Green Scene

This is a “I’ll take it in any colour, as long as it’s green” theme. Green notes are used by perfumers to summon the best of Mother Nature: freshly-mown grass, inky green galbanum, crisp pine, herbs. Its use as a perfume material goes back to ancient times: galbanum, the acrid sap of the Persian perennial, was an ingredient of the Egyptian perfume Metopian, and appears in the Old Testament as an ingredient of holy incense. (Medieval scholars considered its bitterness a symbol of unrepentant sinners.)

Considering the popularity of green materials among the olden-days fumeheads, it’s notable that this style was reborn as fiercely chic in the 20th century. The first modern green perfume was the iconic Vent Vert, created in 1947 by French perfumer Germaine Cellier for Balmain. Cellier placed galbanum front and centre, making a feature of its cold radiance. Other natural “ingreendiants” include violet leaf absolute, mate tea and neroli, but nowadays, synthetic molecules dominate the green category. Stand-ins include Cis-3-Hexenol for fresh-cut grass, Stemone for fig, and Isocyclocitral for bamboo. This selection traverses the hills, valleys and streams of all things green, from sheer watery florals and earthy fig, to neon-bright plant stems. Why go to all the trouble of eating your greens when you can just smell them?