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Beeswax absolute: a historic animal note in perfumery
Thanks to the return to favor of natural products and materials in perfumery, certain notes are making their appearance again successfully even if they were once forgotten. This is the case with beeswax and its absolute!
Guerlain from its very first bottles, used the bee to decorate the delicate bottles of the Empress Water then did not cease to represent the pretty little forager whether on the illuminations of its bottles or in the juices of these most beautiful perfumes. Thus beeswax, much more than just another animal note, plays with its different facets to illuminate the scents of several decades.
Of course, we will no longer call it an animal note echoing too much of the useless deaths of civets or musk cats for simple perfumes. However, the honey note remains irresistible and relatively easy to produce because it is extracted from nature and from the hives which also produce the famous honey nectar. If beeswax cannot become essential oil, in contact with solvents which will magnify the material, it will become absolute to create the fragrance so delicious that we know.
The honey note where the heat of beeswax and floral scents
Logically enough, there are as many varieties of beeswax absolute as there are varieties of honey. The raw material produced by the pretty forager therefore makes it possible to invent olfactory palettes that are extremely wide of its possibilities. In addition, we can find honeyed notes in flowers such as honeysuckle, mimosa or genet but also in the form of synthetic molecules. The possibilities of the honey note therefore seem endless!
As we have already mentioned, the Guerlain house is particularly attached to bees and beeswax. It is therefore quite logical that a large number of its perfumes are marked by more or less pronounced notes! A fine symbol of this attachment, L'Instant pour Femme is a Guerlain juice developed by Annick Goutal created to shape the famous Guerlinade around the idea of citrus honey. This same designer also developed in 1985, a sumptuous flowery fragrance around beeswax associated in base note with white musks and sandalwood.
Beeswax would seem to be more intended for flowery perfumes than for other olfactory families. However, let us not forget that the Orientals also offer beautiful pairings with this so tender beeswax, like Red Cyprus and Un bois vanille by Serge Lutens. The chypres, too, have certainly not said their last word, discovering themselves more virile thanks to the association of beeswax and castoreum notes. Beeswax, although becoming scarce, has a good chance of continuing to fascinate creators with its facets that can be multiplied to infinity!