Without immediate action, a decline in natural Oud will become dramatic for GCC very soon.
Oud originates from Aquilaria trees found in India and Southeast Asia. The wood found inside these trees gets a particular mold, which gives it a unique fragrance. The initial scent of Oud is quite strong but over time it becomes subtler and is quite lasting.
Oud has more than 3000 years of history, and its use began in China, Japan, India and the Middle East. At that time, only kings, emperors and the wealthy could benefit from it and appreciate its virtues. 

Let's retrace chronologically the appearances of agarwood throughout history: 
 
During the time of the pyramids and the pharaohs, the Egyptians used it in their rituals to embalm the bodies of privileged families. 
 
Between 800 and 600 BC. Gaharu is mentioned in the Sushruta Samhita, which is a Sanskrit (ancient Hindu) text about the medicine and surgery of the time. It is also mentioned in the biography of an emperor of North India (Harshacharita) in 700 BC. J.-C. Around the same time (600 BC), Xuanzang, a Buddhist monk from China, described the use of aloe wood and its oil for writing sacred texts.  
 
In 600 BC, in Japan, the Chronicles of Japan called "Nihon Shoki", the second oldest book on the classical history of Japan, mentioned the existence of aloe wood, following the discovery of a piece of wood identified as originating from Pursat, Cambodia, due to its typical scent of aloe wood from that region. This piece of wood is still in existence today, and belongs to the National Museum of Nara. It is displayed to the public less than 10 times per century, to prevent damage.  
 
In 300 BC, in Ancient China, the chronicles of “Nan Zhou Yi WU Zhi” (“Strange Things from the South”) written by Wa Zhen of the Wu Dynasty mentions aloewood (agarwood). It was later discovered that wealthy families in Ancient China used calambac for creating the coffins of their deceased. Buddhists used aloewood for their mala (long bracelets or necklaces made of 108 wooden beads).  
 
In the year 800, the use of oud wood for its medicinal properties is also mentioned in the Hadith Qudsi (Sacred Words) of Sahîh Muslim.  
 
In France, King Louis XIV soaked his clothes in rose water, water that had been previously boiled with oud wood.
 
Historically, fragrances were oil-based.  There is an old distillation style predominant in India where materials are distilled into Sandalwood oil – better known as Attar-style distillation. 
 
In Muslim cultures, where alcohol is not used – there is a style of perfume compounding that is alcohol-free, and composed entirely of oil extracts, or Sandal or Oud oil as a base (rather than alcohol or carrier oil). 
These oils are generally referred to as Attar or Mukhallats.

Harvest and trade of agarwood include raw materials for distillation of essential agarwood oil, which is used for perfume throughout the Middle East, and unprocessed agarwood, which is used in medicinal, aromatic, ceremonial and religious preparations. 

The different kind of oud presentations
1. Oud Oil, pure, as perfume material.
2. Oud Chips, as burning incence particularly for Middle Eastern countries (In Arabic Bukhoor)
3. Agarwood base wooden accessories such wooden keychain, bracelet, liontin or pendant.
4. Oudh block or chunk for any purposes such as Buddha sculpture, wooden home decoration, vintage.
5. Agarwood tea

Without immediate action, a decline in natural Oud will become dramatic for GCC very soon.
 
The Middle East has a very important cultural heritage; it is urgent to protect and invest in the preservation of Oud. 
 
Ever since the chemical industry began creating and patenting synthetic scent molecules to replace natural oud perfumes by synthetic oud, aquilaria trees have been considered as endangered species. 
Vast forests of mature Aquilaria trees present in countries such as Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, Viet Nam, and India have been over harvested for the precious Agarwood raw materials to a point where some countries have actually forbidden companies to remove more mature Aquilaria trees.
 
As part of its World Heritage Program to protect fragrant flowers, plants and trees worldwide, The International Perfume Foundation is studying the situation of Aquilaria trees.             

The species is considered critically endangered. Intensive and destructive harvesting and reduction of habitat areas have led to international concern for the future of the species. This has resulted in listing of the genus Aquilaria on CITES Appendix II (CITES, 2005), and several species of Aquilaria are on the IUCN Red List (IUCN, 2007).     

