Saturday Question: What Is Your Favourite Floral Note and Why?

/ AustralianPerfumeJunkies

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Portia

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Hello Fellow Fumies,

At APJ we have a Saturday Question. Everyone gets to chime in with an answer, chat with other responders and it’s a fun event each week. Taking sides never means taking offence and everyone keeps it respectful and light, even though we can sometimes trawl the depths.

The idea is you’ll see it on the weekend or chime in through the week. Hopefully you will come back regularly and see if anyone has responded to your comment and you can reply to them. The aim is to generate real conversation and connection even though we are scattered around the globe.

 

Over 100 responses I will draw a Secret Scent Sample Pack (from my collection)

Last Weeks Winner: marcellavmiller

eMail me at (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with your address please

Saturday Question: What Is Your Favourite Floral Note and Why?

There are so many gorgeous flowers, many with scents as or more alluring even than their blooms. There are the stalwarts of fragrance; rose, iris, orange blossom, tuberose, jasmine, lilac, peony, ylang, lavender and carnation. The less often used but just as gorgeous narcissus, marigold, violet, lemon blossom, champaca, apple blossom, orchid, lotus, belladonna, chamomile, hawthorn, hyacinth and myriad others.

My Answer:

Though not in all, or even some, of the perfumes I love. Narcissus is my favourite. It’s dark, pungent, ferocious scent in its pure form is both intoxicating and repellent. Once diluted and added to other notes it loses some of the poisonous qualities and chills out. Suddenly narcissus is enticing, lilting, fun and just a little devilish.

Some of my favourite Narcissus fragrances include Hermès Eau de Narcisse Bleu, Narcisse Noir by Caron, Ostara by Penhaligon’s, Narcissus by CB I Hate Perfume and Vanille & Narcisse by L’Occitane

 

My Saturday Question to you is:

What Is Your Favourite Floral Note and Why?

109 thoughts on “Saturday Question: What Is Your Favourite Floral Note and Why?”

  1. I would have to go with Iris.
    Why? I have no idea but it rarely disappoints. I love its cold, steeliness, equally I love its warm elegance.
    From time to time my tastes may wander off in a different direction buy I always end up coming back to Iris.

    Liked by 2 people

  4. This is a difficult question, I like some floral notes depending on what they are combined with, especially rose and iris. Not a fan of most soliflores. Or tuberose.

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  6. Narcissus, for precisely the reasons you listed. Love a note than can travel from pretty to filthy and back again.

    I was really enjoying the narcissus in Dryad yesterday, and Fazzolari’s Au Dela Narcisse is bloody gorgeous. I can’t believe I’ve never tried Narcisse Noir.

    Liked by 1 person

  7. Rose, and I didn’t get along with her in my beginning perfumista days at all. She is closely followed by iris, hyacinth, orangeblossom, mimosa, ylang-ylang, hawthorn and narcissus though and once in a while swops places with one of them especially iris. I am wearing Ce Soir ou Jamais.

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  9. Very hard question for me. I love iris but I don’t think I have found the perfect iris. Violets and rose are very nostalgic for me, lots of memories associated with them. But to pick a single note I enjoy anywhere I smell it, probably orange blossom.

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  10. This is too hard!!! WAY TOO HARD – LOL!
    Right now I am really enjoying lilac because for me it’s a harbinger of spring (and it’s the most dominant note in my custom blend Brigitte).
    In the past I have loved lily of the valley and violet notes.
    However, I also like orange blossom and have recently discovered that I enjoy orris root.
    See? too hard to pick just one.

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    • Wait a minute…does lavender count? I adore lavender!!! It’s so peaceful and so beautiful and it reminds me of our yoga teacher of 11 years. and it’s probably in just about every fragrance to bridge the top to the mid notes.

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    • and marigold and champaca…yes to those too because they are unusual and when done well so absolutely amazing!!! Same with white and pink lotus (the essential oils of both are amazing!!!! as is tuberose…as is osmanthus which in essential oil format is a complete perfume unto itself…fruity, floral and leather aspects…gorgeous!)….told ya it was too hard for me to answer this question!!!!

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  11. Tough question!! I have to say jasmine sambac, though there are so many others up there – orange blossom, gardenia, rose, and linden blossom.
    I think my favorite jasmine is PPC Hindu Honeysuckle, closely followed by Nasomatto Nuda.

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  12. Ah Jeez Louise, as Brigitte said, TOO HARD😣 But if I absolutely have to, then I’ll say tuberose and for the very reasons that you like narcissus. It can go from virginal white to total dirty girl in the blink of an eye and depending on how it’s blended. I have never seen tuberose in the wild, though, so only talking about it in perfume terms. One of my favourite tuberose perfumes was Annick Goutal Tubereuse. But I have many loves in this genre.
    A close second is Casablanca or Stargazer lily, big and blowsy, sometimes a bit skanky or fecal almost. Jasmine, hyacinth, frangipani, magnolia, osmanthus, Ylang Ylang, honeysuckle. . . I love them all and more. I guess I love florals. The only one that can be a bit tricky for me is violet, it can be a bit nausea inducing for me. But Guerlain Indecence is an exception. We’re firm friends😉
    Congratulations to Marcella. PPP for you, wohoo.

