Anaïs Anaïs Eau de Toilette

The version sold today is the eau de toilette of Anaïs Anaïs L’Original. The house presents it as a delicate spring bouquet: fresh notes of lily of the valley and blackcurrant bud, a heart of white lily, and a base of warm musk and sandalwood.

Top, heart, and base

An older presentation by the house opens on green, fresh notes of hyacinth and honeysuckle. The heart is built around the lily, with lily of the valley, rose, ylang-ylang, and jasmine; the base is described as woody, amber, and soft, with no material named.

The notes are arranged here according to this division: hyacinth, honeysuckle, and blackcurrant bud in the top; lily, lily of the valley, rose, ylang-ylang, jasmine, and orange blossom in the heart; sandalwood and musk in the base. Lily of the valley, which the current presentation brings out from the opening, keeps the place the older one gave it.

Orange blossom appears in a short presentation by the house, which places it in the heart, and on Wikiparfum, which classes the fragrance among the florals along with hyacinth, lily of the valley, and sandalwood. The house calls the base amber without naming any amber in it.

The lily, a reconstructed flower

The perfumery lily is an accord: Chant Wagner points out that a lily note is rebuilt from other flowers, and that everyone smells a different bouquet in it. Elena Vosnaki finds white lilies stripped of their usual spicy bite, made slightly dry by the woods.

For Elena Vosnaki, lily of the valley forms the center of the fragrance, with a very clean orange blossom; honeysuckle, jasmine, and rose stay muted. A hint of soft leather comes through in the base, among powdery woods whose nature she does not specify.

Hyacinth and green notes

Chant Wagner smells hyacinth above all, green and slightly rubbery, whose accord with blackcurrant is said to be the work of Roger Pellegrino. Behind it come honeysuckle and lily of the valley, rose, a carnal jasmine, a spicy lily, and a powdery carnation with hints of clove.

Gaia Fishler of The Non-Blonde described in 2011 a green floral chypre loaded with galbanum, hyacinth, and oakmoss in her old bottle. Chant Wagner reports, after Paul Jellinek, a heavy dose of musks and a touch of aldehyde C14 for a fruity effect.

The older lists

The older lists are longer. Michael Edwards, cited by Chant Wagner, gives hyacinth and orange blossom in the top; tuberose, jasmine, honeysuckle, lily of the valley, rose, carnation, ylang-ylang, and iris in the heart; sandalwood, cedar, amber, incense, musk, and leather in the base.

Elena Vosnaki adds bergamot, galbanum, oakmoss, and vetiver. Chant Wagner notes that the leather had almost disappeared from the version she smelled in 2011, replaced by the rubbery facet of the hyacinth, which gives the bouquet its frank tone.

What the label declares

The ingredient list of the current formula, numbered 947098 2, opens with alcohol, water, and fragrance. Next come hexyl cinnamal, with a jasmine scent, benzyl salicylate, and hydroxycitronellal, a synthetic material that smells of lily of the valley.

Citronellol and geraniol evoke rose, alpha-isomethyl ionone violet and iris; eugenol and isoeugenol, with their clove notes, recall the carnation of the older lists. Cinnamyl alcohol, a classic of hyacinth accords, accompanies cinnamal, coumarin, and farnesol.

The former list, numbered 947098 1, included lilial, banned in the European Union since March 2022, and BHT; today’s list no longer contains them. No oakmoss extract is declared, which is consistent with the house’s current notes.