Muguet - Hydroxycitronellal

Hydroxycitronellal is the synthetic Muguet. It posses a very fragrant fruity floral odour resembling the smell of lindenblossom or lily-of-the-valley. It’s not strong and is also a base note, so for the first time your nose might smell almost nothing from the blotter dipped in hydroxycitronellal. But the more you work with it the more intensive it gets – a warm, musky sweet, very fragrant and fruity floral smell. I have two samples of this aromachemical. One is from the PerfumersWorld and another one is from the Hekserij.nl. It’s interesting to notice that the sample from the PerfumersWorld has a touch of unpleasant bitter citronella-like top-note. Depending on surrounding materials this note can either disappear or give a disturbing citronella smelling nuance to the Muguet compositions (especially when mixed with low quality citronellol). But the aromachemical from the hekserij.nl is divine – almost like smelling a real flower.

This material has been manufactured and sold by Givaudan under the name of Laurine since 1906 and is the oldest essential building stone of the muguet note. But another sources mention the 1908 as a year when hydroxycitronellal was made by Chuit for the first time. Both can be true. Although it has some disadvantages (weak odour, stability problems, irritating effect on skin), it’s the best aromachemical reproducing the lily-of-the valley odour. The problem is that because of it rather weak smell it needs to be used in relatively high amounts to make a noticeable effect. But from another side it irritates the skin at high concentrations. IFRA has restricted the use of hydroxycitrobellal up to 1% in perfumes that makes problematic to use of high concentration of this aromachemical in fragrances at perfume concentration. But it is still enough to make a descent Muguet soliflore at EdT or even EdP concentration.

For the first time it was successfully used in Quelques Fleur by Houbigant (1912). The most famous is its use in Diorissimo – the Lily-of-the-Valley perfume. Hydroxycitronellal is used in the notes of muguet, lilac, lindenblossom, sweat pea, magnolia, hyacinth, but also as a modifier in many other perfumes.

Muguet - what could be the reference?

Image - from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lily-of-the-valley)

May, the last month of spring, has left and I’ve realized that I couldn’t smell the fresh lilies-of-the-valleys this year. Pity… as the fresh flower is always the best reference odour. So, what could be another reference odour for Muguet?

In many cases essential oils of the plant smell more or less similar to the plant itself. Is there lily-of-the-valley essential oil available? Unfortunately there is not. Those flowers are too fragile and contain very small percentage of essential oil, so it’s impossible to yield it by mean of distillation. But lily-of-the-valley absolute was commercially available. It was produced in small quantities, but on regular bases. Robertret was one of the firm producing the best lily-of-the-valley absolute. In Yearb. Pharm. from 1902 was even mentioned that Haensel distilled some pleasantly smelling essential oil from the leaves of this plant. The yield was only 0.058%, but he did it. Although lily-of-the-valley absolute posses a pleasant smell, it doesn’t reproduce accurately the smell of the fresh flower and is not really interesting for perfumers. So, it can’t compete with cheaper synthetic materials. Thus, there is no reference for muguet odour among naturals.

So, it looks like I better go and search among synthetic materials and floral bases. Hydroxycitronellal, Lyral, Lilial and Cyclamen aldehyde are the most common Muguet compounds. And hydroxycitronellal is often mentioned as an aromachemical that accurately reproduces the smell of the real flower. Could it be the reference muguet or should I look further among more complex accords and bases?

Well, Osmoz.com has made a very pleasant surprise to all perfumery addicted and fragrant junkies. Firmenich, the firm behind Osmoz has created three sets of notes and accords used in perfumery. Firmenich is famous by the quality of its raw materials and you can expect their nice notes and accords to be the good reference points. As those accords are made for educational purposes and are not supposed to be applied on skin, there is no need to follow IFRA recommendations and you can expect high quality accords not restricted by safety concerns.

The fourth bottle of their Original Flowers set contains Lily-of-the-valley accord (based on restricted, but beautiful hydroxycitronellal). I think this one will become my reference Muguet till next May when I hope to be able to smell the fresh flowers. It’s tender and soft, but very fragrant Muguet combining the fruity jasmine notes with freshness and fruitiness of rose, some wetness, green aspects and some very small nuances of spicy and narcotic notes. It recalls a carpet of fresh flowers in a shadow of the trees of a leafy forest. A spot of refreshing coolness on a hot summer day. Fresh green leaves. Softness. Semi-transperency. White and bluish white colour. Round forms. Dew drops. Very natural Lily-of-the-valley scent. So, let it be my reference Muguet.

Arpège - a classic french floral aldehydic.

