Mock orange

Mock orange, the white flower that lights up the garden

Mock orange originates from China and North America, particularly Quebec, where its highly fragrant flowers have been prized for centuries in parks and gardens. However, it was the hybrid versions of mock orange created by gardeners in the 19th century that brought this magical and intense scent to its gentle blossoming.

It was only natural that perfumery would want to use this soft scent to create floral compositions. However, as with other plants, no essential oil can be extracted from mock orange. As a result, every major perfume house has had to develop its own magic formula to recreate mock orange in our favorite bottles!

The mock orange note in our floral fragrances

The mock orange note is naturally well suited to floral fragrances built around beautiful compositions of white flowers, sweet, fruity and airy.
One of the very first to feature a mock orange note was the lovely Eau de Camille by Annick Goutal, which opens on top notes of honeysuckle and mock orange to offer green, refined and tender floral notes, in the image of the creator's daughter to whom this gentle fragrance was dedicated.

Then Eau Belle by Azzaro adds citrus notes to this floral and aromatic sillage of mock orange, giving this belle eau a spirited opening. It then unfolds into an exquisite floral note before ending in a bath of soft, amber, delicately sensual warmth...

However, the fragrant and delicate mock orange note would soon return to its floral origins, dedicating itself almost exclusively to pure, charming top notes or deep, intoxicating heart notes evoking bucolic flights of fancy. Many fragrances play on this note, both orangey and floral, to deliver, depending on the pairings, the tenderness of sweetness or the tangy freshness of a citrus-like flower. This is the case with Contradiction by Calvin Klein, Tender Touch Women by Burberry, or Aqua Allegoria Flora Nymphea by Guerlain.

Thanks to its many facets, the mock orange note enhances floral notes or even certain citrus notes with its sparkle and grace. Very often used, it seems particularly aimed at a female audience, or even, in its early days, at an audience of young women. There is, however, one masculine fragrance containing a mock orange note: the citrus Immense pour Homme by Jean-Louis Scherrer. Despite this exception that proves the rule, the delicate scent of mock orange seems to flourish far better in feminine fragrances than in masculine ones. For now...