Like many others who share my hobby, I believe, I was wary of florals when I started my perfume education. I was willing to countenance many a gourmand or woody amber barbarity, but I avoided flowers — and especially white flowers. I was going through a phase of sampling niche series perfumes — the Comme des Garçons incense fragrances, the Bois line of Serge Lutens — and I regarded white flowers as unsuitable material for such elaboration. Comme des Garçons White, purporting to be a more floral alternative to their original Eau de Parfum, instead smelled quite properly of sour spices and wood, and I viewed Lutens' Un Lys and Tubéreuse Criminelle as singular and humorous experiments, fascinating to sniff on a blotter, I thought, but created with a kind of magisterial, Gallic indifference towards anybody wearing them. As a smell, white floral notes were heady, insistent and complex: in a word, "perfumey". In perfume, didn't that make them too, well... obvious?
But I couldn't help noticing I was drawn to ylang-ylang. I had dried blotters all over my place at that time, and still do: I use them as bookmarks, clothing or car fresheners and post-its. Though I was doggedly wearing my modern roots and resins, my incense and tea scents, I was forced to admit that I stood transfixed when a lush tropical cloud of ylang breathed up out of my reference books, purse or underwear drawer. There were so many facets to the smell: sweet jasmine-like floralcy, spicy clove (eugenol), oiled rubber, a camphorous wintergreen note that could bloom into diesel fumes, a fruity angle ranging from ripe banana to guava, and a creaminess that sometimes read more like skin and Pond's cold cream than custard. Research was required.
The first thing to learn was that this big white floral note usually comes from banana yellow blossoms. (There are rare trees of the cananga species that produce flowers blushed with pink or mauve.) The pattern and spindly length of the tendril-like petals sometimes gives the ylang-ylang flower a nearly creepy resemblance to a sea star,¹ but any impression of vigorous, hungry profusion belies the delicacy of the blossom. Flowers are picked by hand. The name, pronounced in English as a doubled "ee-lang", is usually translated as "flower of flowers" and is derived from Tagalog. Native to the Philippines and Indonesia, this "perfume tree" has been commercially cultivated in other tropical areas, particularly the Comoros islands and Madagascar. Ylang-ylang flowers are steam distilled, and several grades of distillate are produced: the richest, most narcotically floral "extra" comes first, followed by incrementally lighter Ylang Ylang I, II and III. Chemically, the oil is similar to that of several white flowers: tuberose, tiaré, frangipani, a few types of lily. And as Jessica aptly points out, ylang-ylang is "like an eccentric sister to jasmine". I like the weird relations in most families, and even though I now wear and enjoy all kinds of floral perfumes, I'll always be especially fond of Crazy Aunt Ylang-Ylang. So below are five entries for that overdue series: ylang.
Annick Goutal Passion: Probably my favorite Goutal fragrance, Passion was released in 1983 and was the first fragrance Annick Goutal composed for her own use. The notes include ylang-ylang, tuberose, jasmine, tomato leaf, oakmoss, patchouli and vanilla. What I have always admired about this scent is its balance. While odd, it is also easy to wear, as the warm, creamy vanilla base softens a very heady and mentholated floral heart. True to its name, it is an intense and fleshily sensual perfume. With its Vicks VapoRub and milky pudding facets, though, it conjures for me not a desperate love affair, but romanticized memories of childhood illness: resting in a nest of pillows, hushed solitude and the flushed, shining-eyed concentration on the body that the feverish and the wildly in love share.
Gorilla Perfumes at Lush Cocktail: An elegant, silken perfume, Cocktail is one of the original B Never Too Busy to Be Beautiful scents created by Mark Constantine. Even more than Passion, it reveals the rubbery, camphorous side of this flower — it is the Tubereuse Criminelle of the ylang-ylang soliflore. Cocktail is currently only available through the Lush U.K. website, but is worth tracking down.
La Via del Profumo Tasneem: Named after a spring in paradise, Tasneem is a caressingly soft, sweetly feminine perfume that I prefer to the apricot-and-powder-puff effect of Christian Dior New Look 1947. This natural composition highlights an interesting almond facet of a Ylang-ylang No. 2 distillate and creator Dominique Dubrana quite rightly suggests it as a sweet floral for those who normally avoid the genre.
Hermes Vanille Galante: Since it contains salicylates, eugenol and linalool, ylang-ylang is often used in reconstructions of scents that can't be extracted from the flower, notably that of lily of the valley. Vanille Galante features ylang ylang, green notes, spices, lily, salicylates, sandalwood and vanilla, and it smells very much like a banana-tinted, beachy version of a lily soliflore, which was startling to those of us who expected a gourmand. I've grown to love the fresh airiness of this presentation, but those of you looking for a vanilla-ylang with more tropical heft should try Penhaglion's recent Amaranthine, which smells like a floral dessert made with cardamom and condensed milk.
