Materials · 6 min

Australia's natives are perfumery's newest old materials

Boronia, blue cypress, lemon myrtle, desert lime: Australia has been growing the future of fragrance for a very long time.

For most of perfumery's history the palette was Mediterranean and Indian: Grasse jasmine, Bulgarian rose, Mysore sandalwood, Assam oud. Australia contributed eucalyptus and was otherwise ignored. That has changed in a decade, and the change began with sandalwood.

Sandalwood, again

When Indian sandalwood became scarce and regulated, Western Australia's plantations of Santalum album became the world's largest reliable source. It smells slightly drier than Mysore's, and it taught perfumers to look further at what grows there.

The natives

Boronia absolute from Tasmania, hay and freesia and blackcurrant, is now one of the most expensive floral materials on earth. Blue cypress from the Northern Territory is the only naturally blue wood oil. Lemon myrtle carries more citral than lemon itself. The desert lime is sharper than any citrus in the Mediterranean.

Why Désir pairs them

Each Australian material is bright, dry, aerated. Each Indian material is deep, warm, rooted. Put one of each in a candle and neither has to carry the whole story. Bacio di Fuoco, saffron with golden wattle, is the clearest example: fire and powder.