Prune

While it was truly born in France on the lands of Agen thanks to the prune d'ente variety, which was used to stock long-haul sailors in search of riches or new lands. In a perfume, the prune note evokes through scent the memories and smells of those same distant voyages. Although made from synthetic molecules, prune offers exoticism in bottles of beautiful orientals.

Prune, a dried fruit typically French

Prune would, a priori, originate from the time of the Crusades and would have been brought back from the Orient. However, it was monks from Clairac in the Lot-et-Garonne who discovered the method of drying the prune d'ente to better preserve the fruit and its many medicinal properties, in particular.

However, real evidence of the first prune cultivation on French soil dates back to the 15th century, and the prune trade developed particularly from the 17th century onward. Dried prune, being a non-perishable foodstuff, was very useful to sailors and settlers who sometimes traveled for long periods without being able to properly resupply. Prune was thus one of the best ways to prevent scurvy for travelers in search of the New World. Today, besides its laxative properties, prune is still widely used in dishes from North Africa and the Near East as well as in numerous French specialties.
Prune benefits from a PGI guaranteeing the provenance of the famous Agen prune, the land of its origin, however the largest producer of prune is California, which discovered the famous dried fruit thanks to settlers.

Offering prune notes to travel through our fragrances

The prune note innately and almost systematically inspires perfume creators, who recreate in fragrances the olfactory atmosphere of the traditional markets or souks of Morocco, Iran, and the magnificent oriental dishes that excel in the art of showcasing dried fruit scents that are both gourmand and fruity while being slightly smoky or even spicy.

Thus the prune note is particularly developed in the masculine or unisex oriental families. 1270 by Frapin would be one of the first fragrances made with the prune note. 1270 aims to pay tribute to the Frapin family, owner of great cognac vintages. As a result, the fragrance uses dried fruits such as prune and grape combined with orange and hazelnut in top notes to open the fragrance toward smoky, powerful and deep nuances, like the glass of the precious nectar that the Frapin family cultivated for centuries.

Prune subsequently exhales its fruity and gourmand scents in lighter fragrances that call for delicately smoky notes. Thus in Epices Sultanes by Comptoir Sud Pacifique, prune is paired with strawberry and rose, and in El Born by Carner Barcelona the heart offers a rather original blend of fig, licorice, hedione, jasmine and prune.

Prune has also managed to flourish in beautiful floral orientals where the dried fruit note appears as a heart note, as in Fève Délicieuse by Christian Dior or Une Nuit Magnétique by The Different Company. At Dior, prune is accompanied by flowers and cherry, while at The Different Company prune is part of a delicious blend of floral and tuberose notes.

Far from being confined to olfactory boundaries, the prune note is also used more recently and more rarely in floral fragrances such as Archives 69 by Etat Libre d'Orange, where it exhales in heart notes oriental and sensual accents alongside powerful flowers and base notes of sandalwood and patchouli.