​The Mission of The International Perfume Foundation is to protect this beautiful heritage of natural fragrance of Aquilaria trees in bringing alternatives to forest-based harvesting.
​We recognize the unsustainable Aquilaria harvesting in natural forests that resulted in the near extinction of this tree genus. In addition, both in the short and long-term, a natural resource base needs to be maintained to supply present and future Aquilaria plantations with genetic source material in order to prevent plant decease, maintain diversity, and possibly improve resin production.
Aquilaria crassna, a tree species on CITES Appen- dix II and categorized as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, is the main source of the highly valuable, fragrant and resinous agarwood that is extracted in forests in South- east Asia, exported to East Asian and Arab countries, and used for a range of medicinal, aromatic and religious products. 

Aquilaria crassna (Family Thymelaeaceae) is an upper understorey tree occurring in primary ever- green and semi-evergreen forests at altitudes from 600- 1,400 m. Agarwood or gaharu is a dark-coloured, fragrant resin that accumulates in roots, trunk and branches of the tree as nodules of varying age, shape, size and commercial quality. Agarwood is formed by the tree in response to injury if the primary mechanism, formation of phloem callus tissue, is inhibited.  The resinous agarwood acts as a chemical barrier to attacks by fungi and insects but under natural conditions it is not formed by all trees.

It is the ability of harvesters to determine if a tree is likely to contain agarwood in commercial qualities and quantities, and to decide with some confidence if a tree should be felled or not. For standing trees the presence of agarwood and its quality is assessed using several interrelated indicators: tree, stem and bark characteristics, phenology, wounding, presence of tree-boring insects, bore dust and ants, and various indicators that can be assessed after injuring the trees, e.g. black spots in the white sapwood. Trees with a Diameter at Breast Height (DBH) of more than 50 cm have a high likelihood of containing agarwood but even trees of 10 cm DBH may contain agarwood. 

​Experienced harvesters will tend to fell all trees encountered with DBH of more than 50 cm as well as fruit-bearing trees because size and fruiting are some of the external signs of agarwood formation. 
To fell a tree takes 0,5-4 hours and it is therefore possible to increase the daily net revenue considerably by harvesting trees that contain high quality agarwood. Potentially harvesters with good targeting ability will therefore leave trees without commercial qualities and quantities of agarwood untouched, leading to less impact on the population of Aquilaria while harvesters who have poor targeting ability will fell many trees.
​
High value/low quantity products are sold in regional, national and international markets, whereas low quality/ high quantity products are mainly sold in local markets. 
To increase revenue, highly skilled harvesters are compelled to fell only the small number of trees containing high quality agarwood. These products are sold in regional, national and international markets, explaining why degree of commercialization and targeting ability are closely related. It is likely, therefore, that harvesting by experienced and knowledgeable harvesters will leave populations relatively intact except for removal of a few, large trees. By contrast, inexperienced harvesters are likely to be indiscriminate in their harvesting, leaving only a few trees intact and spending considerable time felling and chopping up trees that do not yield agarwood. 
When agarwood-forming trees become increasingly harder to find, experienced, knowledgeable harvesters will abandon Aquilaria habitats and a dramatic decline in natural Oud will become dramatic for GCC very soon.

The International Perfume Foundation (IPF) is developing a program to protect Oud through a natural resource valuation approach for the benefit of local communities. 

Sustainable Growing and Processing Aquilaria Planting Programs:
​ 
To protect Oud and prove its sustainabilityIPF World Heritage Programand Teacher’s Academy implement best practices for processing aquilaria for Oud fragrance using Best Practices.

1. Help plant growers develop sustainable organic agricultural best practices for growing and harvesting trees for fragrance, insuring continuous sources of sustainable, high quality essential oud oils.
2. Helping farms recognize the advantages of waiting until aquilaria trees mature before harvesting them to keep quality at the highest levels.
3. Introducing effective agricultural methods allowing “cash” crops to be grown on the same parcel providing income while aquilaria trees are maturing.
4. Introducing other plants and flowers to be grown along for perfumers or the same industry, as well as developing their distillation practices.
5. Hire experienced harvesters to teach new harvesters and less experienced ones to secure the continuation of a sustainable supply chain.
6. Certify growers and harvesters.
7. Improve market access and increase value in trade to increase returns and employment opportunities, especially for poor and disadvantaged people.
8. Create opportunities for conservation of ecosystems and preservation of valuable species
9. Coordinating with WWF and other groups protecting Aquilaria worldwide to remove aquilaria trees from red lists.

