NEROLI BOUQUETIER RESERVE : Orange Blossom Quintessence (100% pure, natural and organic essential oil)

Bitter Orange blossom essential oil, or Neroli, as it is known in perfumery, is has acquired nobility status for a long time.

C. aurantium is sought to be a cross between the mandarin orange (Citrus reticulata) and the pomelo orange (C. maxima). It most probably originated in the himalayan foothills of north-eastern India and adjoining areas of Burma (Myanmar) and China. It spread north-eastward to Japan and westward through India to the Middle East, where it became deeply appreciated for its floral water (azahar, used extensively in cooking, coffee, pastries, etc.) and from there to Europe, where it rapidly became established in the Mediterranean some 1000 years ago. The plant has also been used medicinally in Ayurveda, many local folk medicines, Unani, Siddha, and traditional Chinese medicine traditions.

In Europe, It was the favourite of Louis XIV, King of France, "the perfumed king", who loved the fragrance so much, he was adding it to the fountains at Versailles. After he became oversensitive (allergic because of excess) to perfumes, the only smell he kept was neroli, which both smelled heavenly, and, he believed, relieved him deeply from his nervous anxiety and from the weight of ruling.

Around the same time, in 1708, Giovanni Maria Farina, an Italian perfumer exiled in Germany, wrote to his brother Jean Baptiste: "I have found a fragrance that reminds me of an Italian spring morning, of mountain daffodils and orange blossoms after the rain".He named his fragrance Eau de Cologne, in honour of his new hometown, and his fragrance became the true first "global hit of reproductible perfumery".  The Eau de Cologne composed by Farina was used only as a perfume and delivered to "nearly all royal houses in Europe", and became a favourite in numerous courts. Farina's ability to produce a constantly homogeneous fragrance consisting of dozens of monoessences was seen as a sensation at the time. A single vial of this Aqua mirabilis (miracle water) cost half the annual salary of a civil servant. When free trade was established in Cologne by the French in 1797, the success of Eau de Cologne prompted countless other businessmen to sell their own fragrances under the same name and it progressively became a classic of perfumery, and a genre in itself, until today.   

The bitter orange became especially common in Spain, hence its vernacular name in many language: Seville orange. It was one of the first citrus taken to South America in the 16th Century, where it soon escaped from cultivation and naturalized in many areas. It is now cultivated in many tropical and subtropical countries C. aurantium has been grown in France since the early 1400s, initially mainly as an ornamental.

Later on special perfumery cultivars grown for their fragrant flowers were developed in the French Riviera region and became known as "Bouquetiers", which then spread into other regions around the Mediterranean for the production of the precious oil

The Oil

Scentient Nature's exclusive artisan oil, made from fresh orange blossoms from trees ten year or older, untreated.

It takes approx. 500 kg of the extremely delicate blossoms to produce 500gr of oil, which is about the current yearly production. Flowers are picked at sunrise so as to avoid losing aromas during the day, and distilled quickly. 

100% pure and natural Sevillan Orange
Citrus aurantium / bigaradia var. bouquetier
Organic artisan production & distillation 
Hydro-distilled fresh, with a slow, low-pressure process.

The slow distillation ensures an aromatic depth, and scope that are remarkable.