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Rose Otto vs Rose Absolute: Two Extractions | Première Peau
Rose otto and rose absolute are not two grades of the same material. They are two different materials, pulled from the same flower by two...
Neroli: Green, Metallic, Honeyed, Not Sweet | Première Peau
Neroli, orange blossom absolute and petitgrain all come from the same tree. They smell nothing alike. That sentence is the entire article, and almost every...
What Amber Smells Like: Accord, Not Stone | Première Peau
Amber is not a material. No tree bleeds it, no flower carries it, no animal secretes it. What you smell when a bottle says amber...
Iris of Florence: Three Years Underground for an Ounce of Butter
Iris of Florence: Three Years Underground for an Ounce of Butter
Jasmine Sambac: The Flower That Can Only Be Picked at Night
In the villages outside Madurai, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the working day for jasmine pickers begins at three in the morning.
Rose de Mai: Five Thousand Kilos of Petals for One Litre
A number in perfumery that sounds like a mistranslation.
Ylang-Ylang: The Flower That Feeds an Archipelago
Ylang-Ylang: The Flower That Feeds an Archipelago
Patchouli: Rehabilitation of an Olfactory Pariah
Ask someone who does not work in perfumery to name the single smell they associate with the 1960s counterculture, and they will say patchouli.
Civet: Chronicle of an Ingredient That Became Indefensible
Civet: Chronicle of an Ingredient That Became Indefensible