Maison Francis Kurkdjian Absolue Pour Le Soir: One of the raunchiest scents I've ever smelled, Absolue Pour Le Soir is the polar opposite of the previously mentioned Tasneem: a combination of pleather, dry erase marker, sweat and ylang-ylang. Highly recommended for the brave.
Note: top image is Sexy Curls [cropped] by Zaggy J at flickr; some rights reserved.
1. I should point out that I have a five-year-old obsessed with ocean life, so we spend a great deal of time watching The Blue Planet DVDs over and over again. Almost all my nightmares that do not involve breaching sharks are centered on ravenous sunflower starfish eating brittle stars.
Erin: your comments and reviews on ylang-ylang are so interesting. I often recoiled when I’d smell YY essential oils as it is so powerful, but I did come to love it in many fragrances. My particular fav is it’s use in Goutal’s Songes, which is so rich and wonderful. I always want to wear it more often than I do. And of course, the wonderful Amaranthine. I like the comparison Jessica makes that YY is eccentric – it really is. You just can’t pin it down – it’s awful and beautiful and very chameleon-like. At once a hammer and again like lace. I’ll have to try your recommendations, as I’ve not smelled most of them.
A very nice description of the duality of ylang-ylang, thank you. With the exception of Tasneem, all of these scents really highlight the eccentric sides of the note. I do like the creamy, sweet beach oil ylangs too, but still find them difficult to wear.
Definitely among my favorite Essential Oils!
It’s one of the featured notes in J’Adore l’Absolu.
Blast it, I’ve never gotten around to sampling that J’Adore Absolue, even though I’d heard good things about it. *Okay, mental note…* My friend Dane over at PeredePierre.com also really liked the J’Adore L’Or. Have you tried that one? What says you? I have trouble keeping up with the J’Adore flankers.
I sampled l’Or once only when it just came out. Beautiful, but definitely focuses on the enriched (Amber/Oriental?) base, and casts a shimmer on the skin if I recall correctly. I get lots of vanilla….
I’d be happy to send you a sample of l’Absolu if you’d like.
mollyseb at hotmail.
Thanks for the kind offer! I did get the impression that L’Or was thicker and more about the vanilla. (Not wild about physical shimmer, though.) The absolute is more floral? I do love the littler, compact bottle, it’s cute.
L’Absolu focuses mostly on the jasmin, but the ylang plays a major supporting role, IMO.
I’ve always been wary of florals as well, but for reasons different from yours. I generally find straight up florals to be too sweet and cloying, particulary white florals. I LOVE floral aldehydes, such as no. 5, Vega, and Arpege, and almost anything with violet, which to me does not veer into sugar overload, but I cannot abide jasmine-heavy scents such as Joy. I got some experience with ylang-ylang trying to blend my own fragrances from essential oils. Y-y is about the only natural floral that is obtainable for a sufficiently reasonable price to allow for experimentation. Somehow, I never got the camphor, rubber, or clove aspects from it; it just smelled to me like the sweetest, most uber-girly floral on earth, and consequently very hard to use, as it tends to take over a composition and coat everything in a layer of sugar. I don’t know which distillation fraction my bottle of e.o. came from (extra, I, II, or III), as it simply says “ylang-ylang”. I wonder if I am anosmic to some aspect of it?
Oh, the peculiarities of the nose. I love florals (especially rose and tuberose), but find many aldehydic florals heavy and cloying. (My favorite aldehydic floral is White Linen, because it’s the driest.) I also find violet to be one of the sweetest florals! Which is not to say I don’t like it — I really enjoy a violet candy note in perfumes (such as Insolence).
I find violets sweet, too, and they are often paired with other notes that are sweeter still (mimosa, vanilla, types of rose, etc.) Of course, they can come off girly, too– and many people find White Linen heavy and/or cloying, for that matter (though not me). So, you’re right, YMMV as we say!
As I understand, Ylang-ylang EOs, and particularly more reasonably priced ones, are often made of a blend of several different grades of distillate. Some os the aromatherapy yalg oils can definitely be quite sweet and girly. My understanding of the matter – which, I admit, is quite limited – is that, in addition to grade, the “terroir” and condition of the blossoms at distillation, etc. matter. And, of course, perfumers like Mark Constantine and Francis Kurkdjian use many different materials to amplify certain facets or “off-notes” of the central ingredient.
Ack, obviously I meant “Some of the aromatherapy ylang oils…” Need. More. Coffee.
You are so spot on about new perfumistas being wary of florals. I get so excited about gourmands and ambers but am absolutely adverse to all the white flowers so far. Like 50 Roses above, my only toe-dipping seems to be in no. 5 and violet-based florals.
