L’Artisan launched Fleur d’Oranger in 2005. It is the first in a projected series of limited edition “harvest fragrances” based on specific “vintages” of floral notes; this one takes its name from the 2004 harvest of orange blossom from Nabeul in Tunisia. The fragrance was created by nose Anne Flipo, and has notes of orange bigarade, petitgrain, neroli, honey, beeswax and orange blossom.

Fleur d’Oranger is, in a word, glorious. It does for orange blossoms what Diptyque Philosykos did for figs: it captures the whole experience of standing in an grove of orange (in this case) trees on a brilliant summer day, with the smell of the leaves, the bark, the blossoms and the fruit. As with Philosykos, it probably does so in a more aromatically pleasing way than the reality could possibly hope to…

Read the rest of this article »