Gentian

Gentian: A wildflower note from mountain pastures in perfumery Gentian is a lovely mountain flower, particularly found in France. The root of this pretty blue trumpet-shaped flower has been used since antiquity for its digestive and invigorating properties. Beyond the many spirits in which it appears, the gentian root can also be used to produce an essential oil with fresh, floral scents that is very useful in perfumery.

The gentian note is rare in a fragrance, but as the mountain is beautiful, the bottles are magnificent…

Gentian, the pretty blue flower of our mountains

Gentian is in fact the generic name for a large family of wildflowers growing on French summits, all trumpet-shaped and mostly blue in color, but also red or yellow.

The gentian as we know it is blue, however it is the great yellow gentian that has long been used, through maceration or distillation of its roots, for the making of spirits such as Suze or Picon.

These same roots are also used to make a medicinal essential oil used to relieve stomach aches and other gastric ailments… However, gentian essential oil is also prized by perfumers for its floral fragrance tinged with anise and a slight touch of bitterness, while offering musky or honeyed facets.

The gentian note in perfumery: rare and original!

Gentian appears in very few fragrances, yet it punctuates the compositions it appears in with originality and multiple facets that unfold according to the olfactory perspectives offered by the creators.

Gentian releases its scents in both feminine and masculine or unisex juices, though feminine fragrances with a gentian note tend to be rather floral, as seen in “Aqua Allegoria Gentiana” by Guerlain or “Eau de gentiane blanche” by Hermès. For Hermès, this ode to the pretty gentian is a tribute to the little blue flower, aiming to highlight the many fragrant facets it offers, between freshness, bitterness, musks and, of course, florals. For Guerlain, which uses gentian as a heart note paired with pear and bitter orange, the fragrance draws on the fresh, mountain facet that gentian represents.

As for masculine or unisex fragrances that use the gentian note, the traditional olfactory family of origin is rather that of woody scents. Thus the gourmand “Light my Fire” by By Kilian features a gentian note that completely disrupts the davana and coconut heart to create a heart note full of contrasts around tobacco and smoky woods. For Issey Miyake and its fragrance “Nuit d’Issey Austral Expedition 2015”, however, the gentian note serves to represent the icy world of the mountains, painting an olfactory picture of frozen lakes.

While gentian has multiple palettes to draw from thanks to its broad olfactory range, it seems that, aside from the chypre “Zen” by Shiseido, perfumers have yet to explore many of the hidden facets of this pretty little wildflower from the summits, including its chypre facet.