Verbena

Verbena: An invigorating aromatic for refreshing top notes Verbena has been recognized for its fresh, lemony scent since the 18th century, when it was first imported into Europe. A delicately tangy and refreshing scent, so-called lemon verbena quickly became one of the most prized raw materials in perfumery, notably for the making of Eau de Cologne in Grasse. If Eau de Cologne once gave verbena its heyday, today it is eaux fraîches that diffuse its delicate lemony and invigorating scents. Mainly used in sporty chic masculine fragrances, verbena is today a leading ingredient in the powerful, refreshing top notes of the great successes of contemporary feminine perfumery.

Eau de Cologne and Grasse verbena

Lemon verbena, or lemon-scented verbena, was brought back from Buenos Aires by several teams of French and Spanish botanists at the end of the 18th century. While medicinal verbena was already well known to French herbalists for its curative properties, its South American cousin quickly won over European gardens and perfumes.
Of all the plants that Dombey [a famous French botanist] introduced to us, the most interesting is the lemon-scented verbena. This shrub, which grows to 15 feet, is of all the plants that can be cultivated in Europe the one whose foliage has the most delightful scent [...] J.P.F. Deleuze, Notice historique sur Joseph Dombey, Annales du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris, Levrault, Schoell et Cie, vol. tome quatrième, an xii (1804).

Indeed, during the golden age of the gardens of Grasse in the 19th century, lemon verbena, or rather its essential oil, became one of the principal raw materials used to make the famous Eau de Cologne. Alongside mint, anise or even lavender, lemon verbena would endure through time and trends to diffuse its delicate invigorating scent in the most famous of our perfumes.

The dynamism of verbena in the top notes of trendy fragrances!

Verbena is of course still used by makers of traditional Eau de Cologne, which still counts many devotees. However, the fascinating olfactory qualities of our powerful French aromatics (mint, anise, coriander…) have been considerably enhanced thanks to the centuries-old olfactory family of citrus.
Citrus fragrances are the oldest known, notably thanks to Eau de Cologne. These fragrances present several subfamilies or facets: floral citrus, woody citrus, spicy citrus and finally aromatic citrus.
It is precisely the aromatic citrus facet that uses verbena as a top note, more rarely as a heart note, to carry the fragrance toward lemony, airy notes that allow the base notes time to release their scents.

Thus, masculine fragrances eager for powerful, intoxicating scents have widely spread these aromatic citrus ranges with verbena notes since the 80s. One might note, for example, the great success of Boucheron pour Homme, based on an aromatic citrus palette. Of course, new olfactory families would seize upon the tangy notes of verbena to create fresh and virile fragrances such as the famous Drakkar Noir by Laroche, which is based on verbena top notes to extend its heart notes toward fougère.

The undeniable advantage of the verbena note is that it is in fact far more unisex than it might appear! Indeed, lemon verbena was originally used for Eau de Cologne, a unisex toiletry product. So quite logically, in recent years verbena, like other aromatic plants with sweet fresh scents from our gardens, has appeared in feminine fragrances. Still, (or almost) used as a top note and often in summery eaux, one can currently find verbena, for example, in Alien Aqua Chic by Thierry Mugler. Finally, more rarely, verbena appears in nearly all of the summer eaux of CK One, the CK One Summer editions.