The materials

Cold-pressed peel, green and sparkling. The first second of a perfume.

Sweeter and rounder than bergamot, with a zest that smiles.

Not a pepper at all, but a berry: rosy, dry and fizzy.

Leathery, honeyed, metallic. 150,000 flowers for one kilo.

An accord, not a material: warm skin, mineral air and wind.

Damask rose distilled the same morning it is picked.

Orris butter from rhizomes dried for three years. The most expensive note we use.

Grandiflorum from Grasse, picked by hand before the sun is high.

Peonies give no oil; we rebuild their scent from a dozen materials.

Green leaf, milky fruit and a little coconut.

Resin from agarwood: dark, animal, extraordinarily long.

Bourbon pods cured for six months in the sun.

Pencil shavings and shade. A dry, clean base.

A warm accord of labdanum, benzoin and vanilla.

Frankincense from Dhofar: lemony, cold and smoky at once.