Fleur d'oranger absolute, delivered today straight from Grass tugged at my heart strings. It is a very special material of natural origin. Flowers of bitter orange trees could be distilled and that’s how light neroli essential oil came to life. Otherwise they could be extracted with solvents to provide dark and deep-golden-brown absolute. It smells like liquid sunlight, like bitter honey and golden pollen. It’s bitterness is delicate and fresh, and soon turns into a narcotic flower and honey scent, with candied orange and beeswax nuances. It smells like the ripe fruit of happiness.
I used fleur d'oranger absolute to provide musky and glowing quality to scarlet accord in Venetian red. I also added some to Revenge, where its’ narcotic nature helped me to recreate the olfactory image of the lily. And, of course, fleur d'oranger is one of the many other magic ingredients in Coffee and chocolate orange truffles. I'm a huge fan of all bitter-orange materials: from orange oil to flower absolute, but fleur d'orange melts me like wax. This particular fleur d'oranger is one of the best absolutes I ever smelled, and I’m going to make something very special with it, for my subscription project, or, maybe, for another limited edition.