If this subject interest you,  join us in Paris on February 22 at Tous Au Parfum, the First International Meeting of Perfume Professions.  

by Terry Johnson
​Vice Chairman IPF

The current combined total of the US market for perfumes and aromatherapy is about $24 billion, of which Natural Perfumery and Natural Aromatherapy represent less than 10% market share and this number has been shrinking every year.
This should not be a complete surprise, since most perfume sales mainly come from multi-billion dollar synthetic perfume brands supported by multi-billion dollar synthetic chemical company suppliers, and aromatherapy is dominated by two huge companies combining for 75% of aromatherapy’s market share.
​
How can individual Natural Perfumers and Natural Aromatherapists overcome these powerful forces and increase their market? Here are Five Keys to Your Market Success:

1. Conduct your business with a Beginner’s Mind
However long you have been in business (whether you are just starting out or have been working for 30 years) you need to constantly rethink or confirm the basic fundamentals of your business including your Mission Statement, Vision Statement and Value Proposition. These important business practices represent the value-based foundation upon which you can build your future successful business. 

2. Recognize and support the high value essential oil distribution chain community
The International Perfume Foundation is organizing this community through certification of the complete supply chain from growers, producers, schools, Natural Perfumers, Natural Aromatherapists and Perfumotherapists. Only by uniting our community with common values and standards can we hope to successfully compete with these market giants.

3. Keep updating and educating yourself 
The world has been and will be continuing to change, which necessitates keeping up-to-date about the latest information on Olfaction, Natural Perfumery, Natural Aromatherapy, Perfumotherapy and Business.

4. Incorporate information and stories from sourcing into your marketing messaging that builds the value of products and services that you provide consumers
Proper sourcing doesn’t just involve finding a dependable supplier of great essential oils. Those things are important, however as important is finding out transparently who grew or processed your sources, how were they grown or processed, and with what sustainable methods?  These are questions consumers are asking from other high value industries. Those who incorporate the same values into their products and services within our high value community will increasingly attract educated and informed consumers who demand more but are willing to pay more for value.

5. Increase the engagement within your communities by recognizing what they want
A substantial number of consumers want greater value in the products they purchase. For natural essences this would be the highest value products possible with freedom from GMO, freedom from synthetics and natural and sustainable sources.
How many consumers are out there who recognize value and are willing to pay more for it?
Consider before Starbucks there was no sustainable brewed coffee.
Starbucks created the sustainable brewed coffee market and was able to charge 4 times what brewed coffee sold for at that time. Sustainable brewed coffee is now a $25 billion market in the US and represents 50% market share!
We have the same, if not even greater opportunity in today’s world for significant market share growth in our community!

​There are several raw materials used in perfumery that are extracted from roots of plants. They usually give depth, character and dimension to the fragrance as well as serve as fixatives. We can say that they are the roots of perfumery. 
 
The new extraction methods, botanical discoveries, the search for new unusual raw materials helps to expand the perfumer's palette. In the past, the number of natural extracts was limited, but today progress and research offer us many more. Perhaps, the task of a natural perfumer could also be to discover and rediscover new or forgotten raw materials. Not being tied to the dictates of the market, we have the opportunity to experiment and experience returning to the roots of perfumery. And it is precisely the roots, rhizomes, tubers that are one of the building blocks of the art of perfumery: vetiver, iris, ginger, angelica, valerian, costus, calamus, nard and many others.

I love to experiment and search for new olfactory nuances even if, I must confess that, not all the extracts I prepare are used in a final composition. In my research, I like to browse old herbal or medicine books and be inspired by a smell found in nature.
​In my garden, I have a small pond where I grow water lilies. At the beginning of spring, a few years ago, I decided to empty it and clean it. The rhizomes of the water lilies had grown out of all proportion, intertwining with each other. While I was trying to take them off some of them broke. I was immediately struck by their particular smell: damp, muddy, to a certain extent aquatic with green and woody facets. At that precise moment, the idea was born. I left them to dry and try to do an extraction with alcohol. The result was surprising: the dried rhizome conveyed that earthy and humid scent, of mud or clay, of wet earth together with a mixture of woody, dry and vaguely spicy notes.
​
Another experiment was born by chance during a bonsai workshop.
Some participants were transplanting maples and had to cut some of the roots of the plants. The scent of these maple roots made me smile because it reminded me of freshly dug up carrots. Again, the final tincture was surprising. 
Usually, the first attempt to extract a raw material is that of the tincture. I find it also the simplest one to do at home. The roots or rhizomes are cleaned and washed of earth residues, left to dry in the dark place or with the help of a fruit dryer machine and then placed in the previously sterilized glass jars. The amount of raw material is weighed and submerged by alcohol. After a few days, I check the procedure, smell the extract thus obtained and decide whether the exhausted material should be replaced or left to infuse for a longer period.

