Coeur

Godmu

Super Member
Jun 20, 2013
Hi,
recently I come across some fragrances which have the word "COEUR" (French for heart) added to the name:
Patchouli Coeur, Myrrh Coeur, ...

What is the meaning of this additional word?
What does it imply?
(I searched around but found no answer)

Can someone shed some light on this enigma?
 

pkiler

Basenotes Plus
Basenotes Plus
Dec 5, 2007
It can mean the smoothed refined version, with some effort being spent upon removal of the original natural's harsh parts, or undesired molecules, call it a fractionated natural.
 

David Ruskin

Basenotes Institution
May 28, 2009
Take an Essential oil and distill out the bits you don't want, keeping the bits that you do. That is the Coeur.
 

Iforgot

Super Member
Mar 14, 2015
Might sound like I'm splitting hair, but in terms of how I think of those materials when using them, "stripped down" isn't always it. Think of it this way. In theory all you needs to have a "coeur/heart/md" extract is this: first break some natural down into as many parts as possible, and then compose an accord out of the parts. Just like with composing any accord, the possibilities are endless. In many cases what they end up doing is very much toning down the complexity of a material - eg knock that earthy bit down a few notches but keep the rest. But very often it feels to me like the materials just have a different emphasis compared to traditional extracts. Not more simple, different.

In some cases I'd argue the result is more complex. If you think about it some traditional materials are so dominated by some of their facets that their complexity ends up being overshadowed: eg, traditional elemi EOs tend to be dominated by limonene - often between 50-75% on gcms analysis. Knock the limonene way down (like robertet's elemi heart) and what you get smells way more complex - and less generic - to me.
 

Chris Bartlett

Basenotes Plus
Basenotes Plus
Jul 17, 2011
Might sound like I'm splitting hair, but in terms of how I think of those materials when using them, "stripped down" isn't always it. Think of it this way. In theory all you needs to have a "coeur/heart/md" extract is this: first break some natural down into as many parts as possible, and then compose an accord out of the parts. Just like with composing any accord, the possibilities are endless. In many cases what they end up doing is very much toning down the complexity of a material - eg knock that earthy bit down a few notches but keep the rest. But very often it feels to me like the materials just have a different emphasis compared to traditional extracts. Not more simple, different.

In some cases I'd argue the result is more complex. If you think about it some traditional materials are so dominated by some of their facets that their complexity ends up being overshadowed: eg, traditional elemi EOs tend to be dominated by limonene - often between 50-75% on gcms analysis. Knock the limonene way down (like robertet's elemi heart) and what you get smells way more complex - and less generic - to me.

I’d agree with this.

The truth is adding Coeur to a material name is just marketing - it doesn’t mean anything consistent - except that the starting material was natural and something has been done to it. Some suppliers routinely use this term for what another supplier would call MD (for molecular distilled) or Rectified: so with any given material you’re going to have to look at the technical specification and smell it to know what you’re dealing with.
 

Latest News

Whatever your taste in perfume, we've got you covered...

catalogue your collection, keep track of your perfume wish-list, log your daily fragrance wears, review your latest finds, seek out long-lost scented loves, keep track of the latest perfume news, find your new favourite fragrance, and discuss perfume with like-minded people from all over the world...

Top
pp