Flouve Absolute 40%

Anthoxanthum odoratum L.

(7)

The complex aroma of our Flouve Absolute is powerful, sweet, herbaceous and coumarin-rich, with notes of freshly cut hay, honey, mild tobacco, and gingerbread. This diffusive, multi-layered and very tenacious absolute is a rare and intriguing addition to the perfumer's palette.

Size

Selected size SKU:329-015 - Flouve Absolute 40% 15 ml (1/2 oz)

Sample 1 ml (1/30 oz)
$3.00
5 ml (1/6 oz)
$8.25
15 ml (1/2 oz)
$28.75
30 ml (1 oz)
$49.50
59.14 ml (2 oz)
$86.25
118.29 ml (4 oz)
$154.25
236.58 ml (8 oz)
$276.00
473.17 ml (16 oz)
$500.25
$3.00
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Product Overview

The complex aroma of our Flouve Absolute is powerful, sweet, herbaceous and coumarin-rich, with notes of freshly cut hay, honey, mild tobacco, and gingerbread. This diffusive, multi-layered and very tenacious absolute is a rare and intriguing addition to the perfumer's palette. Flouve Absolute is known for its high concentration of coumarin, an aromatic lactone which gives it its characteristic 'new mown hay' aroma.

Flouve, also known as Sweet Vernalgrass, is a close relative of North American Sweetgrass[1] and grows wild in grasslands in most temperate regions of the world. Our French producer has developed an exclusive partnership with farmers in the Landes region of southwestern France, who cultivate fields dedicated entirely to this crop. Over several harvests between May and September, the plants are cut and air-dried for several days, then baled before extraction.

'New mown hay' or foin coupé perfume was popular at the turn of the 20th century, with coumarin comprising an important part of the sweet, hay-like aroma.[2] Foin coupé is French for ‘cut hay’ and is often specified as the botanical name of another closely related grass from the Poaceae family that is the source for Hay Absolute. Flouve Absolute is significantly higher in coumarin than Hay Absolute, and also contains trace amounts of vanillin, resulting in more gourmand aromatic qualities.

Coumarin is 'glycosidically bound' and not volatile when grasses are living and green but is only liberated when the plant material is cut and dried. This is when enzymatic action occurs, breaking the chemical bonds and releasing the fragrance of a thousand blades of vernal grass.[3],[4] Tonka Bean is another aromatic material that is noted for its coumarin content and shares scent nuances similar to some found in Flouve.

In natural perfumery compositions, Flouve Absolute delivers a very powerful herbaceous odor with gourmand facets, wielding persistent ethereal effects that allow it to combine well with opulent floral notes like Jasmine and Orange Blossom.[5] Arctander calls it “unquestionably one of the most interesting ‘natural’ perfumery materials” with an odor “so rich and complex that one can keep finding notes in it.”[6]

PLEASE NOTE: Flouve Absolute is intended for use in perfumery only. This product is 40% Flouve Absolute diluted in 60% TEC (triethyl citrate), a natural ester of citric acid that aids solubility.

1 Rhind, Jennifer Peace. Aromatherapeutic Blending  Essential Oils in Synergy, 2016, p. 261.

2 Rhind, Jennifer Peace. Fragrance and Wellbeing, 2014, p. 282.

3 Poucher, W.A. Perfumes Cosmetics and Soaps, Vol. II, 4th ed., 1932, p. 178-9.

4 Rhind, Jennifer Peace. Aromatherapeutic Blending  Essential Oils in Synergy, 2016, p. 261.

5 Industry communication.

6 Arctander, Steffen. Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin, 1960, pp. 250-251.

Blends Well With

4.8

7 Reviews

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Customer Reviews

Intensely rich honey

Rating

This has such a rich smell. Out of the bottle, I get blasted with honey and fresh tobacco. On the skin, it's that for 1 hour, then the honey note fades into coumarin and hay, and i could detect the other complex notes. Really fun coumarin note in perfume

Review by blake 1/27/2024

delicious!

Rating

Everything everyone has said but I also get a strong note of dried figs. Figgy jam. can’t stop smelling it.

Review by Mark 1/19/2024

3 thumbs up

Rating

Quite like Tonka, but less coumarine-forward, less powdery sweet and more dry hay-like plus a lovely balsamic woody poplar bud facette. For example if you love the charater of tonka bean absolute but wished it did not fade to straight up coumarine after 5 minutes and keep playing it's lovely hay song on skin for a while, this is what you need! Seriously this is as good as it gets. Worth every penny

Review by Laurent 12/6/2023

diluted absolutes

Rating

Most of us seek out absolutes because we value the fixative effect and other attributes for perfumery. Diluting absolutes to "make it easier to work with" is kind of a misnomer- in that anyone in perfumery knows how to work with the thickest of products. Further, it mutes the intensity of the material so you end up using twice as much or more. I think most folks would be willing to pay the extra for undiluted absolutes.

Review by David 5/11/2023

Rich deep hay perfection

Rating

I am a sucker for coumarin and hay. This is the best I’ve ever had, and it lasts and lasts and lasts. Highly diffusive from the bottle and takes to skin like it was made for it. Tenacious and keeps going all day. Scent is a powerful deep brown of cut dried grass with sticky tobacco and sweet cooked honey. It’s like the fresh morning air on a grassy paddock that has been mowed, but warm. It’s sweet and sticky like new tobacco but never cloying. Foundation notes are deep sticky molasses, heart of golden coumarin and tobacco, warm without being dry, with a toasty rich baked rye top. It is sweet in a heady heavy dark caramel direction, but doesn’t give a candy impression and is not dominating, but fits perfectly together. There is something like the purple-berry honey fruitiness found in rose. Eden sells a lot of good stuff but this is out of this world. Liquid is easy to handle but sightly heterogeneous - a small price to pay for the scent of heaven.

Review by Joel 4/20/2023

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