Fennel

Although today it is mainly used in gastronomy, its powerful, anise-like scent very quickly attracted certain perfumers in search of original, natural raw materials to develop new olfactory palettes within the great classics for men. As a result, the fennel note in perfumery is rare but offers original and inventive fragrances!

Fennel, a vegetable as original as its legends...

Fennel, from the umbellifer family like carrot, spread mainly in Mediterranean climates, where it is indeed still cultivated today. Its flavor as much as its scent make fennel a powerful vegetable, appreciated both for the originality of its taste and fragrance and for its many virtues.

Where in Asia or Egypt it was used for eye problems, fennel was the ally of athletes in Greece... While for the druids, fennel was a sacred ingredient used notably in purification rites. Moreover, beyond its sacred character, it was also credited for centuries with aphrodisiac virtues.

Since the discovery of distillation for making essential oils, fennel seeds have been used to produce an essence used in herbal medicine for its detoxifying and diuretic properties. This fennel essence is also used to compose fragrances with a delicious anise taste, mainly intended, for now, for a male audience.

Fennel essence in men's fragrances

Certain olfactory notes such as fennel appear very rarely in perfumes but make a remarkable and noticed entrance there, while offering powerful and unique fragrances.

In order to offer a new fragrance for a male audience growing tired of classic perfumes, it was Azzaro with Azzaro pour Homme in 1978 that used the fennel note as a top note in its perfume. By creating top notes of fennel and anise combined with basil and lavender, Azzaro surprised while remaining within much more classic aromatic-fougère ranges. The fennel note can therefore boast of having made its very first appearance in a perfume that remains a great classic today!

A decade later, the fennel note would return in a totally different type of fragrant accord: a woody oriental feminine! Patchouli Patch by L'Artisan Parfumeur offers the fennel note as a top note, pairing it with patchouli and white musks, a powerful and finally original opening! Then fruity florals intertwine with woody and animalic power... The creator wanted a rare and modern fragrance: mission accomplished!

Finally Bang Bang by Marc Jacobs, also a woody oriental, uses fennel notes this time paired with spices, lemon and minty notes... The perfume offers a “gentle explosion” true to its name, while offering sweetness and sensuality.

The fennel note is therefore a rare note, still little used in perfumery. It can nonetheless boast of never being used by chance, of heading rare and original perfumes, and of offering top or even heart notes with a wholly unprecedented anise taste!