Ylang-Ylang

I know my nose is still good because I knew there was something different about a ylang-ylang I bought today. I said, "This smells sort of like the one I had as a girl, but it's...I don't know, "brisker". I had one that had a warmer smell to it." She said the only difference was this one said it was organic in the book.

I got home and looked it up and then found there are different grades and distillations. I didn't have ylang-ylang II or III from Granny. I had the original one, with the heavier oil and scent.

Then I tried to buy it again around 2000 or so, and the only one they had in the stores was ylang-ylang II.

So there is ylang-ylang (canangas latifolia), ylang-ylang (canangus odorata), ylang-ylang II, and ylang-ylang III.

I remember when Granny gave me ylang-ylang. I was a pre-teen and it was in a round vial. It wasn't a square bottle or little glass thing, it was an amber colored dark glass vial that was tube shaped and the lid screwed on.

I wore vanilla extract and had a pure aromotherapy roll-on tube of vanilla as one of my first perfumes and Granny gave me ylang-ylang before I was a teenager.

At least I'm glad to know my knack for figuring out scents is still good.

"Brisker" was correct! and the one I had decades ago WAS warmer! the other one wasn't distilled and was heavier oil and the one I got today, is lighter, and brisker. I like the heavier scent more...but this is okay until I get the other one again.

I think ylang-ylang is almost like honeysuckle, almost like jasmine, and has a note like vanilla that is warm. It's not so bright as strictly floral (though it is a flower) and it's not a musk. I never had musk.