Fleur Royal began with a very special request.
I was asked to create a Ghalia for a royal family, but with one particular direction.
Use the most beautiful flowers possible.
Not simply a rose composition, or a traditional Ghalia dominated by oud and musk, but something that would bring together some of the rarest, most precious and extraordinary floral materials I could find.
And that was exactly what I wanted to create.
I have always loved working with natural florals. Every flower has its own personality, its own character and its own way of expressing itself in a composition.
But what fascinates me even more is what happens when you bring several exceptional florals together.
For Fleur Royal, I wanted the flowers to have the freedom to express themselves, while using some of the finest oud oils in my collection to give them depth and richness.
Rose, jasmine, frangipani, blue lotus, white lotus and orris butter are among the beautiful materials that give Fleur Royal its identity.
Each contributes something different.
The rose brings richness and elegance. Jasmine adds its beautiful floral presence. Frangipani gives the composition a creamy, almost luxurious softness, while the lotus materials introduce a more delicate and unusual floral character.
And then there is the orris butter.
For me, orris has an extraordinary ability to bring smoothness and powderiness to a composition. It helps round the florals, allowing their individual characters to come together in a beautifully refined way.
But Fleur Royal is still a Ghalia.
And I wanted that identity to remain unmistakable.
Underneath the flowers are carefully selected oud oils, including Burmese, Cambodian and Hindi oud, with aged materials contributing their own depth and character.
What I find particularly beautiful is the relationship between the oud and the flowers.
The opening is intensely floral, rich and expressive. But as the composition begins to develop, the oud slowly becomes more noticeable.
And then something interesting happens.
It begins to feel as though the wood itself is carrying the fragrance of the flowers.
You smell the oud, but you also experience the richness of the florals so closely intertwined with it that it becomes difficult to separate one from the other.