Pink roses, magnolia, white jasmine, wisteria and magenta bougainvillea on blush and green silk, flecked with gold leaf.

Floral fragrances

Floral is the heart of fragrance, the family everything else is measured against. It is the scent of flowers in bloom, sometimes a single bloom held close, more often a whole garden at once, romantic and generous and alive.

A floral can be delicate or heady, dewy or sun-warmed, but it always begins with the flower itself. An abundant English garden in high summer lives here, and so does the heat of an island childhood in full bloom.

Our floral fragrances

Our floral fragrances bloom in very different climates.

Glorious Gardens, England is a floral bouquet, the family at its most abundant. It opens green and dewy, with violet, green leaves and wisteria, then gives way to a full heart of geranium, rose, magnolia and lily, settling on a quiet base of cedar and musk. It is an English garden at the height of summer, everything flowering at once, the particular joy of too much beauty to take in. Designed for fragrance as much as for sight, it is a floral that refuses to be subtle.

Island Breeze, Seychelles is a floral amber, floral first, with warmth beneath. Jasmine, gardenia and frangipani give it a heady, sun-filled heart, coconut lends a soft and creamy roundness, and a base of patchouli, sandalwood, vanilla, musk and amber holds it all in tropical warmth. It is the island I grew up on, the air heavy with frangipani and bougainvillea, the heat of flowers in full humid bloom.

Each is unmistakably floral, Glorious Gardens a cool English bouquet, Island Breeze a warm tropical bloom, which shows the reach of the family. What they share is the flower at their heart, leading everything else. The floral family is wide enough to hold an English garden and a Seychelles hillside at once.

What defines a floral fragrance

Floral is the largest and best loved of the fragrance families, and the most instantly recognisable. At its centre is the flower: rose, jasmine, lily, magnolia, violet, the blooms that have been at the heart of perfumery for as long as it has existed. A floral fragrance can be built around one flower or gather many into a bouquet, and its character shifts with the flowers chosen, soft and powdery, green and dewy, rich and intoxicating. What unites the family is that the flower leads. Everything else, the green notes that open it, the warmth that grounds it, is there to carry the bloom and let it sing.

Notes typical of floral fragrances

The palette of the floral family is the garden itself. Rose and jasmine are its two great pillars, the most treasured flowers in all of perfumery, joined by lily, magnolia, gardenia, violet, geranium and wisteria. A floral often opens green and fresh, with leaves, stems and dew, the smell of a garden early in the morning before the warmth lifts the scent. Beneath the flowers a quiet base of soft woods, musk or amber gives the fragrance somewhere to settle and a reason to linger. The family is usually understood in a few characters: fresh and green florals, bright and dewy; floral bouquets, full and romantic, many flowers at once; and floral ambers, where the flowers sit over a warm, sometimes spiced base, heady and sensual rather than light.

When to choose a floral fragrance

A floral brings a room to life. It is the family to reach for when you want a home to feel fresh, romantic and in bloom, whatever the season outside, when you want a candle or diffuser to fill a space with the generosity of flowers. The lighter, greener florals suit spring and summer, bright rooms and daytime, while the heady, warmer florals come into their own in the evening, glamorous and full. A floral is rarely the wrong choice. Few things lift a room, or a mood, the way the scent of flowers does.

Frequently asked

Other families

Fresh

Amber