Russian version: http://aromax.livejournal.com/5064.html

Arpège is a perfume that can be referred as floral aldehydic together with Chanel N5, Madame Rochas, Calandre, Rive Gauche and White Linen. The base of this perfume consists of woody notes of Sandalwood and Vetiver in combination with sweet Vanilla, Coumarin and Musk. In its heart there is a classic combination of Rose, Jasmin and Lilly-of-the-valley together with Tuberose and Iris warmed with spices like Clove bud and Coriander. The top notes consist of Bergamot, Aldehydes and Neroli sweetened with Peach. Well, with another words it's a very classic French flowery perfume – elegant, stylish and very suitable for a special occasion like an evening in the theater or an reception.

Very special of this perfume is that originally it was made of a high-quality flower bases. There are finest naturals used, like huge amount of Sandalwood next to Bulgarian Rose, Jasmin absolute, Ylang-Ylang and Neroli. It gives this perfume a sumptuous character. The recent reformulation in 90’s was performed with all respect to the original attempting to keep the spirit of the perfume unchanged.

The slightly spicy floral part Arpège is less spicy than Madame Rochas or L’Air du Temps and has more natural floral character than Rive Gauche. Compared to Chanel N 5 Arpège has less striking aldehydic character. Therefore it's a nice perfume for someone who find Chanel N5 too sharp, but loves classic French style flowery perfumes. The difference between Arpège and Chanel N5 is easy to understand when you look to the main purpose of the both perfume houses. The goal of Chanel was emancipation – liberating of woman that you can smell in a defiant character of Chanel N5. Lanvin’s goal was to embellish a woman.

The embellishing quality of Arpège reminds me of The Necklace (La Parure) by Guy de Maupassant. Mathilde Loisel who is not content with her middle-class state and dreams about luxuary life is invited to an official ball at the Ministery. She has got a dress already but is very desperate because she doesn’t have any jewel to embellish her dress. Finally she borrows a necklace from a friend of her. She steals the evening completely. Arpège is such a necklace to me – a nice finishing touch of class and elegancy for a formal reception. A potion for a young middle-class girl to become a noble lady for one night.

This perfume is made in 1927 by a perfumer André Fraysse by order of Jeanne Lanvin who intended this as a gift for the 30st birthday of her very beloved daughter Marie-Blanche. The strong connection between mother and daughter you can see in a golden logotype of Lanvin. It’s a stylized picture of Jeanne giving an embrace to Marie-Blanche. Mother wanted only the best ingredients in the most precious gift for her daughter. The name is chosen for the perfume, because Marie-Blanche liked music as much as perfume and could see the affinity between both arts.

Chanel No. 5

Nederlands: http://aromax-geurbeschrijving.blogspot.com/search/label/No.%205

The first perfume of Gabrielle Chanelle made by Ernest Beaux. The perfume that had to smell like a woman according to Coco who said that “woman should smell like a woman and not like a flower.” This perfume is a landmark of the perfumery – Ernest Beaux has opened a new group of aldegydic floral perfumes with Chanel No. 5. He has succeeded to use the huge amounts of sharp aldehydes in this perfume. It was the fifth perfume in the row of perfumes presented to Coco to be chosen as the first perfume of her fashion house. It was introduced on the fifth day of the fifth month in 1921, because Chanel believed it was a lucky number. Lucky or not it was and is a great success. There were just and only a several drops of Chanel that Marilyn Monroe was wearing in her bed. But enough of the legend. What does it smells like?

When I smelled this perfume for the first time I didn’t like it at all. The sharp aldehydes smell was not the scent of ultimate femininity. It was a bitch – sharp, annoying, provocative and obnoxious at the same time. But it was just one aspect of this perfume as “the bitch” is just one aspect of the femininity. Even if it’s difficult to recognize it in yourself. I don’t want to be a sexist and when I am talking about femininity I am talking about a kind of universal feminine essence that exists in both sexes.

Today I have smelled this perfume again. Completely charmed with mystery and legends around number 5. I wanted to meet the bitch again and I was rewarded with other aspects of femininity hidden in this perfume. Behind the top note that has some orange blossom together with aldehydes I couls smell a heart of this perfume.

The heart opened with a flowery bouquet of rose, jasmine and later also iris. A lovely combination of charming and overwhelming flowers of class and elegance. The next aspect of femininity was revealing itself – La Diva. According to legend Chanel uses huge (much more than average) amounts of costly absolutes of rose and jasmine in this perfume to give it class and elegance.

Behind the chic heart the warm base note came to reveal itself. A warm scent of Amber sweetened with Vanilla, supported with woody Sandal and Vetiver and slightly spiced with Musk. The final, but the most various aspect of the feminity. The loving mother, provocative lover, charming seducer and faithful girlfriend – the warmth of love and heat of passion together. At this point the perfume had reached its balance was shining in all its glory.

Eau de perfume and perfume was the most fine to experience. Eau de toilette was a bit too sharp and green in the beginning and had less chic flowers in its heart.

Other perfumes that like at Chanel No. 5 are Arpège of Lanvin and Chanel No. 22. The first one is another example of floral aldehydic group and the second one is a kind of “light” version of Chanel No. 5.