As most narcissus flowers have different scent profiles, we’ve asked our master perfumer, Christophe Laudamiel, to explain the differences between the white narcissus, Narcissus Poeticus, and the yellow narcissus, Narcissus Jonquilla.

“Narcissus absolute extract smells of dark green lilac (I can see all the nerds already checking whether there is terpineol in narcisse, which I don’t know, but there is certainly a lilac facet to it, can’t miss it).

It is dark green like hyacinth too, comfortable woody grainy, as in a barn full of grain. This is the effect of absolutes, it can be found in jasmine absolute too. Go to an absolute factory, and it smells just like that. Gorgeous, rich, you bathe in elegance. Pure on the skin, there is an orange flower feeling one can’t miss either. At one point in the evaporation it is a bit fruity, citrusy too, but you don’t really see that in compositions.

I’m a big fan, like in silencethesea for strangelove, where I used it for being not floral, instead for being dark earthy in a deep-sea accord or in everlasting to provide a dark mossy effect within the amber in an astounding 4% of it pure.

“Narcissus Jonquilla has fragrant yellow flowers”, as Christophe further describes, “Jonquille absolute smells much more like jasmine absolute but without the fresh top of jasmine absolute, at times you may want that. I’m less of a fan.

It smells also somewhat like mimosa extract but I prefer mimosa generally. Believe it or not, even pure, Jonquille absolute evaporates fast on skin. The scent has a greeness of freesias incl. linalool, touch of lilac a certain soft sweetness between heliotrope and hawthorn, slight touch of mimosa (Anisic Aldehyde), some fruity pear rose acetate just not so dewy.”