Perfume Notes: Florals

When I began thinking about how to approach the very broad and diverse category of florals, it occurred to me that organize it, note by note, would be self-defeating. In the first place, some florals aren't particularly floral; a good example would be iris, which is really more a woody, earthy smell. Others, such as gardenia or lotus, are notoriously difficult to reconstruct, while some, such as lily of the valley, don't even yield a natural extract. But most of all, the problem with florals is that a tendency towards legible, realistic representations, especially in soliflores. Though a technical feat equal to any, since even the finest quality rose extract doesn't smell like the real thing, they are differentiated only by the differences inherent to the flowers themselves, and there's something tedious about a woman who smells like a botanical garden. A proper perfume is abstract. This is why Opium is more beautiful, more interesting, and more important than Bellodgia. And then, there is the fact that if you go note-by-note, you waste time on mediocre perfumes.

So, I've decided to go by treatments, ordered roughly in increasing degrees of complexity, with notes as a secondary consideration. All the soliflores have been lumped together into two categories—transparent (like air fragrant with flowers) and opaque (the latter should recall the creamy, silken textures of petals in addition to verisimilitude)—which strikes me as very just, as all the transparent soliflores in the world put together are not even remotely equal to Chanel No. 5. That's why Jicky's here—it's not a floral, it's a fougère, I'm not disputing that—but otherwise I'd be stuck with lavender water. If you're wondering where the floral chypres are, I've already done a chypre arc.

TREATMENT	PERFUME	DOMINANT FLORAL NOTE
transparent soliflore	Jo Malone Orange Blossom	orange blossom
opaque soliflore	Serge Lutens Tubéreuse Criminelle	tuberose
tropical	Annick Goutal Songes	tropical bouquet
fruity floral via melon	Frédéric Malle Le Parfum de Thérèse	jasmine
aquatic floral via tea	Hermès Osmanthe Yunnan	osmanthus
green, via galbanum	Guerlain Chamade	hyacinth
green, non-galbanum	Ormonde Jayne Ormonde Woman	violet
fougère	Guerlain Jicky	lavender
aldehydic, soapy	Estée Lauder White Linen	muguet, rose
aldehydic, lactonic	Chanel No. 5	rose, jasmine
aldehydic floriental	Caron Parfum Sacré	rose
floriental, spicy	YSL Opium	carnation
floriental, dark	Guerlain Vol de Nuit	narcissus
gourmand floriental	Guerlain L'Heure Bleue	heliotropin