What Does Orange Blossom Smell Like? Orange Blossom vs Neroli
By Emmanuelle Moeglin, Founder & Perfumer
Orange blossom smells honeyed, heady and slightly animalic, with a clean, soapy freshness running right through it. Neroli comes from exactly the same flower, but it smells lighter, greener and more citrusy.
The difference is how each is extracted: neroli is distilled with steam, orange blossom absolute is extracted with solvents. Both come from the bitter orange tree, Citrus aurantium, which gives perfumers more materials than almost any other plant: neroli, orange blossom absolute, orange flower water, petitgrain from the leaves and bitter orange oil from the peel. Orange blossom is a complex ingredient, almost a fragrance in itself. Here is how to tell its extracts apart.
Bitter orange, Citrus aurantium: one tree, five perfumery materials.
What does orange blossom smell like?
Smell a branch in bloom and you get two scents at once. On top, a fresh, sweet, slightly green floral with a hint of orange zest. Underneath, a warmer, honeyed, almost waxy heart with an animalic edge, the kind of heady richness you find in jasmine and tuberose.
That tension is what makes it so interesting to work with. The same flower can read as innocent and clean, the smell of orange flower water and French baby care, or as sensual and heady. Which side you get depends largely on how it was extracted.
One tree, many extracts
The bitter orange tree, also called bigarade or Seville orange, is grown for perfumery mainly around the Mediterranean, with Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt among the main producers of neroli. Every part of it is used:
The flowers
Give neroli oil, orange blossom absolute and orange flower water.
The leaves and twigs
Give petitgrain bigarade.
The peel of the fruit
Gives bitter orange oil, cold-pressed like other citrus.
The name neroli is linked to Anne Marie Orsini, princess of Nerola in Italy, who made the essence of bitter orange blossom fashionable at the end of the 17th century.
What is the difference between orange blossom and neroli?
The difference is the extraction method, and it changes the scent completely. You can read more about each method in our guide to how perfume ingredients are extracted from plants.
Steam distilled
Neroli
It is an essential oil, made by steam-distilling the fresh blossoms. The heat favours the lighter, more volatile molecules, so neroli is bright, citrusy and green, with subtle undertones of honey and orange. It is pure and airy, and it rises quickly from the skin, which is why it often sits in the top notes of a fragrance.
Solvent extracted
Orange blossom absolute
It is made by washing the flowers with a solvent to obtain a concrete, then purifying it with alcohol into an absolute. It keeps the heavier molecules that distillation leaves behind, so it is the warmer sibling: far more honeyed, headier and a little dirtier, much closer to the living flower on the tree.
Neroli: the light, airy oil distilled from these white blossoms.
Where do petitgrain and orange flower water fit in?
Orange flower water is the fragrant water left behind when the blossoms are distilled for neroli. It holds only traces of the scent, so it smells soft, sweet and gently floral. It is used more in kitchens and skincare than in fine fragrance: it flavours French and North African pastries, and in France and Spain orange blossom is a classic scent for baby care products.
The molecules behind orange blossom
Part of what you smell in orange blossom comes from a handful of key molecules. Linalool, with its fresh, floral, slightly woody character, is a major part of both neroli and petitgrain. Methyl anthranilate brings a sweet, grape-like, orange-flower note, and it is far more present in the absolute than in neroli. Indoles give the absolute its warm, animalic, slightly dirty depth, the same facet that makes jasmine and tuberose so heady.
Because natural orange blossom extracts are very expensive, perfumers often rebuild the smell of the flower as an accord, combining naturals with molecules such as methyl anthranilate, nerolidol (which also occurs naturally in neroli) and Aurantiol, a molecule made from methyl anthranilate and hydroxycitronellal that gives a long-lasting orange blossom effect.
Neroli is the light on the flower; the absolute is its warmth.
How perfumers use neroli and orange blossom
Neroli pairs naturally with other citrus, green and herbaceous notes. It is a pillar of the classic Eau de Cologne, it adds a light floral, citrus element to white florals, and it is a great ingredient for unisex compositions. Orange blossom absolute blends well with other heady florals and with warm, ambery notes, where it brings a fresh, soapy, clean radiance.
For a creamier, whiter floral, try blending it with Jasmine Osmanthus.
From the perfumer
In a formula I give them different jobs: neroli is my light, the absolute my depth. I always follow both on skin over several hours, because they move in opposite directions: neroli fades fast, while the absolute's honeyed warmth grows.
The Art of Blending
Wear it alone, or blend it
Orange blossom, neroli and petitgrain at a glance
Neroli oil
Flowers · Steam distillation
Bright, citrusy, green, a touch of honey
Linalool, limonene, linalyl acetate, nerolidol
Orange blossom absolute
Flowers · Solvent extraction
Honeyed, heady, warm, slightly animalic
Methyl anthranilate, indoles, linalool
Orange flower water
Flowers · Water left after distillation
Soft, sweet, gently floral
Traces of the flower's scent
Petitgrain bigarade
Leaves and twigs · Steam distillation
Green, woody, bitter, lightly floral
Linalyl acetate, linalool
Bitter orange oil
Peel · Cold pressing
Zesty, bitter citrus
Limonene
Keep exploring
More from the Journal
Frequently asked questions about orange blossom and neroli
What does orange blossom smell like?
Honeyed, heady and floral, with a clean, soapy freshness and a slightly animalic depth from indoles.
Is neroli the same as orange blossom?
They come from the same flower of the bitter orange tree. Neroli is steam-distilled and smells lighter and more citrusy; orange blossom absolute is solvent-extracted and smells richer, warmer and headier.
What is petitgrain?
An essential oil distilled from the leaves and twigs of the bitter orange tree. It smells fresh, green and woody, with a light floral facet close to neroli.
Is orange flower water the same as neroli?
No. Orange flower water is the fragrant water left behind when the blossoms are distilled for neroli. It holds only traces of the scent and is mostly used in pastry and skincare.
Why does orange blossom smell clean and soapy?
Its fresh linalool facet gives it a clean, airy quality, and it has long been used in colognes, soaps and baby care, so we associate it with freshness.
Where can I smell orange blossom at EPC?
In our Fig Neroli Essential, which combines neroli, orange blossom absolute and petitgrain with fig leaf and basil. Wear it alone or blend it with other Essentials.
Emmanuelle Moeglin is the founder and perfumer of Experimental Perfume Club. Classically trained at ISIPCA, with 20 years in the fragrance industry, she is a member of the French Society of Perfumers, a multi-award-winning creator and a public speaker, and teaches perfumery from our central London lab.
Smell neroli and orange blossom in Fig Neroli, blend your own fresh floral with our Creation Set Garden, or learn to compose on our Fundamentals of Perfume Creation programme.
