a fragrance found

In Celia Lyttelton's book, The Scent Trail (which I highly recommend), she travels the world to gather original ingredients for a custom made, bespoke perfume. The perfume is inspired by her memories, favorite scents, flowers, and colors, and the feeling she wants it to encourage.
I have heard that she is mistaken in some of the facts in the book, but what was valuable to me was the insight into perfume history, the making of the scents, and their origins, which are part of her journey and not necessarily things she can speak of incorrectly. So, as an introduction it was a captivating way to learn.
The notes of her particular perfume are neroli, petitgrain (both from oranges), nutmeg, ambergris (from the whale), mimosa, damask rose, iris, jasmine, vetiver (a grass), frankincense and myrrh. She travels to France, Morocco, Turkey, Yemen, Socotra, India, Sri Lanka, and Italy.

One flower, fruit, or tree can produce completely varied scents in its various parts, or by different means of extraction. Petitgrain and neroli, as an example, are both from the orange tree, but there are many, many scents that can be taken from oranges. It could be from the leaves, from small fruit that fall (petitgrain), from the peel, or more or less bitter smelling. Whatever the ingredient, they are gathered sometimes for a limited time, such as in the blooming season of damask roses, early in the morning before the dew has dried, and the bags of petals hastily distilled before the loss of freshness has stolen the fragrance. It can take many tons of petals to produce a few milliliters of oil.
Some fragrances are obtained by distillation, others by extraction with steam or solvents. It can end in the form of an essential oil, an absolute, a concrete or butter. They are purified, and sometimes distilled over and over again to leave behind extra waxes and impurities. Then they are shipped off for further purification in Grasse, France, or to a perfumer to be used.

There is so much tradition and care that goes into the harvesting of a scent, and sometimes ethics as well. Animal-derived scents, such as musk, civet, and ambergris, are controversial. (It's pretty gross, don't look them up unless you're really interested in perfume or love musk! However, most scents do have synthetic replacements, and most mainstream perfumes today are mostly if not entirely synthetic.) Celia chooses to use ambergris in her perfume, but leaves out the others because of the illegal black market.

I couldn't begin to cover everything that was in the book (and all the information outside of it, though it was an informative and intriguing place to start) or the methods of pulling scent from a petal, nut, iris root, or whale vomit (sorry), so I hope this was interesting and you learned a little something about the complicated background of where the contents of our pretty glass bottles come from! It really is amazing, and such an art, in the extracting and the creation of an actual perfume, since that would usually be a careful mix of many essences.

Oh, and our tray is now off the sunny bureau and nestled into the dark closet ;)

Love,
Cait