If perfumery uses a whole bunch of ingredients, we must recognize that flowers are the star of this field.
What's more, their often very decorative appearance can also help to awaken the imagination of perfumers.
As such, freesia turns out to be a plant that is just as sublime as it is fragrant.
Freesia is a bulb plant that comes directly from South Africa, and more particularly from the Cape Province.
The latter is cultivated for its very fragrant flowers but also for its appearance with varied and vibrant colors.
It belongs to the Iridaceae family and its name comes from the botanist Ecklon who decided to call it that in 1866, in honor of a German doctor called Fresse.
This herbaceous plant grows from the start of winter and forms a tuft of narrow leaves 10 to 30 cm long.
Freesia flowers, for their part, begin to bloom in early spring and develop in clusters.
The whole thing unfolds in the form of a spike with six petals.
These can be white, yellow or purple and release a very heady scent, somewhat similar to that of jasmine.
Generally speaking, the freesia is a flower that adapts very well to drought and which particularly appreciates the Mediterranean climate.
It is an ornamental plant that gardeners like to transform through hybridizations, always giving more possibilities for lively and luminous colors.
Freesia, a note widely used in perfumery
In addition to its eccentric look, freesia is also a plant very popular with perfumers.
It is even one of the flowers most used in perfumery.
Its scent is both floral and luminous.
It is close to that of jasmine or orange blossom while having suave, almost fruity accents.
However, its odor cannot be extracted and must therefore be reproduced in the laboratory from other raw materials or via the use of the head space technique,
a method developed in the 1970s and aimed at reconstituting the natural scents of a flower as they exist in nature and without damaging them.
Freesia is used in both men's and women's perfumes.
As for men, it is present in the emblematic Acqua Di Gio by Armani, in Allure pour Homme by Chanel or in Arabian Wood by Tom Ford.
Among women, on the other hand, it is proudly displayed in Alaïa Paris by Azzedine Alaïa, in Alien Acqua Chic by Thierry Mugler or in Ame Coquine by Chantal Thomass.
