Olive Blossom

While olive oil anchored ancient perfumery as a base medium, the olive tree's blossoms themselves remained largely unnoticed until recent centuries. Greek perfumers of the classical period worked extensively with olive oil as a carrier, selecting specific olive varieties known as 'raw' and 'coarse' for their minimal greasiness—these were the preferred grades for blending with aromatic extracts. Archaeological discoveries at the Cyprus perfumery site (1850 BC) revealed that ancient practitioners combined botanical extracts with olive oil to create their fragrances, establishing practices that would shape Mediterranean perfumery for millennia. The Arabs and Persians later refined extraction techniques, introducing steam distillation and new materials to the region, though olive blossom remained primarily associated with its oil rather than its flowers. True isolation of the blossom's scent became possible only with the advent of modern solvent extraction in the late 19th century, when houses like Antoine Chiris pioneered the techniques needed to capture these delicate aromatics. Today, olive blossom remains a niche ingredient, appearing in only a handful of prestigious fragrances each year.