotized by their beauty and both share something violet - the scent of the flowers and the decoration of the boutique.
Linden blossom fragrance is a challenge to creative perfumers, a masterpiece to be (re)created like Edmond Roudnitska did for the lily of the valley in Diorissimo (before its mutilation caused by IFRA and ordered by Dior).
Since several years I associate linden blossom with Serge Lutens. Before entering the small shop at Palais Royal you are already hypnotized by their beauty and both share something violet - the scent of the flowers and the decoration of the boutique.
Linden blossom fragrance is a challenge to creative perfumers, a masterpiece to be (re)created like Edmond Roudnitska did for the lily of the valley in Diorissimo (before its mutilation caused by IFRA and ordered by Dior).
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
