Heart note · Floral

Orange Blossom

Citrus aurantium

Orange blossom is sweet, sunny and honeyed, with a soft indolic warmth. Discover the richer, deeper face of the bitter orange flower.

What does orange blossom smell like in perfume?

Orange blossom smells sweet, sunny and honeyed, like walking past orange trees in full bloom. It is warmer and richer than neroli, with a soft, skin-like warmth from the flower’s natural indole.

What Is Orange Blossom?

Orange blossom absolute is extracted from the flowers of the bitter orange tree, Citrus aurantium, grown mainly in Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt. The same flowers give neroli when they are steam-distilled, and the tree’s leaves and twigs give petitgrain.

Orange Blossom Scent Profile

Here is how strongly each facet of orange blossom comes through, from our own smelling-strip notes.

How Perfumers Use Orange Blossom

Orange blossom brings warmth and sweetness to white florals, ambers and soft gourmands. Its indole gives it a skin-like depth that sits well with vanilla, sandalwood and resins. It lasts a day or more on a smelling strip, so perfumers use it to carry a citrus-floral opening into the heart and base. In Santal Foy it sits in the base, under sandalwood and vanilla.

Orange blossom vs neroli

Both come from the same blossom. Neroli is steam-distilled and smells fresh, green and citrusy. Orange blossom absolute is solvent-extracted, which keeps more of the flower’s honey and indole, so it smells richer and sweeter and lasts longer on the skin.

Growing and harvesting orange blossom

Bitter orange trees flower in spring, and in Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt the blossoms are picked by hand in April and May, early in the morning while the scent is strongest. The flowers yield very little oil, which is why neroli and orange blossom absolute are among the most precious citrus materials.

The molecules behind orange blossom’s scent

Linalool gives orange blossom its fresh, floral lift, and phenylethyl alcohol adds a soft rosy note. The sweetness comes from methyl anthranilate, which smells of grape and honeyed petals. A trace of indole, warm and skin-like, gives the absolute its depth.

Natural or synthetic orange blossom?

Many orange blossom notes are built from methyl anthranilate, linalool and aurantiol, a molecule made by combining methyl anthranilate with hydroxycitronellal. The natural absolute is rounder and more complex, with honey, green and waxy facets that a reconstruction rarely captures.

Orange blossom in history and tradition

Orange blossom has long been a bridal flower. Queen Victoria wore a wreath of it at her wedding in 1840, and orange blossom crowns and bouquets became fashionable for brides across Britain. In North Africa and the Middle East, orange flower water, distilled from the same blossom, still scents pastries, sweets and coffee. Neroli, its distilled oil, is said to take its name from a 17th-century Princess of Nerola who used it to perfume her gloves.

How to smell orange blossom yourself

Buy a bottle of orange flower water from a Middle Eastern or North African grocer. It is distilled from the same blossom and gives a fresh, light version of the scent. If you ever pass an orange tree in flower in spring, smell the blossom on the branch: that is closer to the absolute.

Smell Orange Blossom in Prosody London Perfumes

For orange blossom at its most expressive, try Neroli Nuance. Orange blossom absolute deepens a citrus-floral built around neroli, showing both faces of the same flower. You will also find orange blossom in Santal Foy and the Neroli Nuance hair parfum.

What Blends Well With Orange Blossom?

Questions About Orange Blossom

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