Underdog Naturals

Unnamed heroes

Marketing copy loves to rabbit on about precious naturals; products like orris butter, rose otto or absolute, jasmine absolute and so forth. Whether or not these are used at appreciable or effective levels within a formula aside, fragrances often contain many naturals in traces for effects that are not lauded in the marketing simply for being unknown, cheap or not sounding as fanciful.

For each of the naturals discussed, I will try to describe part of their utility and at least one fragrance that makes use of it.

Hop absolute and oil

Produced from hops (Humulus lupulus), this is rarely used in perfumery though it remains a signature product of the excellent producer Payan Bertrand, among others. Imagine a beer intensified with a herbal character, fruity and slightly butyric, meaning cheesy albeit subtly. Owing to its unique profile and its potency, if used at all it is usually in traces. It gives interesting effects in fruity, herbal, woody and spicy accords.

In terms of relatively known fragrances, I can name Sycomore from Chanel as containing a trace of hops, giving an enriching effect to the spicy accord around nutmeg, cardamom, pink pepper, pimento and marjoram.

Lovage root oil

Derived from the root of lovage (Levisticum officinale), possessing an odour not unlike lovage itself, between celery, parsley with warm spicy and anisic inflexions, with more of an emphasis on the celery aspect.

While it is recommended for use in spicy, oriental and woody accords, lovage has interesting modifying effects on green notes and because of the celery character, it is ideal for white floral accords like jasmine.

Jasmine and many other flowers contain cis-jasmone, a molecule reminding celery, and it is as classical as Jean Carles the use of celery seed oil in white florals, among other uses like tobacco accords and flavourings.

Lovage stands out in The Different Company’s Sel de Vetiver where its herbal character melds with vetiver, enhances the cardamom and salicylate white floral around ylang. The ‘salt’ concept here is executed by appealing to the association to sunscreen, given the salicylate white floral component, but also to the savoury evocations of using lovage.

Hay absolute or flouve

How glamorous is hay? The absolute produced for perfumery can contain a single species or multiple, though flouve absolute specifically refers to one (Anthoxantum odoratum L.) only, often still produced in Grasse though not exclusively.

While there is a slight animalic aspect, hay absolute is very rich owing to the presence of coumarin and derivatives that give it that agrestic, tonka sweetness and it has a fruit preserve facet with aspects of tobacco. It is more powerful in effect than using tonka bean absolute, which mostly consists of coumarin.

Traces of hay absolute can be used to simply enrich the use of synthetic coumarin, like in a fougère. In Le Labo’s Thé Noir, it bolsters the subtle tobacco aspect of the fragrance owing to the presence of tobacco absolute, rose ketones and bay leaf, as well as the black tea absolute which itself has a tobacco aspect.

Fenugreek absolute

Immortelle notes in fragrances can be polarising because of the liquorice aspect but also fenugreek evoking ‘curry.’ Immortelle absolute itself is much more manageable and pleasant than straight up fenugreek absolute, which is rarely used.

One of the key odourants that gives fenugreek its power is sotolone (caramel furanone), possessing one the lowest odour thresholds in humans. It should be used in traces and in accords that best utilise its character to kill any food associations, especially ‘curry.’ It fits well with tobacco notes (where it is also used to flavour actual tobacco products), leathery accords and very rich orientals or ‘modern’ orientals built around materials like ethyl maltol.

Fenugreek is noticeable in Amouage’s Reckless Leather, though that fragrance’s challenging reputation is truly owed to the combination of high levels of cumin seed oil and galbanum oil, with the cumin accentuating the food aspect of fenugreek.

A far better use of fenugreek was in L’Artisan Parfumeur’s Dzing! where it is used in combination with ethyl maltol and vanillin in the sweet animalic accord.

Valerian root oil

Produced from Valeriana officinalis, it has a woody and balsamic note with an animalic facet somewhat suggestive of that found in some ouds, and as such has found utility in that area, owing to its lower cost and potency.

Used mainly for its animalic effect, I cannot name with certainty a fragrance on the market that uses it with total certainty. However, I mention it here because in a GC analysis of a vintage Jolie Madame from Balmain composed by Germaine Cellier, I strongly suspect its use, in combination with my experience with it in my own formulations.

Given the era in which Jolie Madame was formulated, as well as the fact it was a leathery chypre, very likely containing bases, as was the formulation style of the time as well as of Cellier herself, I would not be surprised of its use.

In Western fragrances, it is not particularly valuable to be able to impart an animalic facet with Valerian root for the purposes of an oud accord, since these are usually not well tolerated and kept sanitised. It would be very interesting to know if the oil has found popularity in formulating for the Middle Eastern market however.