Saffron perfume oil is a rich, leathery, spicy scent tinged with honey. A pronounced scent commonly found in perfumes for men – but occasionally in fragrances for women – saffron combines well with other essences and fragrances, often lending fragrances a sensual leather note. It works well with woody notes, especially oud wood – a central component of Middle Eastern fragrances. It also goes well with floral notes such as iris, rose, and violet. Other spices, such as cinnamon, clove, and pepper, can be used with saffron as well.

Throughout history, saffron has been prized as one of the most precious spices (as you might expect from a spice coveted by legendary personalities such as Cleopatra and Alexander the Great). The spice is known for its culinary attributes, as well as its medicinal benefits and use in perfumery. But what makes it so expensive compared with other spices?

To answer that, perhaps we have to first examine how saffron is extracted. The spice saffron is made from the flower Crocus Sativus, which belongs to the iris family. The flowers are picked, and the stigmas are dried in a ventilated room until the color develops into a deep, vibrant red. All by hand! What’s more, each crocus flower produces only three stigmas (yes, three) at a time. In other words, it takes up to 200,000 flowers to produce one kilogram of saffron stigma or pistils. Crazy, don’t you think? It only makes sense, then, given this tedious manual process, that saffron has such a high value in perfumery. Perhaps even more so than gold.