Lavender

Most people think they know lavender, and most people are thinking of soap. True lavender, the fine oil distilled from Lavandula angustifolia, is something else entirely: herbal, floral and faintly woody, with a coolness that can make a warm composition feel as though a window has been opened.

What lavender is

Lavender oil is steam distilled from the flowering tops of Lavandula angustifolia, the narrow leaved true lavender, harvested in high summer. It is not the same plant as lavandin, the larger hybrid grown for yield. True lavender is lower in camphor and richer in linalyl acetate and linalool, which is why it smells soft and floral where lavandin smells sharp and medicinal. It is one of the oldest materials in perfumery and the backbone of every fougère ever made.

Where our lavender comes from

I use two lavenders from two hills. The lavender in Sultanat Oud comes from France, from the high plateaus of Haute Provence where the finest lavender grows. Altitude is the secret. The cooler nights slow the plant and lower its camphor, giving an oil that is sweet and fine. The lavender in Chérie Oud comes from Bulgaria, from the same valleys that grow the Bulgarian rose, where the summers are hot and the oil comes out fuller, rounder and a little more honeyed. The French oil is a clear morning; the Bulgarian oil is the same morning an hour later, warmer. I chose each for the chapter that needed it.

How lavender smells

Crisp, herbaceous and freshly floral, with a slightly woody finish. It has a cooling quality on the skin that no other flower has, and beneath the coolness there is a soft sweetness, almost like hay, that appears as it dries.

Lavender in our chapters

• VChérie OudThe Trunk · in the opening

  In Chérie Oud the Bulgarian lavender softens the citrus opening and prepares the skin for tonka and vanilla, the way a lavender field smells beside a bakery door.

• VIISultanat OudThe Deep Roots · in the opening

  In Sultanat Oud the French lavender opens the chapter with rosemary and cardamom, a cool aromatic light above the deep roots of oud and sandalwood.

A note from the atelier

Lavender above oud is a contrast I have always loved: the coolest flower over the warmest wood, each making the other more itself. In Sultanat Oud I wanted the finest French oil I could find for that first breath.

Questions about lavender