The bouquets that smell just like your mum’s favourite perfumes
The waft of creamy lily of the valley followed by a sweet, evocative hit of jasmine is unmistakeably Dior. These are the top notes of one of the brand’s most famous fragrances — Diorissimo — but not as I have ever encountered them before.
Rather than a spritz on the wrist or a daub behind the ears as my granny used to do I am cradling a perfume posie — a bouquet of flowers carefully selected to emulate the distinctive fragrance.
Around two thirds of us buy flowers to show our appreciation on Mothering Sunday. Perfume closely follows as a popular way to pamper our nearest and dearest. But what if there was an ingenious way to combine the two? That was our challenge for fragrance expert Michael Donovan, managing director of independent perfumer Roullier White, and leading floral designers McQueens. Could they emulate ten popular fragrances in ten pretty posies for Mother’s Day?
‘If you match your flowers to the top and heart notes, those which you smell in the first 15 to 20 minutes, you can create a divine waft of scent reminiscent of your favourite perfume,’ says Michael, ‘The base notes aren’t usually florals but such materials as resins, musk and woods.’
Some perfumes are impossible to recreate, such as those based on complex aroma chemicals, he stresses.
‘These are synthetic notes, some of which mimic real flowers, and they’ve been developed for several reasons. To make an ounce of real jasmine oil takes thousands of delicate flowers, which is extraordinarily expensive. A synthetic one, which smells almost the same, doesn’t cost as much.’
The other challenge was finding flowers that actually smell. ‘Flowers aren’t primarily bred for scent so much any more,’ explains senior floral designer at McQueens, Michi Kanatschnig. ‘Today growers focus on longevity, look and colour.’
She suggests approaching independent florists, garden centres or visiting flower markets to find the best scented blooms. ‘Scent is incredibly complex. Depending on the country, the altitude and the soil, flowers will smell completely different. Turkish roses smell like the earth, Bulgarian roses are more of a classic scent and Moroccan roses are quite sweet.’
But shop around and it is possible to capture the essence of your favourite perfume in a colourful posie. here’s how...
1. If Mum likes Anais Anais by Cacharel
£28.95/100ml allbeauty.com
MICHAEL SAYS: A classic perfume with florals rose, hyacinth, jasmine, white lily and orange blossom hitting your nose one after the other in a swirl of scent.
MICHI SAYS: Orange blossom was impossible to obtain and garden roses would have added a sweeter note, but a combination of half roses, a quarter lilies and a quarter hyacinth, with some jasmine woven in matched the mood of the perfume.
2. The Actress by St Giles
£130/100ml roullierwhite.com
MICHAEL SAYS: This is a perfume for making an entrance. The notes you fall in love with are those which last the longest, so there is oriental lily — which is little used in the perfume industry — layered all the way through. There is also basil, green leaves, jasmine and orchids.
MICHI SAYS: Strong scented lilies make up 80 per cent of the bouquet. The jasmine and two types of orchids add extra sweetness, which is counteracted by the sharp freshness of basil.
3. Tuberosa by Miller Harris
£85/100ml, millerharris.com MICHAEL SAYS: A simple perfume, and one worn by many elegant mothers. It’s a blend of roses with a dust of sensual tuberose over the top, with a little jasmine. It’s a very creamy, intense floral and considered incredibly seductive.
MICHI SAYS: I took columns of not quite open tuberoses interspersed with garden roses and a few fronds of jasmine. The bouquet has a less intense but nonetheless heady smelling scent of tuberose, with the other two notes far lighter, as in the perfume.
4. Chanel Coco Noir
118/100ml, boots.com MICHAEL SAYS: This is an evening perfume with sharp, regal-smell-
ing narcissus and roses as the two main notes. There’s also a little citrus, which I think is grapefruit. MICHI SAYS: I used three- quarters narcissus to a quarter roses and replaced the grapefruit with lemon balm. The result was an extraordinarily close match to the perfume.
5. No. 42 The Flower Shop by Jo Loves
£115/100ml, joloves.com
MICHAEL SAYS: This is like walking into a flower shop first thing in the morning. The overwhelming scent is like crushed green leaves — and this comes through alongside notes of peonies and moss. You can also smell freesia — which has had a bad rap for bouquets because it was sold on petrol station forecourts for so long.
MICHI SAYS: I used peonies, freesias and moss to add earthy depth and green leaves — such as crushed mint. The ratio is twothirds peonies to one- third freesias, then I added the greenery till it emulated the perfume.
6. La Tulipe by Byredo
£105/50ml, byredo.co.uk MICHAEL SAYS: This has top notes of freesia, tulip leaves and rhubarb. Tulips don’t have a strong scent, but this perfume brilliantly recreates the scent of the leaves, so it smells like spring. Rhubarb has a very citrusy scent. The freesia is a soft pretty smell against the green of the leaves.
MICHI SAYS: I had the colour of a rhubarb stalk in mind when choosing the colours and I selected two types of pink tulip, using two thirds tulip and one third freesias to give an impression of the scent, leaving in plenty of crisp smelling tulip leaves. The smell is close to the perfume, but more subtle and not quite as sweet.
7. Diorissimo by Dior
£70.20/50ml, escentual.com
MICHAEL SAYS: Diorissimo represented a sea change in the industry when it was brought out in 1956; a move away from powdery perfumes towards a fresh, modern scent. There are two key top notes: lily of the valley, which has a soft creamy aroma with an underlying green note, and jasmine, which is intensely sweet.
MICHI SAYS: I predominantly used lily of the valley, with fronds of not quite open jasmine — this delicate scent will become stronger over the next few days. It’s an incredible match with the perfume.
8. Bloom by Gucci
£88/100ml, johnlewis.com
MICHAEL SAYS: This has a strong top note of tuberose blossom and a good balance with jasmine. Also contains Rangoon Creeper ( Chinese honeysuckle), which I think is used exclusively by Gucci. Everyone is trying to find original ingredients for fragrances, which is getting increasingly difficult.
MICHI: I used a large bunch of tuberose which is at different stages of opening, so this bouquet will — like the perfume — bloom over the next few days. We couldn’t find a replacement for the creeper, but I added in some jasmine.
9. Red Roses Cologne
£94/100ml, jomalone.co.uk
MICHAEL SAYS: A classic but modern fragrance based on the smell of a sunny rose garden in June. As well as the top note of roses, it has hints of honey and lemon — tiny flashes of citrus like sun catching petals.
MICHI SAYS: Here, I used a mixture of red roses and packed in stems of lemon balm, which releases its scent the moment you touch it. Ideally, you need to wait for summer roses, which will have a stronger scent.
10. Jacinthe et Rose by E.Coudray
£68, fortnumandmason.com
MICHAEL SAYS: This is a stunning fragrance using hyacinths, which only smell their best for a short time. The other top note is rose but there are also hints of bitter orange, orange blossom and peony.
MICHI SAYS: We managed to create a fantastic match for the perfume. The bouquet is half peonies, which have a light but distinctive scent. It’s then a quarter hyacinths and a quarter roses, along with some slivers of oranges