plant
Lavender
Lavandula angustifolia
Origin
True lavender grows wild on the limestone slopes of Haute-Provence in southern France, favouring high altitude and poor soil. The flowering tops are steam-distilled in midsummer to yield a sweet, refined oil distinct from the harsher lavandin grown at lower elevations.
The smell
Clean, aromatic and slightly sweet, with a cool herbaceous top and a soft, almost powdery warmth underneath. There is a camphorous lift that reads as fresh and bracing, and a faint hay-like dryness as it settles. It smells of sunlit limestone hillsides and pressed laundry, certain and uncomplicated.
Key quality
The aromatic backbone of the fougère family and of the classic barbershop accord.
Historical use
The Romans named it from lavare, 'to wash', and scented their baths with it. It was central to the fougère revolution begun by Houbigant's Fougère Royale in 1882 and remained the defining note of interwar men's grooming, symbolising European tradition before it slid into its later reputation as a grandmotherly scent.