Kenanga

Kenanga is cananga, the Javanese form of the ylang-ylang tree. Its long yellow flowers hang down like wet ribbon, and in the north and west of Java they are distilled into an oil that is greener and rougher than ylang-ylang.

Mixed into coconut oil, the same flowers once made Macassar oil, the hair oil that gave Victorian armchairs their antimacassars. This perfume keeps the pairing: cananga over coconut milk, with sandalwood and a little benzoin under both.

Pear and lychee open it, both pale and both wet. Pomegranate stands between the fruit and the flower.