I'm a Hopeless Perfume Romantic - The Cup Half Full Type

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The first Acacia farnesiana - Cassie - flower to bloom in Anya's Garden.
I got the first acacia flower today on my young tree.  Acacia farnesiana is the source of beautiful cassie absolute, and I'm already planning a harvest that will yield me a usable raw material for my perfumery - hence the hopeless romantic/cup half full type.  I have to be to see all that in this one tiny flower.  Cassie absolute is a prized perfume ingredient, and it can be fractionally distilled to yield alpha ionone, a natural isolate that smells like violet flowers. It is supposed to bloom winter through spring, so this is the start of my first cassie enfleurage.  I'm preparing a little enfleurage container for the flower, and I'll add the others as they bloom.  I'll have to use leather gloves to harvest them, as the tree is very thorny.  Oh, and I'm going to trim the tree down into a big bush, probably 7' x 7', much like my ylang ylang.  This is necessary to harvest the flowers easily.

The scent from this one tiny flower is very strong.  The scent is actually more like it's cousin mimosa (A. decurrens), but the two absolutes smell different.  If you've ever had to work with mimosa absolute, you know how hard that can become.  Cassie absolute is always fluid and easy to work with. I'm planning the Spring cassie absolute already!

Comments

  1. JoAnne Bassett11/21/2011 2:50 PM

    I love using cassie absolute...I do not have a tree..how cool is that..!

    Sounds fascinating Anya..like my honeysuckle blooms..it takes a lot to create something..

    ReplyDelete
  2. anyasgarden11/21/2011 3:04 PM

    I think the tree/bush might grow where you are, so maybe you could try it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Paul Smith London Perfume11/22/2011 1:15 AM

    I just love the fragrance of acacia

    ReplyDelete
  4. anyasgarden11/22/2011 9:43 AM

    Paul, I found it smelled more like mimosa than I thought it would. Do you smell mostly mimosa when you sniff it?

    Thanks,
    Anya

    ReplyDelete
  5. Unknown11/22/2011 12:33 PM

    Good Morning all,
    I am sure you must be right Anya about growing
    this plant is So Cal. The picture I saw was in
    a desert setting. The flower is tiny (love the
    purlpe nail polish) and thorns to battle. It
    seems all parts of the tree can be used, only
    the tiny flower in perfume tho.
    Denise

    ReplyDelete
  6. anyasgarden11/22/2011 3:07 PM

    Hi Denise:

    Yes, I believe it would do very well in your area. Yes, all parts of the tree are used for medicine, wood, etc. I can't wait to get the enfleurage to a stage where I can produce an absolute.

    xoxo,
    Anya

    ReplyDelete

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