There are some plants that we do not immediately consider usable in perfumery but that we often use in the kitchen but which at the same time have their own “scented” potential.
​In addition to ginger, calamus, angelica you can use turnips, carrots, radishes, celery, asparagus not to forget truffles. From natural cosmetics, on the other hand, the rhizomes of peony, arrowroot, Hedychium spp, liquorice, burdock can be used. From popular and herbal medicine: burdock, Althea, Angelica, Inula racemosa, Geranium Robetianum, Polygonatum spp, Rheum spp, Bergenia Ligulata etc.
The list of plants would be very long but I would like to challenge you to find new ones, stimulate your creativity and inventiveness to create something new and why not also be innovative.
​Pick up old herbaria, take a walk, let yourself be guided and inspired by your nose. Sniff out the treasures that Nature has to offer, be the “truffle dog” of the Natural Perfumery.

If you are interested in Learning Raw Material Extraction Methods, enrol for an 8 weeks online certified course with Andrej Babicky at the perfumefoundation.academy

by Terry Johnson

When studying the origins of Natural Perfumery and Natural Aromatherapy three things become very clear:
​

1. We have an amazing history, heritage and culture that need to be remembered and continually connected with.
2. From nature’s abundance of plants and flowers we can produce wonderful substances (such as essential oils and natural perfumes) that have long histories of providing humans with improved health and happiness.
3. This history, heritage and culture as well as these incredible plants and flowers, the products they produce and the people who work with them are existentially threatened and must be protected and nurtured.

Of course, we have other threats to deal with such as the pandemic, but the much greater and longer term threats are competitive in nature. For Natural Perfumers the threat is large synthetic perfume brands. Natural Aromatherapists are threatened by huge, billion-dollar essential oil retailers. 

As formidable as these companies appear, we can successfully compete with these wealthy giants if can utilize the following strategies:
​

1. Develop, grow and certify the high value, sustainable essential oil supply chain
2. Improve retail messaging and pricing strategies to better serve artisan retailers and their high value consumers

The first few steps in achieving these strategies are already underway.  
In early 2019, The International Committee on Sustainability of Aromatic Plants and Essential Oils was formed. By June of 2020 the Committee had developed Sustainable Essential Oil Standards (SEOS) for growers and producers. These are the most comprehensive standards (including organic) for essential oils. You can find out more here:  https://www.essentialoilstandards.com/

Now that we have SEOS, the International Perfume Foundation (IPF) will be able to complete the certification of the entire essential oil supply chain including growers, producers, distributors, schools, Natural Perfumers, Natural Aromatherapists, Natural Olfaction Trainers and Natural Perfumotherapists.

As SEOS Certified products become more available, IPF will share this information with everyone. These new SEOS standards will help the supply chain achieve the authenticity, integrity and transparency necessary to attract many more high value consumers who are willing to pay more for products that have greater value to them. 

Once these consumers are satisfied with that value, they become loyal customers who will repurchase again and again. At that point we can begin the process of staking out the huge untapped, high value end of the market as our own.

The Lavender industry has existed a long way back from centuries ago. Until now, it has proven to be an excellent resource for its health, aromatic, relaxing, and other wellness benefits. Moreover, you can discover their uses and benefits, as well as how to start to create or grow your Lavender farm. There are so many products that use Lavender as a main ingredient. Almost everybody loves the smell of lavender, so nowadays, the market is also filled with fragrances and hygienic products that contain it. 

Lavender is the common name for lavendula, a flowering plant consisting of 39 species. Originating in Southern Europe, the Mediterranean, South West Asia, South East Asia, Northern and Eastern Africa, as well as Cape Verde and the Canary Islands, the plant grows particularly well in hot climates. It is grown as both an ornamental plant and commercially, for the extraction of essential oil.

