Néroli Cru
Neroli, petitgrain, cardamom
- Composed by
- Théo Vasseur
- Family
- Citrus
- Formula written
- 2023
- From
- €175.00
Néroli Cru
Neroli, petitgrain, cardamom
How it was built
Neroli is distilled from the flower of the bitter orange; petitgrain from the leaves and twigs of the same tree. They are the same plant read at two different temperatures, and almost every cologne in existence uses both without saying so.
Néroli Cru is bottled from a single harvest each spring, which is why the year is printed on the base of the flacon. The 2024 filling is greener than the 2023 -- the flowering ran late and the distillation caught more leaf.
It is a cologne in structure and an eau de parfum in strength. Cardamom and rosemary verbenone keep it from tipping into soap; ambrettolide gives it a tail that a real cologne does not have.
How it wears
Four properties, read on skin over a full day rather than on a blotter. They describe behaviour, not preference.
Sillage
An arm's length
Longevity
Most of a day
Temperature
Neither
Density
Layered
These are the atelier’s own readings, taken on skin rather than on a blotter, and they describe how the fragrance behaves rather than how much anyone liked it.
Head, heart and base
The materials that determine each stage, in the order they own it. The bars are compositional weight within a tier, not a percentage of the formula; the formula itself is not published.
Head
The most volatile materials. They are what you smell as the alcohol flashes off, and they are gone inside twenty minutes.
Neroli bigaradeCitrus aurantium ssp. amara
Petitgrain sur fleursCitrus aurantium
Lemon, PrimofioreCitrus limon
Heart
The body of the composition. It emerges as the head clears and holds for two to four hours; this is the fragrance as it is meant to be recognised.
Orange blossom absoluteCitrus aurantium
Rosemary verbenoneRosmarinus officinalis
Green cardamomElettaria cardamomum
Base
The least volatile materials, and the ones that fix the rest in place. What is left on skin at the end of the day, and on cloth for days after.
Cedarwood, AtlasCedrus atlantica
Ambrettolide
Orris concreteIris pallida
Materials and provenance
Where the principal materials come from and how they are won from the plant. Every lot behind a given bottle is recorded against its flacon code.
NeroliCitrus aurantium ssp. amara
Nabeul, Tunisia
Steam distillation of flowers picked the same morning
The flowers must reach the still within hours of picking or they ferment. The distillery runs continuously for the three weeks the tree is in flower and then stops for the year.
Green cardamomElettaria cardamomum
Alta Verapaz, Guatemala
CO2 extraction of whole green pods
Carbon dioxide extraction rather than steam. The pod keeps its bright, slightly camphorous top instead of cooking down to the dried-spice smell you get from a distillation.
Size and price
Each size is filled from the same batch. The ten millilitre format is not a sample; it is the same juice in a smaller flacon.
€175.00
50 ml eau de parfum · reference NOC-NRC-050
Bottles are filled to order from the current batch and dispatched within five working days. Fragrance cannot be returned once the seal is broken; an unopened flacon may be returned within fourteen days.