When I was going through this stage, you couldn’t have paid me to wear something like Carnal Flower, Lauder Private Collection Tuberose-Gardenia or Diorissimo. It’s probably too bad I eventually developed a taste for white florals – those scent like the By Kilians and Carnal Flower are expensive!
Hmmm… well, rose is considered floral, and it was rose that brought me into the fold, so I wouldn’t say I’ve been adverse to florals as a perfumista; however (capitol “H”!), I AM generally adverse to white florals, where ylang is so often found.
I’ve found a few whites to love (OJ Tiare, Champaca, and Sampaquita; Memoir Woman has some white flowers too), but I’m still on the fence with Ylang Ylang!
I really like OJ Tiare, too, and love OJ Frangipani. Have you tried the Vanille Galante? It does have a greener facet that might make it more palatable to a ylang fence-sitter.
Oh gods. Yeah, I’ve got a sample of Yankee Candle Honeydew Melon, oh, I mean, Vanille Galante!
LOL, that was NOT for me at all 🙂 Fraoin 1697 has Ylang, but it’s not prominent (I love that frag), and I like it in Nuit de Tubereuse, and Amaranthine… So I guess the common element is Bertrand Duchoufour!
Considering how much stuff he has been doing lately, you should have a lot to choose from.
See, I do *not in the least* get honeydew. I actually love honeydew, so I might like some in there 😉 But Yankee Candle – get thee hence!
BD fans are certainly lucky lately, there is indeed a lot to chose from.
An ylang-ylang bush is in bloom outside my house, and it dominates the neighbourhood at night when its aroma is the brightest…
Amouage Opus I is very ylang-y.
As for “white flowers,” it is a vague definition. I love Chanel Beige and ET White Diamonds, but things like Micallef Ananda leave me intouched…
TRhank you for the reminder – will go look for my ylang massage oil which was like $3 a gallon in Bali. Of course I got it…
I keep missing Opus I. I think I’ve tried samples of all the other Opi (?!) What I would really like to try, though, is smelling a ylang ylang hedge at night. Perhaps I should drop by Bali to do so, and pick up some $3 ylang oil while I’m there….
The plural of opus in English is normally opuses. The Latin plural is opera.
I shall definitely use opera in future.
I had a bottle of Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Ylang and Vanille when it first came out. It was my introduction to ylang-ylang. Wish I still had the bottle. It ended up at the Goodwill (with many other scents) in one of my many moves…dumb, dumb, dumb.
I got a mini of this off of Ebay and of course cannot find it anywhere in my mess. Will dig it out to re-evaluate since you remember it fondly. I think we have all given away things that we regret, moving always makes me want to purge the overflow!
Ahh, the purging instinct. I’ve lost a few bottles I’d love to have back though either purges or breakage when we’ve moved.
“through”, of course.
Heh, it was Carnal Flower that finally brought me to the niche side of the force. 🙂 I just got a sample of VG and go back and forth with liking it and thinking it smells like banana runts candy. Thanks for the article, can’t say ylang-ylang has captivated me yet but there’s still plenty of time for that to happen.
Let me be Obi-Wan and say: “The Force will be with you, always.” 😉 You know, VG smells a little bit like banana Runts to me, too, and maybe that’s why I like it. But I can see why you wouldn’t. Have you tried Cocktail? Somehow, if Carnal Flower is your bag, I can see Cocktail suiting you best from this list…
Yes…the force of constantly wanting to try new scents does seem to be always with me…Cocktail huh? Well if it’s in the vein of CF I should look into that. My perfume motto lately has been “there no such thing as too many floral perfumes in my life.”
I was so happy to see MFK’s Absolue mentioned in there. It’s my HG. I bought a backup bottle, even. It does take a brave soul: I can scare a maggot off a gut wagon with it. Everyone loves it on me. Truly unique and beautiful. The cologne of the same name is a good alternative for something a bit less salacious. Not sure if it has the ylang ylang, or as much, though. Fabulous writing, by the way. I mean, my poor boyfriend teaches at the junior college here, and I can assure you none of the English faculty could pen a sentence as graceful and wonderful and creative as your “…magisterial Gallic indifference…” number. Perfumistas are the best!
Maggot off a gut wagon! I love it – never heard that expression before, but I’m stealing it. I think it’s awesome, too, that Absolue Pour Soir is your signature scent since it is so distinctive. I’ve never tried the cologne, but it sounds quite nice, with the benzoin, honey and rose. I do think the cumin and ylang were added for the absolue, which means it might be a nice alternative for someone who is a cumin-phobe but is still looking for the richness and the luminosity.
And thanks for your very kind words. I agree with you about perfumistas: every time I read a post from my friends here at NST, I am inspired to try to write well.
This was such an intriguing article. Ylang ylang can be tricky on me and there’ve been a couple beautiful perfumes I just couldn’t wear (Alahine wears me and the ylang-ylang is too much in that one), but I’ve found that it is just gorgeous on my skin in Songes, EL Amber Ylang-Ylang and Amaranthine. While I’ve always loved florals as a perfume category and Fracas was one of my first huge white floral infatuations, it took some time until I found a ylang-ylang I could mostly tame.
