Summer 23

This perfumer’s ingredient is literally worth its weight in gold. Native to the eastern Himalayas, the osmanthus tree is a small shrub with pale spring flowers from which the oil is extracted. Its scent is beloved in China, where legend has it that a huge osmanthus tree grows on the moon.

Our damask roses are grown in the Rose Valley in Bulgaria. They are hand-picked in the early mornings and must be quickly distilled - some pickers even take their copper stills to the fields, heating the roses over wood fires to extract the precious drops that each bloom yields.

Il geranio di Ffern, Pelargonium graveolens, è noto anche come geranio rosa. Secondo la leggenda, questo fiore nacque quando il profeta Maometto, dopo essersi bagnato in un fiume, stese la sua camicia su un ramo di malva ad asciugare. La malva si sentì così onorata da trasformarsi nello splendido geranio rosa.

Our nutmeg grows on the Banda islands of eastern Indonesia. The fruit is harvested with handheld telescopic pickers and left to dry in the shade - the seed oil is then steam distilled at source.

Distillato dalle foglie e dai rami dell’albero della canfora, l’olio di legno di Ho è una nota legnosa leggera con sfumature floreali e agrumate. Visto che il palissandro è purtroppo a rischio di estinzione, il legno di Ho viene spesso utilizzato in profumeria come alternativa sostenibile.

Our Egyptian basil grand vert is renowned for its high linalool composition and its distinctive aniseed notes. The leaves are cut and immediately distilled - if they are allowed to dry, the scent is largely lost.

Coltivato sulle colline calabresi affacciate sul Mar Ionio, il frutto viene raccolto a mano e l’olio estratto direttamente sul posto. La famiglia La Face piantò i suoi primi alberi di bergamotto negli anni Trenta e da allora ha continuato a perfezionare l’arte della produzione degli oli essenziali di agrumi.

Il benzoino del Siam è una resina balsamica ricavata dalla corteccia dello storace, che cresce sui monti Annamiti, in Laos. A settembre viene praticata un’incisione a V nella corteccia dell’albero e, nell’arco di tre settimane, si formano fragili «lacrime» bianche di resina di benzoino. Questo processo è noto come «tapping», ovvero spillatura.

Grapefruit oil is cold pressed from the fruit’s golden rind. Native to the Caribbean, grapefruit is thought to have been born from an accidental union of pomelo, the largest citrus fruit, and sweet orange. An eighteenth-century Welsh sailor described it as one of the ‘seven wonders of Barbados’.

La nostra assoluta di fieno deriva dalle erbe Lolium perenne. Tagliate nel pieno dell’estate, vengono lasciate essiccare al sole come fieno, un processo che libera la cumarina dai germogli.

Una volta essiccato, il fieno viene sottoposto a estrazione con solvente, ottenendo un liquido scuro e viscoso con una base erbacea e mielata.

Our rock rose grows wild on the plains of Almaden de la Plata outside Seville, Spain. In late summer, the leafy stems of the plant are sickle harvested and plunged into hot carbonated water. This mixture is distilled to obtain a honeyed, amber resin - labdanum.

Olibanum (also known as frankincense) is a resin taken from the bark of the Boswellia tree. At Ffern we use Boswellia carterii. The trees grow wild along the Gulf of Aden in northern Somalia, and the resin ‘tears’ are harvested by local collectors over a period of weeks.⁠ ⁠

Our key lime rind comes from Mexico, one of the world's primary growing regions for key lime. We have two types of pure key lime rind oil in the Ffern palette - the distilled oil is sparkling, green and zesty, while the cold pressed oil is has a terpenic edge, giving it the true scent of just cut limes.

Ffern mandarins are harvested in the months before ripening. Whilst still green, they are cold pressed on site to preserve their delicate top notes. The scent is notably sharper and more floral than their ripe counterparts.

Our neroli oil is extracted from the blossom of bitter Seville Orange trees on Cape Bon in northern Tunisia. The blossoms are hand-picked in the spring at daybreak, once dew has formed. The flowers are immediately pressed and distilled.

We chose Haitian vetiver over Javan competitors for its fresh, sparkling notes, and because the root provides sustainable employment for south Haitian communities. One year after planting, the roots are excavated, washed, cut, and sun-dried before they can be steam distilled at source.

Il nostro legno di cedro rosso (noto anche come ginepro rosso) viene coltivato e raccolto in Virginia, negli Stati Uniti. L’olio viene estratto tramite distillazione a vapore direttamente dagli scarti di lavorazione di un ebanista. Condivide le classiche note legnose del cedro dell’Atlante, ma introduce una caratteristica sfumatura che ricorda il profumo delle matite temperate.

The La Faces are a third-generation citrus farming family, growing our lemons on the northeastern tip of Sicily - just across the 3km straight of Messina and in sight of our bergamot on the Calabrian shores. The fruit is picked by hand, and the rinds cold pressed on site.