In_Carnation

"Without any particular reason he remembered the Mexican name for carnations. They called them Clavos de Amor — nails of love."

— John Steinbeck, East of Eden, 1952

Perfumer: Jean-Claude Ellena

Long before perfumers explored the fascinating relationship between flowers and spices, Italian merchants had already noticed the striking resemblance between the scent of carnations and cloves. Legend has it that Marco Polo, returning from China with ships filled with precious spices, named the carnation after the aromatic clove due to their remarkably similar fragrance.

Yet the carnation holds another secret. Beneath its spicy floral character lies a soft, almost hidden vanilla facet that lends the flower an unexpected sensuality. This connection is more than poetic imagination — it is rooted in chemistry itself. Eugenol, the principal aromatic molecule found in clove oil, can be transformed into vanillin through a delicate process known as hemisynthesis.

In Clavos de Amor, Jean-Claude Ellena explores this fascinating dialogue between nature and science, revealing the carnation in all its complexity: spicy yet delicate, luminous yet intimate. A fragrance that celebrates the subtle alchemy of scent and the beauty hidden within a single flower.