Ingredients

Fragrances today are mostly a fusion of ingredients taken from nature – or inspired by nature – together with the synthetics (man-made ingredients) that are used to make them last longer, ‘carry further’, or stay ‘true’, when worn on the skin.

Here, you can read about literally hundreds of the different perfume elements in use today.  If you know which ingredient you want to read about, you can either input the name into our ‘search’ box (top right).  Or click on a letter of the alphabet below – and it’ll take you to a collage of all the ingredients that start with that letter.  Alternatively, let your eye travel over the scrolling, rolling collage below – and click on whatever takes your fancy:  a visual ‘lucky dip’…

Karo-karounde

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Karo-karounde

This flowering shrub pulses out its potent scent very powerfully, in its native west Africa.  It produces an essential oil that’s reminiscent of jasmine, though a little woodier, a touch spicier and more herbal.  It goes brilliantly in tuberose compositions, and beautifully enhances chypres. And depending on its ripeness, it can give hints of chocolate, or ripe fruit. Karo-karounde (also sometimes written as karo-karunde) is considered to be an aphrodisiac and is used in the rituals of sexual magic, in the Congo!

Smell karo-karounde in:

Estée Lauder Knowing
Estée Lauder Pleasures

 

Kephalis

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Kephalis

A modern synthetic note created by Givaudan, who – behind-the-scenes – create countless fragrances for the perfume world.  It’s warm, rich, woody-ambery, adding a swirl of amber sweetness and hint-of-tobacco to fragrances. Kephalis is very versatile, a useful weapon in a perfumer’s arsenal, blending beautifully with floral notes such as rose, violet, lavender, jasmine – but also enhancing amber, woody and tobacco scents, to very sophisticated effect.

Smell Kephalis in:

Lalique Encre Noir

Kiwi

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Kiwi

As with many other fruit notes, kiwi’s enjoying a moment in the sun thanks to the current fashion for fruity-floral scents.  In summer scents, in particular, kiwi adds a refreshing sweetness.  Kiwi fruit themselves grow on woody vines which produce incredibly dull-looking fruit (greenish-brown, fuzzy) – but slice them open and the luscious green flesh (with its corona of black, edible seeds) is revealed.  This quirky fruit was originally grown in China, Japan, India and south-eastern Siberia, but has since been commercialised around the world – from New Zealand to France, via Chile and Greece.

Smell kiwi in:

Britney Spears Fantasy

 

Kumquat

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Kumquat

Even with the popularity of fruity-floral scents, kumquats still make an appearance on our plates far more often than in our perfume bottles.  They’re often eaten raw, to enjoy the sweet/sour flavour blend from the thin rind, contrasted with the juicy flesh.  An essential oil can be extracted from that rind, though (as well as the white flowers) – producing a fragrance that’s more complex than a normal orange:  sweet/tart, with hints of lemon and pine.  This member of the citrus family is native to south Asia and has long been cultivated in Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines, too.

Smell kumquat in:

Gucci Gucci Flora Eau Fraîche