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  13. I love most florals but have to say rose. My first rose fragrance back in high school was Perfumer’s Workshop Tea Rose. People told me I smelled like an old lady’s underwear drawer. And, I loved it. I went for the gut with the purest powerful rose and never looked back. My roses have bloomed since then into tons of rose frags. Love love love her. Comfort.

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  16. If I were to go by number of bottles, it would be iris; however, I might cast a vote for a childhood favourite: carnation. There were rumours that carnation was going to have a moment in the perfume world – until that happens I will content myself with CdG’s offering.

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  17. Rose, violet and iris rule my heart and my collection, and I’d add matthiola to the list if I had more than only one scent with it (weirdly, it’s Elephant). I grew up in the countryside so I could say they remind me of that life but frankly, they just smell so good.

    Marcella, congrats again!

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  18. I could not choose one favorite floral note because there are too many in combination that make the perfume. And I love so so many perfumes, butI don’t enjoy soliflores. If I really had to mention one floral note that is consistently in my fragrance loves, it is jasmine.

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  19. Like so many, it depends on what time it is. For nostalgia, honeysuckle or orange blossom (my late lamented Eau de Camille and my lost home in southern California); for my husband, tuberose; and jasmine, just because.

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  22. I have always loved flowers as a kid and I adore osmanthus because my mother and grandmother used to scent the oolong teas with osmanthus and make sweet osmanthus cakes. However I have never found an osmanthus fragrance that is parallel to the actual flower blooming. I have two osmanthus trees at home. Other than that, I adore roses and iris, just because they are so elegant and timeless. Totally in love with Malik from Areej. I get about 5 hours of roses and just a tiny hint of oud. Would love more oud though.

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  23. While I love iris note in perfumery, and irises are one of my most favorite flowers, it seems wrong to consider iris a floral note since what’s used in perfumes is a product of the roots and smells nothing like any flowers… So, I’ll go with something else, and being stickler to the rules, I’ll go with just one note: linden blossom. It’s happy, sunny and carefree. And I still haven’t found perfume that catches it exactly as a full tree in bloom smells, but I have two favorites: Jo Malone French Lime Blossom (sadly, discontinued) and April Aromatics Under den Linden.

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  24. I go through phases. Before my latest plot twist it was papyrus like in Zoologist Dragonfly and JS Fancy Nights. Overall though it would be hyacinth or LOTV (Kenzo Parfum D’Ete). Am actually surprised there’s a lot of love for hyacinth here, I didn’t think anyone liked it much!

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  26. Must be Neroli, i love almost any type of neroli blend :))) Can be so uplifting and bright and sparkling and it can also be creamy and sour-sweet in a very pleasant way. The sadly discontinued gem Fleur du Mal from JPG is one of my favourite neroli fragrance.

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  27. For me, that would be seasonal. I’d say in the hot weather it would probably be neroli, for the whiff of citrus it brings, without being overbearing.

    In the colder weather, I’d probably go for an earthy rose. Something like in Noir de Noir. Not girly, not pretty, but a deep and long-lasting scent that’s great for an elegant night out.

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  28. Very hard question. I love flowers a lot. Credit goes to my mother. Her passion for gardening helped me a lot to learn different flowers since childhood. There are tons of good memories are stored in my brain with my family which are associated with the flower. I can not answer the question with one flower. It is beyond hard. My parents both love Jasmine (different varieties). For me, I do love jasmine but it was not the most loved one. During my childhood, there were three flowers that I used to adore- Kodom (Neolamarckia cadamba), Bokul (Mimusops elengi) and Shewly (Nyctanthes arbor-tristis aka Night-flowering Jasmine). After coming here in Australia I get to learn a lot about perfume hence perfumery. Then I absolutely fall in love with ROSE. The reason is, It really helps me calm my mind and soul. I am lucky enough to have some Attar Gulab or Ruh (heart/ soul) Gulab which is the pure rose oil. I just love the way it smells. Another reason to fall in love with Rose could be, I was not getting the three flowers that I have mentioned above. Rose was filling the gaps. It really helps me to calm my mind and soul with a touch of Mysore Sandal oil.
    I am really sorry I could not help myself. If it is just one then it has to be the Rose at this moment. But the other three can take over rose any day or they can be sisters.

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  29. I too love narcissus! Also lily of the valley, when done well, and hyacinth, and galbanum. Give me a green fragrance with one or more of those notes, and I am a happy perfumista. Penhaligon’s Ostara, Beaufort London’s Fathom V, Papillon’s Dryad, Chanel No. 19, Gucci Envy, Jacomo Silences, Oriza L. Legrand’s Muguet Fleuri, Balmain’s Vent Vert — love ’em.

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  30. I like perfumes with rose and iris. I love lilacs in bloom, but cannot wear a lilac perfume, because it is too much for me. The same goes for Wisteria. Sometimes i like Tuberose, but sparingly applied…
    Does Saffron count, its a crocus?

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  31. For me it would have to be orange blossom if I have to pick only one. Love the delicate perfumes with orange blossom as well as the warmer,more robust take by Serge Lutens. Orange blosdom plays so well with many of my favourite green notes and citrus.

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