J’Adore Absolu has been really intriguing since I loved and wore the original back when it first launched and I’ve been tempted to just do a blind buy since Dior’s reformulating all my favorites lately. It seems to have generally favorable reviews and I’m hoping it doesn’t disappear before I get a chance to give it a go. The original J’Adore will always hold a special place in my perfumista heart as it was one of the beginning stepping stones on my fragrant journey and has such lovely memories attached for me. 🙂
I’ll have to check out the rest of your suggestions, Erin. Oh, and we, too, are in the midst of a nature documentary streak with the children and have been steadily working our way through all of them on Netflix, especially those with David Attenborough. There’s a lot of good ones there. 😉
AbScent, I always get over-wrought whenever I think of the original 1999 J’Adore getting reformulated so soon. It was the scent of sheer happiness!
I bought J’Adore L’Absolu unsniffed and I think it is lovely – not so euphoric as I remember the original J’Adore, but worth owning and wearing. However, as LT points out, J’Adore’s true successor is BK Liaisons Dangereuses, also composed by Calice Becker. It’s a rose-plum variation that I find ideal for fall. I’d be interested to know if you’ve tried it and what YOU think.
Ack! As someone who loved J’adore when it first launched and is saddened by how much it has changed in a relatively short span of time (reading the review for J’adore on BdJ makes me sad), you’ve created a such a lemming for LD!
Nozknoz, yes, LD is one of my fave BKs in the whole collection. When I got the discovery set, Back to black, Liaisons Dangereuses, Love and Beyond Love were my favorites in that order and I ended up buying a refill of BTB as soon as I could. LD is, at the very least, in need of a travel refill set in my collection. It is such a gorgeous, deep and plummy rose with so many little nuances. Like a souped up take on TBS’s Cassis Rose, another cheap thrill fave of mine.
Thanks for the positive vote for J’Adore L’Absolu. I know the original was practically everywhere when it first launched, but all the fruitchouli-musks out there now make it feel so almost opulent yet bright and old school that I really must upgrade to a larger bottle of it and a back-up of Miss Dior Cherie before the butchered versions are all one can find. It is so pretty for what it is and seemed to be doing quite well… I don’t know what Dior is thinking. 🙁
I love Liasons Dangereuses, as you may all know. I’m always beating the drum for it, I’m sure everybody’s sick of hearing me talk about it.
David Attenborough has such a soothing voice, and then they give him things to say like: “Like something out of a horror movie, a tendril of the fungus bursts forth from the ant’s head…” We gave Blue Planet a break after my daughter was traumatized by the orcas ganging up on the grey whale mom and babe and hounding the baby to death – but she’s like an addict, she’s back.
I really regret missing the first version of J’Adore when it was released. It sounds so beautiful. Those Dior scoundrels!!
Oh goody, an article by Erin! I always learn something from your entries here, Erin, and your writing truly makes me smile with delight.
Ya know, I’m grown fond of Crazy Aunt Ylang-Ylang, too! You mention two of my very favorite floral fragrances, Amaranthine and Vanille Galante. I will do my best to seek out samples of the others you mention except, perhaps, the scary-sounding Kurkdjian (!).
One other that I’ve grown to truly love, and crave at times, is LesNez Manoumalia. It’s heavier than my usual floral fare, but I find it magical. Have you tried that one, Erin?
LOVE Manoumalia, Haunani! There’s something so unique and authentic about it – perhaps a result of Sandrine Videault’s ethnographic work and experience of living in the tropics. And you’re from Hawaii, so you must also have a deep appreciation for tropical florals.
2nd. It’s the most authentic tropical I’ve ever smelled. Nothing like being there — and truly understanding the “there.”
Agreed, Noz and Olfacta!
Oh heck, I meant, “I’ve grown fond…”
Sorry! And my correction is in the wrong place. I need dinner.
I became disenchanted with y-y for quite awhile. Now I know of course that it’s in everything because it’s cheap. The basic eo is much too sweet and heavy imo but the higher grades are wonderful. Now I feel happy that there’s at least one high-quality natural that is affordable.
Excellent, informative post, Erin. Thank you. For me, it’s not BWF that I find potentially unnerving, so much as lavender, patch and, especially, oakmoss. I definitely have “chypre angst”! 🙂
I can handle ylang-ylang in small doses, with other things, but I once spilled essential oil on my duvet and the smell wouldn’t come out, even after several washings, so the essential oils nauseates me, at full potency. It can be lovely blended, though.
That’s how you know you truly love a scent- when you spill it on your couch or bed or shirt and can’t get the smell out and you still love it. Kind of a metaphor for relationships 🙂