Magnolia

Most white flowers are warm. Magnolia is cool. The oil distilled from the white champaca smells of a flower seen through green leaves and morning water, with a melon freshness that no other blossom has. It is the flower I use when a heart needs light rather than heat.

What magnolia is

Our magnolia is steam distilled from the flowers of Michelia alba, the white champaca, a tall evergreen of the magnolia family with narrow cream petals and a scent that fills a whole street on summer nights. The flower oil is rich in linalool, which gives it a soft, clean floralcy, with a green, slightly citrus brightness and a distinctive cool, watery, melon like note that makes it unique among white florals. It is lighter than jasmine and greener than neroli.

Where our magnolia comes from

Ours comes from China, where Michelia alba is planted along streets and in gardens across the warm south and where the flowers are gathered in summer for distillation. The tree flowers most abundantly in the humid heat of the southern provinces, and the Chinese flower oil is the reference for this material. The freshness of the oil depends on distilling the flowers within hours of picking, and the Chinese producers work in exactly that rhythm, gathering at dawn and distilling by noon.

How magnolia smells

Cool, green, melon and floral. It opens with a watery freshness like cut melon and green stems, then reveals a soft white floral heart, clean and luminous, with a faint citrus edge.

Magnolia in our chapter

• IIParadis de BleuThe Leaves · in the heart

  In Paradis de Bleu it is the coolest flower of the heart, the white blossom among the leaves, set beside jasmine sambac and orris.

A note from the atelier

Paradis de Bleu is a chapter about leaves, and every flower in it had to smell as though it were still on the branch. Magnolia does this naturally. It never smells cut.

Questions about magnolia