Rose

About rose

Perfumery rose mostly means two plants, and both are hybrids. Rosa x damascena, the damask rose, is a cross of R. gallica and R. moschata. Rosa x centifolia, the cabbage rose or May rose of Grasse, was bred by Dutch growers between the 17th and 19th centuries.

The two are handled differently. Damask rose is distilled into oil, mainly in Bulgaria, Turkey and Iran, and sources disagree on the yield, with figures from roughly 1,400 to 3,000 parts petals to one part oil. Centifolia flowers once a year, in May, and its petals are considered too delicate for a true oil, so it is processed to an absolute. Growers also work it in Morocco and Egypt. Petals are picked by hand around dawn, and at Grasse the harvest lasts about three weeks. Tatler reports that petals must be processed within an hour and that about 400 kg of roses make 1 kg of concrete, the waxy first extract that comes before the absolute.

Two molecules carry much of the smell. Centifolia absolute is more than half phenylethyl alcohol, and one supplier puts it as high as 63%. It smells soft and rose-like. Beta-damascenone makes up under 2% of the oil, yet it is credited with slightly more than 90% of the odour content, because the nose picks it up at such a tiny concentration. It is described as apple, rose, honey and tobacco.

Plenty of rose in a bottle never saw a petal. Rose oxide is made by photooxygenation of citronellol, and phenylethyl alcohol is commonly built from benzene and ethylene oxide. Firmenich sells a damascenone blend, Damascenone Total, that perfumers use at trace amounts up to 0.1%.

The natural material still has its customers. Chanel says, in press accounts, that it buys its May rose from Grasse under a 1987 agreement with the Mul family, and Tatler writes that a 30 ml bottle of No. 5 Parfum holds extracts of 12 May roses.