Comprehensive Article on Mimosa {Fragrant Reading}
Mimosa is one of the most delicate of floral scents, hard to capture in a fragrance. It is simply intoxicating to inhale its scent in the South of France during the winter mimosa festivals in places like Bormes Les Mimosas.
There is an interesting article about its natural history and local adaptation on the French Riviera, as well as a list of perfumes in which the note appears as a main one or a more secondary one,....
"Mimosa trees were first introduced to Australia from the tropical parts of America in the late 1800s as a curiosity. People were fascinated by the fact that when the leaves of the trees were touched, they reacted by folding up in a hedgehog fashion. Mimosa did not arrive on the French Riviera until the 19th century, when the famous British explorer, Captain James Cook imported the first small saplings. It quickly became the flower of choice for members of the British and Russian aristocracies in the decoration of their secondary residences in fashionable Cannes, amongst them Lord Brougham, Sir Woolfield and the son of the Russian Tsar Nicholas II."
We are not sure here about the dating of the introduction of Mimosa as Captain James Cook (1728-1779) lived in the 18th century, not the 19th century. Reports and dates are contradictory. If Cook brought the first mimosas, it would have to have been in the 18th c.
Read more in Cosmetics Business....
Image: France Monthly
Previous Posts in Fragrant Readings:
Jean Paul Gaultier Interviewed by L'Express on Beauty & Perfume
Annick Le Guérer's Online Column
Underlying Notes by Eva Pasco: A Romance Novel About Perfume + 2 Excerpts
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