Category
Vanilla
Vanilla is a climbing perennial vine and the queen of spices. Its scent is sweet, creamy, warm and comforting, with a slightly moist floral aroma that feels both exotic and familiar. This note has a magic ability to soften edges and connect all parts of a perfume composition into one delightful whole. Around 40% of world’s vanilla comes from Madagascar, where Vanilla planifolia is the main species.
The process of growing, harvesting and curing the vanilla pods is a lengthy and complicated one. It includes pollination by hand, a 9-month ripening period, and several stages of fermenting/drying under temperature-controlled conditions. Right after the harvest, the ripe green vanilla pod lacks flavor and aroma. It’s the careful multistep post-production that gives it the familiar brown color and the rich and intense scent.
Natural vanilla absolute used in perfumery is mostly obtained by solvent extraction. In this process, the vanilla beans are soaked in a solvent to extract the aromatic compounds. The solvent is then evaporated, leaving behind a concentrated semi-solid material called oleoresin. It is transformed into vanilla absolute by several stages of further washing to remove the impurities.
The primary chemical responsible for the smell of vanilla is vanillin (a phenolic aldehyde that you are using in the kitchen). Its synthesis was first accomplished by the German chemist Ferdinand Tiemann in 1874. He was able to synthesize vanillin by oxidizing a component of lignin (a polymer found in the cell walls of almost all dry-land plants – trees are composed of 20-30% of lignin).
The discovery of vanillin revolutionized the perfume industry, inspiring a wave of totally new (and now legendary) creations. One of the first fragrances that used synthetic vanillin extensively was Jicky by perfumer Aime Guerlain in 1889. This scent is considered the first modern perfume, and it was one of the first to use synthetic ingredients, including vanillin. Other famous historic fragrances with a vanilla overdose include Mitsouko (1919) and Shalimar (1925) by Jacques Guerlain, and Emeraude by Coty (1921).
