One designer, one ingredient…Fagraea blossom

The flower

This white flower is to the inhabitants of Wallis Island what tiaré is to Tahitians. It’s like a sort of state flower for the Wallisians, who call it pua (phonetically). They use it to make their leis.
Not working with it for my fragrance Manoumalia** would practically have constituted a professional error on my part, because it’s just so emblematic of Wallisian culture.

It blooms in the South Pacific from October to January. Fagraea grows on a tree that is also grows all over one of the Loyalty Islands***: Mare (a.k.a. Fagraea Paradise). Kanak women on Mare Island use it a lot, and it is very popular in Hawaii, too. Here in New Caledonia, we call this flower’s tree “taboo wood”, or petrol wood. Which makes the flower taboo-wood blossom. If I say fagraea, hardly anyone here knows what I’m talking about. Say taboo-wood blossom, on the other hand, and that rings a bell right away.

The smell

The flower is heady and the scent oscillates from tiaré, to tuberose, to gardenia and frangipani blossom... I jokingly like to call it Island Tuberose, because of both its scent and its trumpet shape, like tuberose.
Distillation has been attempted, but the outcome was inconclusive. It would probably be a good idea to try enfleurage extraction on it. So I worked it with my nose, i.e. I reconstituted it. I’d love to work it as a single-flower scent someday****.