To produce lavender essential oil, the lavender plants are first placed in a distillation tank. As the tank is loaded, the steam travels through the plants and drains out the essential oils. The steam is then cooled in the condenser whereby the mix becomes a liquid. The mix of essential oil and water is separated in a florentine vase; the oil floats to the surface and is collected.

During the summer months, you can expect to see several fields of lavender in the south of France. This country is a leading producer of Lavender, as they’re responsible for supplying 30% of the entire industry. Unfortunately, according to the article, there has been a decline in the supply because of environmental and climatic concerns. But despite that, the demand from consumers continues to remain high. And because of that, the industry is looking for ways to consistently meet the high demand. 

France’s Lavender producers continue to encourage local farmers to maximize efforts in growing Lavenders and provide enough supplies. They continue to strategize how to increase supply, which is enough reason why they continue to be the leader in the Lavender industry. Aside from France, many local farmers worldwide have considered growing Lavender for profits because of its persistent demand.

The plant is a favorite among consumers, so as long as farmers and suppliers effectively handle its production, the industry could continue to boom, making it a vital resource in the market except that the chemical industry is longing to take over the market. You cannot patent nature but they can create the scent of lavender with a composition of a few molecules created synthetically in a laboratory.  And these creations can be patented and put on the market.

Their lobby convinced the EU lavender contains linalool an allergen. This is a huge problem for lavender growers in the EU while making the use of lavender impossible for aromatherapists and natural perfumers.  
Considering isolated molecules is a lack of knowledge when we talk about botanicals. A flower or a plant should be considered as a whole as molecules are interacting between themselves and the EU commission recognised they've never tested any botanicals.
During a meeting between the EU Commission, the International Perfume Foundation and Cropwatch in 2007, IPF underlined that ‘laboratory bench’ investigations of the alleged toxicity of an isolated single component within a complex biological matrix may be completely misleading. We need protocols that investigate the toxicity of the actual complex ingredients themselves rather than isolated versions of the individual constituents of the ingredients, versions which are often impure (with unspecified impurities), or composed of the wrong isomer(s) compared with the whole plant composition where all molecules interact with each other. 

The European Commission said "they want to protect consumer’s health".

Being part of Natural Perfumery or Natural Aromatherapy is quite challenging today to say the least.
For instance, just having to write “Natural Aromatherapy” and "Natural Perfumery" as an alternative to writing “Aromatherapy” and "Perfumery" illustrates one of our biggest challenges: the presence of synthetic substances within our supply chain. Now, more than at any time, independent artisan Natural Perfumers and Natural Aromatherapists need to recognize and plug into the energy available to help differentiate your products from large competitive forces and help you meet the everyday challenges of doing business in 2021.

First, let’s talk about the energy source. The energy we’re talking about flows from high-value products and information about these high value products, and comes from a Community of high value essential oils that power sales to customers looking for higher value and are willing to pay more for them.

Plugging into this Community is something like plugging in an electrical appliance: it doesn’t work very well until after it is plugged in. 
As with electricity’s “alternating current”, our Supply/Demand Chain energy is information flowing in both directions. Consumer demands flow one direction back to growers and processors, and products and information about those products flow the other way.
​
Here is what educated and informed customers are looking for:

• Natural products
• Sustainable products
• Freedom from synthetic substances
• Freedom from Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO)

​And here are some suggestions for you to consider:

1. Look at other retail industries for ideas, such as specialty brewed, sustainable coffee like Starbucks. They and other sustainable coffee retailers went from near zero to $25 billion in the US alone in 20 years!
2. Participate in Community workshops, conferences and newsletters.
3. Engage with your local community to find out what local needs and demands are and then pass this information back to your suppliers.

​Our Community is the Value-Added Essential Oil Supply/Demand Chain Community, encompassing everything from seeds to consumer, and for your purposes, this is your team and you are the team leader. We are all waiting for you.
 

