Among the many scented flowers of early spring, Daphne has a special place capturing in its small flowers the freshness of the air before other flowers, more fragrant, would embalm the sunny days of March.
There are several types of Daphne known in the garden and less by modern perfumers. This flower had a special appeal in the early part of XXth century, but has been almost forgotten in the modern days when perfumes are imagined in high tech glass boxes after reading a consumer report that writes "We want flankers!".
Daphne mezereum is maybe the best known type, but there are other scented Daphne flowers like Daphne alpina, Daphne cneorum, Daphne striata, Daphne philippi, Daphne blagayana, Daphne laureola, etc. They are all scented covering many types of notes, rather strong, heavy, vanilla like around an aromatic spicy concept and there is even one that has a violet note. Two endangered types have been presented and analyzed by Roman Kaiser in his book, Scent of the Vanishing Flora
, when he traveled around the world to bring unknown scents for Givaudan.
, when he traveled around the world to bring unknown scents for Givaudan.The Daphne I'm presenting to you comes from Paris. It is Daphne odora Aureomarginata, in bloom in early spring.
The small flowers have a surprising delicious fresh lemony scent surrounded by several unusual facets adding a special twist to its light but very strong scent. It obviously smells like a bouquet of rose alcohols underlined by the correspondent aldehydes. It clearly evokes the early spring honey suckle (different from the June type), but unlike this fresh flower, the accent is not on the green notes and more on the orange flower molecules. In fact, Daphne odora, has many aspects of the neroli scent, like the best accord between rosy notes and neroli oil elements, with that strong lemon element. But right under all this floral fresh profusion lies another curious facet. Daphne odora is quite spicy and its spiciness is not obviously related to clove nor to cinnamon. As the flowers start to fade, a bizarre ammonia and urinaceous scent would develop in the background, while the vanilla element found in other Daphne is not very characteristic being replaced by a very light balsamic - faint guaiacol facet.
Daphne odora has common points with honeysuckle, magnolia grandiflora, neroli, but it is less related to lily of the valley and rose (despite the presence of rosy elements). It suggests the old interpretations of the honeysuckle, I'm thinking of a De Laire base, that can be very easy modified to become a Daphne odora scent.
To illustrate the perfume of the flowers I made a short reproduction, without disclosing the proportions, that can be used for a further study of the floral scent and its interpretation (the ingredients are arranged according to their importance and the first part represents the scent main profile)
Daphne odora Aureomarginata
Geraniol
Citronellol
Nerol
Linalol
Linalol oxid 10%
Citral 10%
Neroli oil
Indol 10%
Benzyl alcohol
Laurel leaf 10%
Methyl eugenol, 1%
Hexenol cis 3, 10%
Acetat cis 3 hexenil, 10%
Citronelil acetate, 10%
Ocimen 10%
Aldehyde C9, 1%
Methyl p-cresol, 1%
Vanillin, 1%
p-vinyl guaiacol, 0,1%
Did you enjoy my article? Sign up for updates about new fragrances, reviews of artistic perfumes and exceptional vintage masterpieces. I would be very happy if you would consider joining 1000 Fragrances, throughRSS feed,GoogleFriend connect, Facebook (more personal), or any other way that appeals to you.
Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
