Paradis Perdu
EDP · 2013
Frapin
Acquired
Silk Vine or Milk Broom
Note Profile
About
Silk vine is a weak sweet-vanillic gourmand with an almond edge, a dry mealy dustiness and a soft white-floral lift. The material a perfumer buys is the root oil, not the flower. That matters, because the flower of the living plant is reported as fecal and vegetal by people who have stood next to it, and the root oil is reported as vanilla and almond by the only trade source that describes it. A small animalic and sulphurous residue is carried because the two referents share one name and no source says which one a brand means when it prints it.
Scent Profile
Silk Vine smells like a quiet, sweet vanillic gourmand, weak rather than rich, with an almond edge alongside it. A dry, mealy dustiness runs through it, powdery rather than smooth. A soft white floral lift sits on top, subtle rather than heady. A trace of green, juicy sweetness rounds it out.
ScentWheel
Breadthbroad
EnvelopeBase · ~12h lasting
Family
Sweet & Gourmand
Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.
ScentArt
Seen in
Tap a perfume to see where Silk Vine or Milk Broom sits in it. The rest of the picture goes grey
Materials That Can Make This Note
Perfumers can make Silk Vine or Milk Broom from this natural extract.
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Natural extract Periploca sepium oil vanilla · almond · sweet
Smell words come from published sources.
A given perfume with this note may use some of these, or something else.
Origin
Periploca graeca and the closely related Periploca sepium are Apocynaceae climbing vines of the Mediterranean and of northern China, with milky sap that gives the English name Milk Broom. The perfumery material is distilled or extracted from the roots. Firmenich's own description of it, quoted second-hand on Basenotes, is 'sweet & gourmand with high proportion of isovanillin - notes vanilla, almond, frangipani'. Isovanillin is a vanillin isomer, which is what makes the material read as vanilla without being vanilla. One poster who smelled Periploca sepium root oil first-hand independently reports a weak, vanilla-dominated scent with green, juicy-sweet and very faint floral aspects, creamy but also dry, dusty and mealy. The same material is reported not to discolour a formula the way most vanillin-bearing naturals do.
Usage in Perfumery
7 Fragrantica perfumes, none on Parfumo and no Parfumo brands. Amouage Opus VI is the placement people discuss, and a smeller working from that bottle could not isolate the note from the bay, sandalwood, incense and amber around it.
Similar Notes
Perfumes featuring Silk Vine or Milk Broom
A selection of reviewed perfumes where Silk Vine or Milk Broom appears prominently.
