Coralle, Revamped

Revamping Coralle  was a spontaneous act. One thing led to another - to begin with, I had to test a new kind of alcohol. I tested it with some ylang ylang. It didn't dissolve. I decided to try to fix the matter by adding more alcohol and the only scent I could think about making with ylang ylang was Coralle. And then, instead of just making a straightforward bath of the original formula, I decided it was time to put to use my research on fruit tinctures. Pineapple, if to be more specific. It was a total streak of luck. I had no experience using pineapple extract before. I just had a hunch that it will work beautifully with the banana-like notes of ylang ylang, and with the davana (a strawberry-and-hay like essential oil) cassis absolute that are already in the formula.

But of course, I did not have any pineapple extract. So I had to make my own. I've began some experiments this summer with fruit extracts, using freeze-dried fruit that can be procured for rather hefty price but with a lot of fresh-fruit-flavour. Pineapple was one of them, and the one that preserved the fresh fruit aroma the best. I was so surprised by the result. It was one of those things that sounded too good to be true when I read about it on Charna Ethier's blog. And perhaps it is too good to be true with some fruit - because the freeze-dried pear and apple I found didn't taste at all like the fresh versions of themselves and their crispy, fluffy-crunchy texture was the only thing going for their bland persona.

I also tinkered with the base notes, adding a few things that make it a bit less agreeable and more three-dimensional. nothing that is veering too much off the theme of tropical flowers, creamy notes and dry woods. But still.

The result was pleasantly surprising: A distinctively old-fashioned Fruity-Floral perfume, leaning slightly towards the Chypre-Fruity, Floral-Aldehydic zone. Although there is not a drop of oak moss to be found there, it has a certain dryness at the base that along with the ylang ylang, herbaceous-fruity dabana and the fruit accents, creates a Chyrpesque personalty. Not in the teeny-bopper fruity-floral sense, but rather in the retro 50s and 60s style Chypre-Fruity and Aldehydic florals. More along the lines of Fidji, and definitely not anything similar to Escada's serial fruit-punch perfume releases.


Top Notes: Ylang Ylang Extra, Grapefruit, Clementine, Pineapple
Heart Notes: Ylang Ylang Cream, Bourbon Geranium, Davana
Base Notes: Spanish Amber, Bourbon Vanilla, Papyrus, Vetiver 

I realized to my dismay that I don't even have proper bottle labels for my current packaging of eau de parfums: only the tags from days of yore, when I still was bottling all my alcoholic beverages in frosted tear-shaped flacons. Therefore, I am using hand-written labels for now; and once the High Holidays in Israel come to a close I will print new labels - which would be my first time doing so since moving my headquarters to Israel.