Freesia: Out for The Flower

by: Juliett Ptoyan

In perfumery freesia is reputed to be a bit of a dark horse: appearing in Europe in 1766, it graced French and Italian court gardens and became the symbol of youth and tenderness. It was also traditionally presented for the 7th wedding anniversary, but was first included in aroma compositions only in 1985, when Bernard Chant from IFF created Antonia’s Flowers—the first fragrance for the collection of Antonia Bellanca-Mahoney, a florist from East Hampton, New York.

The creation of a freesia accord in this fragrance, with the help of Headspace technology, allowed its author to approach the electric purity shed by a freshly cut flower. The point of Antonia’s idea was to create not just another women's perfume, but a composition which could remind her of her own workshop and favorite flowers.

After Antonia’s Flowers' success freesia started to appear in the fragrances of other perfume houses—we’ll speak about them later. At the moment we are interested in the following question: what made perfumers worldwide wait more than 200 years before using this flower in their compositions?

Antonia’s Flowers Antonia's Flowers is a tender floral scent with the notes of freesia mixed with jasmine, magnolia and lily. Subtle fruity notes encircle these floral accords. It is available as 50 and 100 ml EDT, 60 ml EDP, purse perfume, lotion and soap. The nose behind this fragrance is Bernard Chant.

The most complicated thing about playing the freesia note is the absence of the principal odorant, the substance which helps to identify the source of perfume. For example, beta-Damascenone in roses or Benzyl Acetate in jasmine play the part of such a substance because of their intense scent. Freesia is usually associated with Linalool—a Terpenoid, deemed of a “fresh” nature, which might be connoted with freesia, coriander, muguet and lavender. Why Linalool specifically? Well, the scent of different freesia varieties consists of between 30% to 90% of this substance (there are 16 varieties of this flower, by the way). The correlation of other components (usually Limonene, Terpineol, Sabinene, Myrcene) also appreciably ranges from variety to variety, essentially influencing the whole scent.

To answer a quite logical question about the possibility of extraction, I contacted Matvei Judov, an expert of aroma chemistry from Moscow and Victoria Minya, a perfumer. According to them, it is possible to extract some aroma compounds from freesia, but it has no sense on an industrial scale.

The reason is that, in this case, not so much essential oil is being produced and it’s difficult to associate its scent with the scent of the natural flowers, even cut ones. That’s why natural perfumers still don’t use freesia in their compositions, and the artists which work with synthetic fragrance materials have to create this accord again and again. Another way to solve this problem is to use aromatizers: that is how, for example, IFF developed Freesia Fleuriff. Also, you can find on the Internet some mentions of Miraldiacetate, also known as Freesia Acetate. Among the most popular and frequently mentioned freesia scents you can find such fragrance as joyful and fresh Ofresia by Diptyque, powdery Freesia by Fragonard, dandyish Reflection for Men by Amouage, fatty Musc et Freesia by E.Coudray …

I feel a suddenly licentious, garish freesia in Rush by Gucci; it bathes in sun rays and cool neroli water in once popular Together for Her by Oriflame; it whirls in a solid powdery haze in Noa by Cacharel. In addition, Jersey from Les Exclusifs de Chanelcan be recalled, but here the freesia part is not so big, just somehow smoothing the already gentle tone.

Yellow Freesia refracta is considered to be the most popular sort of this flower—its gentle, light, peppery scent seems to be rather “vernal.” Equally with muguet and mimosa, it soaks the March air, making it unforgettable and exhilarating, driving crazy—telle quelle, as we like it to be. By the way, which scent reflects this freesia feature—to boost spirits—best of all? I would be glad to hear your opinion. ☺

PS: This first article, especially written for such issue as Fragrantica is really a big deal for me. I would like to thank Matvei Judov and Victoria Minya for the given support and help with some details and key points.