Mayflower in Perfumery | Première Peau

Clean, waxy-white, faintly spicy. Lighter than hyacinth, less sweet than lily of the valley. A cool, early-spring floral with a green-mossy undertone and a trace of clove-like spice. Barely there — the kind of scent you catch on a breeze and cannot locate.

Mayflower refers most commonly to Epigaea repens (trailing arbutus), the low-growing, fragrant wildflower of northeastern North America — though the name is also used for Crataegus monogyna (hawthorn) in Britain. In perfumery, the reference is typically to the trailing arbutus: a delicate, waxy-white floral with clean, slightly spicy undertones.

Epigaea repens grows in acidic, sandy soils under pine and oak canopy from Newfoundland to Florida. The flowers are small, pink-white, and intensely fragrant — their scent is often described as a lighter, cleaner version of hyacinth with green and spicy facets. The plant is the state flower of Massachusetts.

No commercial extraction exists. The note is a fantasy accord reconstructed from muguet-type synthetics, green notes, and clean musks. The olfactory target is a pale, understated florality — spring at its earliest, before the heavy flowers arrive.

In composition, mayflower provides delicate white floral character suited to clean, airy, spring-like fragrances.