A Natural Perfumers Journal

Osmanthus ( Osmanthus fragrans ) flowers are used to produce osmanthus-scented jam (called guì huā jiàng).  An incredibly unique, fruity floral, with notes of milky apricot and ripe plums. It has a beautiful soft and leather-like dry down. Because of it's natural white floral aspect it goes particularly well other white florals such as orange blossom, jasmine, and gardenia. It takes 3,000 kilos of flowers to make one kilo of concrete and therefore Osmanthus absolute is very expensive, around $4,000 per kilo. I have 2 types in my possession, both of which are from China. Traditionally it is favoured as a flower symbolizing love and romance. There is an ancient legend involving Osmanthus, a giant and the moon, it goes like this: A giant named Wu Gang committed a serious mistake out of jealousy and was sentenced to the moon by the Jade Emperor. His task was to find the Palace of Guanghangong and chop down the huge Osmanthus tree that was growing there. However the Osma...

A fine specimen of white ambergris from the West Coast of Ireland - Courtesy of www.celticambergris.com High quality Ambergris like this can fetch upwardly of €99 per gram Ambra , also called Ambregris or Ambergris, is a substance of animal tissue, formed in the stomach or intestine of Physeter Catodon , the cachalot whale. It is conceivable that Ambra is the result of a pathological condition caused by irritation of the whale's stomach walls due to certain indigestible particles in the whales food. Consequently, Ambra is one of the few natural perfumery raw materials which cannot be "cultivated", not even in the same way that pearls, for example, are cultivated. Pieces of Ambra are either washed ashore on various temperate ocean coasts and islands, or they are found inside the whales when these great mammals are captured for their oil (spermaceti oil). There is no particular area where Ambra can be found or searched for with regular success. The "big...