Cattleya orchids with flowers in the white-to-green range
often have a citrusy scent that’s heavy on lemon notes, so one of my latest
challenges has been trying to recreate the scent of a white hybrid cattleya
orchid. I’m getting there, but on the way I’ve struggled with the difficulties
of using lemon as a perfume note. Unfortunately lemon has been ruined by its
gross overuse in functional fragrances for cleaning supplies, almost to the
extent that it evokes a conditioned knee-jerk response of “cleaning product”
even if it’s in a context that has nothing to do with cleaning, like lemonade,
lemon desserts, lemon candies, or lemony colognes. In fact, there are
commercial “lemonade” drinks that taste like they’re flavored with the same
aroma chemicals that are used in cleaning supplies, further blurring the lines
between fruit, food, beverages, detergents, and perfume.
Instead of the standard lemon rind essential oil, I started
with an essential oil made from the whole fruit, which has a gentler and
sweeter scent, along with a little citron. Natural lemon on its own is a top
note, so I added some other materials like lemonile that enhance it and make it
last well into the middle section of the scent, if not the end. The goal is for
it so smell something like an orchid, so there’s plenty of vanilla in the base.
After looking at published analyses of orchid flower fragrances, which are all
over the place even for cattleyas, I chose a few materials that are in a lot of
flowers’ fragrances, like citronellol, linalool, nerolidol and others. Citronellol
and phenylethyl alcohol in particular helped “floralize” the lemon, so the
heart of the perfume is not all that lemony, but includes other fruity-floral
orchid-type notes. The base also contains some light, high-end musks. Combining
lemon with common “laundry musk” would automatically evoke the image of
detergent, so the musk component had to
be done some other way, using materials like cosmone, velvione, muscenone, and
others of their type.
In analyses of orchid flower headspaces, one commonly encountered substance is beta-ocimene, a simple terpene-type molecule that until now hasn’t been
commercially available, at least not to small-scale perfumers. I finally
managed to get some, and added it to the white cattleya. It gives the whole
composition a very natural, fresh feeling, adding the same kind of sparkle that
aldehydes are known for. I’m still working on the formula, but when I return to
Seattle on August 20, I’ll send out samples to my testers so that I can get
feedback. It’s not quite finished, but it’s getting there.
[Lemons and Rhyncholaelia digbyana photos from Wikimedia; white hybrid cattleya photo is mine.]
I just adore the scent of lemon, and since it is a "mood adaptogen" I like to use it in my herbalist perfumes (which have to smell good and be psychologically useful). However, in my regular perfumes, which can be entirely frivolous, I usually write it out and substitute another citrus; just can't get past its functional connotations. I've talked with French perfumers who have the same problem with lavender, which is used to "out-fume" a fumey bathroom. Once a scent is encoded in the brain as "X", it's pretty much impossible to use it for "Y"....
ReplyDeleteMarla, I feel the same way about lavender! Pine is also difficult because it is perceived as a cleaner, disinfectant, or bathroom deodorizer.
DeleteAn interesting post, and this orchid seems wonderful! I bet it's very fresh, with its cracked egg like appearance and lemony nuances!
ReplyDeleteNeyon, I love the "cracked-egg" imagery! The orchid's scent is fresh, but also voluptuous. That's what I'm trying to capture.
DeleteSounds fab. Now I know where to come to to learn more about unusual fragrant flowers :)
DeleteWhere did you find your beta ocimene?
ReplyDeleteThe ocimene is from the John D Walsh Co.
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