- Musk de Lumière
- The materials
- Mandarin
The materials · Citrus
Mandarin
The gentle citrus
- Botanical name
- Citrus reticulata
- Origin
- Italy (red mandarin)
- Part used
- Peel
- Extraction
- Cold expression
From Italy to the atelier in New Jersey
If lemon is a line and bergamot is light, mandarin is a hand on the shoulder. It is the softest of the citrus family, sweet without being sugary, and it has a floral shadow that the other citrus fruits lack.
What mandarin is
Mandarin oil is cold expressed from the peel of Citrus reticulata. The fruit is harvested at different stages, and each gives a different oil. Green mandarin is sharp and leafy, yellow mandarin is delicate and floral, red mandarin is picked last, when the fruit is fully ripe, and gives the sweetest, fullest oil. A trace of methyl N methyl anthranilate in the peel is what gives mandarin its faintly grape like floral note.
Where our mandarin comes from
The red mandarin in Néroli de Nuit comes from Italy, where mandarins have been grown since the nineteenth century along the same southern coasts as bergamot and lemon. The long ripening season matters here. A mandarin allowed to hang on the tree into winter develops the deep orange colour and the sweetness that a fruit picked early never reaches, and the oil follows the fruit. The yellow mandarin in Chérie Oud is recorded without a country in our formula books, so I print none.
How mandarin smells
Fresh, sweet mandarin fruit with a soft floral finish. The red oil is round and almost honeyed. The yellow oil is lighter and greener, closer to the blossom than the fruit. Both are gentle enough to sit beside white flowers without arguing.
Mandarin in our chapters
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IIINéroli de NuitThe Blossom · in the opening
In Néroli de Nuit the red mandarin sweetens the citrus opening and leans toward the orange blossom of the heart, so the fruit and the flower feel like one plant.
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VChérie OudThe Trunk · in the opening
In Chérie Oud a yellow mandarin brings a floral softness to the bright opening before the vanilla and tonka appear.
A note from the atelier
Mandarin is my bridge material. It belongs to the citrus family by birth but to the flowers by temperament, and I place it exactly where a composition needs to cross from one to the other.
Questions about mandarin
What does mandarin smell like in perfume?
Mandarin smells sweet, juicy and slightly floral, softer than orange and far gentler than lemon. Red mandarin is the sweetest, yellow mandarin the most floral.
What is the difference between red, yellow and green mandarin oil?
They come from the same fruit picked at different stages of ripeness. Green is sharp and leafy, yellow is light and floral, red is fully ripe, sweet and round.
Which of your fragrances use mandarin?
Néroli de Nuit opens with Italian red mandarin. Chérie Oud opens with a yellow mandarin beside bergamot, lavender and rosemary.
The Perfumer · Musk de Lumière
Same family