THE POWER OF THE RAW MATERIAL AND THE ART OF REDISCOVERING
​THE ORIGINS OF NATURAL PERFUMERY.
A sentimental introduction to the extraction of raw materials.
by Andrej Babicky, Certified Natural Perfumer

​The natural raw materials are obtained through different extraction methods: from distillation, pressing, maceration, washing with solvents to enfleurage. Each of these extraction techniques should correspond to precise criteria to be both repeatable and sustainable: the raw material should allow to obtain a qualitatively and quantitatively high yield, be easily executable, sustainable, and have a low production cost. For those who could produce raw materials on their own, some of these factors are only relatively important, allowing them to engage in the extractions that are commercially unavailable or expensive both in terms of the availability of the raw material and the time spent in processing (for example violet enfleurage). 

by Françoise Rapp, Certified Natural Perfumer

Before the appearance of the first fougère fragrance, which would become the leader of this new family, the trend was more for heavy and animal scents. Indeed, during the Renaissance, opulent musk, civet and amber fragrances were popular at a time when hygiene was not always a priority. But at the beginning of the 19th century, Napoleon I established a new fashion and became a fervent lover of Eau de Cologne, fresh and energizing. 
The history of so-called fougère perfumes dates back to 1882 with the creation of Fougère Royale by the Houbigant perfumery, thanks to perfumer Paul Parquet. At the end of the 19th century, the chic, almost dandy man made a point of hygiene and took care of himself. At the center of men's care, the essential barber. This is why Fougère Royale was a real hit with men: the scents of lavender, wood and coumarin recall the sensations of cleanliness when leaving the barber. 

What is Perfume or the So-Called "Fougère" Scent Family?
The fougère fragrance is an olfactory family that has mainly been used for men's fragrances. This is represented by an accord of aromatic or oriental essences.
The classic fougère accord follows a fresh top note that gives that 'clean' feel. Bergamot, lavender, lemon ... are crisp and fresh. In the heart note, we find either pink geranium or rose and in the base or woody notes, moss, tonka bean, cistus or benzoin to finish on a soft and enveloping note.

The aromatic fougère, in addition to the traditional notes previously mentioned, are added aromatic notes with green herbs such as mint, sage, basil or thyme. In comparison with these aromatic fougère scents, oriental fougère tend more towards sensual and warm dimensions thanks to the addition of spices, woody notes (vetiver, cedar) or oriental notes with resins like benzoin or frankincense.

There are now more modern and trendy variations with more clearly flowery, marine or fruity variations that give a youthful touch to this somewhat classic accord. 
These fougère accords, whether aromatic or oriental, can be easily created in natural perfumery because this accord was originally made up of natural essences. Like the famous Eau de Cologne. This family has evolved over time: powdery, leathery, citrus, aromatic or oriental. It has modernized over time either for legislative issues (oak moss) or to target a younger clientele. It is therefore now used for unisex or even feminine fragrances. There it is worked with notes of geranium, rose more present, citrus for a very fresh and energizing note, or softer and vanilla see milky with tonka bean.

As an exercise in your natural perfume laboratory, be creative and try to reconstitute a fougère fragrance composed only of natural essences ...
Make it your own but keep the classic and aromatic essences as a base.

What essences would you use to compose your botanical fougère note fragrance? Share your experience on our social networks!

There are flower scents that are impossible to extract. These are called silent flowers. These flowers, whose scent perfumes the garden or the room when in plant form, give no essence. To the great despair of perfumers, they cannot appreciate an absolute or an essence of lily of the valley, honeysuckle, white lily, gardenia, jacinth, syringa or even sweet peas.
 
Regardless of the extraction process, steam distillation or extraction with volatile solvents, nothing works. It takes the work of the perfumer to reconstitute the scent of these flowers. This is called reconstitution and each perfumer has his or her own way of perceiving and restoring it.
 
What is a reconstruction?
A reconstitution is a mini-perfume, which may be made up of around ten constituents.

In conventional perfumery, perfumers would mix synthetics and naturals to recreate the subtle scent of lily of the valley:

• Phenylethyl alcohol (green leaf side of the rose) 
• Rose essence (richness of the rose)
• Hydroxycitronellal (lily of the valley green side of the rose)
• Rhodinol (geranium and mint side of the rose)
• Citronellol (fresh side and lemongrass of the rose)
• Linalool (fresh side of the rose)

 
What about with natural raw materials? You can choose essences that are rich in the molecules mentioned above or that have a score that is close to it. 
 
