Ylang-ylang is the only common perfumery flower whose oil is sold in four separate grades, all taken from the same still on the same day.
The tree is Cananga odorata, a fast-growing tropical species in the Annonaceae family, native to the Philippines and South East Asia. Commercial growing sits mostly in the Comoros, with Anjouan the single biggest producer, and in Madagascar around Nosy Be. The Philippines and Reunion supply the rest.
The distillation is what makes it unusual. Flowers are picked before dawn and steam distilled for 15 to 20 hours, and the run is interrupted at set intervals so the distiller can siphon off each fraction separately. The first one to two hours give Ylang Extra, roughly 20 to 40% of the total distillate. After that come First, Second and Third. Run the still without interrupting it and you get what is sold as "ylang complete".
The fractions do not smell the same. The early ones carry the light, high-boiling molecules that give ylang its lift, so they are bright, jasmine-like and slightly banana-sweet. The later ones are heavier and coarser. Extra and First go to fine fragrance. Second and Third go to soap and detergent, where a blunter version of the smell is fine.
So a note list saying ylang-ylang tells you very little. The same three words cover an oil that can smell radiant and expensive or flat and soapy, and the label never says which grade went in the bottle. Price is usually the tell.
Dior keeps its description of J'adore to three materials: ylang-ylang, damask rose and jasmine. Calice Becker composed it and it launched in 1999, and the ylang is doing the solar, slightly creamy lift at the top of the bouquet rather than sitting quietly in support.
Ylang carries the top of our J'adoro, our take on J'adore, a UK made spray at 35% concentration. There is more in the best Dior dupes in the UK.
