Have you ever wondered why some scents go very well with other, why some molecules can be harmonized instantly while in other cases you need other notes to balance the bouquet (rose oil - jasmine absolute is not balanced if you perceive first both, than rose oil but the blotter ends with jasmine after several hours)? This is because the floral notes (the ingredients and the general scent type) are "organized" in something called a "scent map" that explains the relations between several notes. In some cases it is a tool to compose perfumes, similar to the color wheel of designers. A scent map shows the link between the scent of flowers (from concept to their extracts) and their constituents. Imagine that you have all the scent molecules produced by nature in something like a galaxy - when things get ordered you obtain some famous "constellations". Not everything goes with everything in nature and this appears if you study the composition of natural products.
This floral scent map can be considered a secret key to harmony. Here you will find the floral types disposed like countries / territories with their neighborhood. You will also find "rivers" and lakes, major class of chemicals that divide the map and go deep in several distinct scent types - the cinnamic alcohol, the phenolic derivates, the lactones, etc. It has hills and valleys and from one top you can "see" very distant areas that on plan seem unrelated - that's why scent illusions are possible when no specific constituent is present in the mixture.
This scent map arranges the odors and the biology of scent (how molecules are produced) but also, it shows (or gives ideas) the paths to go from A to B, from the rose to the jasmine, building the bridge between them without introducing another fragrance theme. It also shows how to built a gardenia illusion based on the scent location between 2 other types and shows why there are several ways to build a magnolia note and why its balance is so difficult. The use of a scent map, establishing relations between the fundamentals of scent, can be traced back to Antoine Chiris - the perfumers who 100 years ago were related to this manufacturer knew something more than others and their perfumes show very advanced ideas of complex harmony. If you take l'Origan, Soir de Paris and the original Rallet No1 (and then No5 + Le Dandy) but also some perfumes of Alméras there is something special about the creation of the floral note as if a "scent wheel" (originating from the early lab) was used to generate a new note. Until I started to reconstruct this map I though that the scent of complex floral mixtures cannot be predicted. The floral scent is like a space with n dimensions where each molecule is a vector (that's already mathematics). My map is just a 2D projection. Suddenly I understood why some floral scents are not easy to be blended (lilac-tuberose), what sits next to linden tree blossom, why some floral notes have a honey note and other not and many other personal questions. Did you ever asked yourselves why L'Heure Bleue is a masterpiece with such an outstanding longevity on the market? Jacques Guerlain achieved a complex harmony where the notes have a special disposition on the map representing something fundamental (I will detail later about Jacques and his work). An original note appears when unrelated parts of the map are put together creating a "new space", an area that is not located between, but somewhere "up" or "down" (the case of Origan, one of the early "fantasy" scents).
This map is proprietary, do not expect to see it published anywhere but with patience it can be rebuilt and combined with the other powerful tool - the evolution of scent in time (evaporation and other physical data) to combine aesthetic choice with knowledge.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