Certified Natural Perfumers will only use essences and absolutes. No isolates! 
And that is all the art of the natural perfumer. They will control the olfactory totum of the plant and its maceration. The master key is a great knowledge of raw materials! Each natural perfumer can thus offer olfactory variants with a greener, fresher note, etc. 
  
Here are some ways to restore the delicate, carefree and innocent scent of lily of the valley using only naturals, the essences that you could use are:

• Chinese geranium richer in citronellol,
• Damascus rose,
• Petitgrain for its green note,
• Violet leaves absolute or litsea cubeba with its fresh green side, ... 

 
And you, what would you use?
​May you practice and be inspired by this exercise in style!
 
More about Lily of the Valley 

Beginning to study perfumery has always been a dream of mine.
I grew up in the countryside where you can smell the flowers in the air during the spring and summer. Life had its clock: the one of Nature. It was a simple but fulfilling life. I was a child then and I can only acknowledge that now when I’m looking back. 
Of course, that part of my life and education never abandoned me. I have tried to grow plants, flowers, harvest berries, and wild fruits when it was possible. Botany was and is one of my hobbies.

I did not consider other kinds of perfumery than the natural one. 
With time, studies in philosophy and aesthetics, visual design, and communication I did acquire a taste for perfumes. Not only to use them as an accessory but as a statement or comfort smell. My inquisitive nature and curiosity brought me to want to know more about perfumery, about what was behind a fragrance. I learned, studied, experimented, eventually began making scented candles and soaps for my friends then later for a couple of shops. Here, playing with waxes and essences, I rediscovered the nature of the essential oils, the healing power of plants, resins, and flowers: all things I was thought by my grandmother and mother when I was younger. I did not consider other kinds of perfumery than the natural one. Of course, I am curious, and I tried different aroma chemicals. I wanted to know them, how they smell, what they do, how they behave. But there was nothing like the “living “essence of the plant, the energy still vibrating through the raw material, evolving, changing: no still life photography but a kaleidoscope of power and vibrancy.
 
Studying natural perfumery has given me the possibility to dwell deeper, to discover new notions, to recognize my mistakes and learn from them, learn from others, which have experience and knowledge. 
 
Today, when I smell an essential oil, I do not smell only the aroma, but I can see them live it is bearing, the power of thousands of plants and flowers. I am aware that to know few raw materials is not enough. The studies never end, there is always something new to learn or to share. Be able to extract my own raw material is a rare value. I can get to know the material before extraction by planting, by taking care, by harvesting. Maybe what is more important: I do not only take from Nature, but I give back planting again, giving flowers for the insects, seeds from the plants for the animals…. I do replicate a circle of life and I help sustain it. It may be not much, but it is still something. I like to think that out there are other people which do the same thing. In the end from small thing may come a big change.

Natural raw material for me is like a living creature: it must be conquered, tamed, but never broken or forced. It is a living, shape-shifting being that evolves in every instant of its life. Like a flower, it opens and delivers its beauty. Working with a material I have cared for as a plant, watched it grow and flourish, harvested by my own, transformed into something new (a tincture, an extract) its indescribable feeling. It is not just an essence, but it is much more: in every drop of it, you can see its life force awaken again and again. The tiny drop of home-brewed raw material brings a new level of complexity and originality. Maybe in this case the creation of perfume begins even earlier, when the plant grows from a seed or when the bud opens to a fragrant flower, I imagine how to capture its fragrance to incorporate it in perfume. 
 
There are an incalculable power and satisfaction in being able to work with a raw material extracted by myself. Its strength and its splendor acquire a more personal connotation because it not only contains the essence of a plant or a flower but also a part of my life, of my commitment, of my efforts. The return to the true art of natural perfumery lies precisely in returning to its roots, to relearn how to extract raw materials with traditional methods to enrich the spectrum of the perfumer with dyes, pomades, extracts, etc. These techniques are well suited to productions in small quantities allowing us to create something new and unusual.
 
Using the plants collected in the woods, in the fields, or cultivated in our gardens or terraces the simple processes of these techniques are well suited to be used to extract small amounts of unique fragrance matter. At the same time, this procedure also becomes the way of getting to know the material better. We accompany it from seed with care to maturity when it can reward us with its very essence.
 
Together we will rediscover these techniques and experiment with their applications to our art by taking from nature what it can offer us and at the same time giving back contributing to an almost inexhaustible life cycle.
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