Nelumbo nucifera, the blue one

I’m working on expanding my palette of heart notes, and am starting to work, slowly, with a phytonic extraction of blue lotus.

When I first began working with the lotus flower absolutes, I was reminded of really dense and sticky confections, that had a hit of floral to them. And then I managed to procure some of the blue, and that ‘floral fudge’ motif went out the window.

Blue lotus pulsates. And it glows.

I never really grokked the whole idea of an aromatic spectrum where classes of scents are given corresponding colors and hues, so much as figured, ‘yeah, that’s another way to look at it…’ Not until I smelled blue lotus and realized that a scent can definitely have a color to it.

And that was the solvent extraction of the flower, I was smelling. I’m not really given to words like ethereal, but it fits in this case. Warm, blue, a slight shiver and tingle, and a glow. The strangest flower I’ve ever smelled.

Then I got a phytonic extraction of it last year, which was very different. Peter Wilde, the gentleman who invented the process for doing these special extractions, is said to have remarked that with every extraction method, you never get the orange itself but end up with marmalade. And then he started extracting in this fashion, and because the process does not involve heat, you definitely do get the orange. And in this case, the flowers.

Blue lotus phytol is a sultry afternoon up on the bank of a pond full of blooming flowers, where you can hear the insects buzzing, the air gets heavy and lazy, and you start to wonder if sunshine has a smell to it. And it is blue, as before, but in a decidedly aquatic and nearly ozonic way.

And darned if I can figure out a way, yet, to capture that without steamrolling the delicate scent with other aromatics! I’ve got five dilutions to work with, that’ve been aging since last year. I think we’re starting with a soft rose, as far as pairings go…