If anyone is reading this about to set off to Morocco for their holidays you will have a chance to capture the most mesmerising exhilarating scent I have ever smelt – the Belle du Nuit flower. I first encountered it twenty years ago and then again more recently when we went to visit one of the plantations that supplies Ormonde Jayne with the Moroccan Rose used in Tolu. This time, we stayed in the High Atlas Mountains at Richard Branson’s peaceful hideaway, the Kasbah Tamadot which is a short walk away from a big field full of this incredible shrub.

The Belle de Nuit flower blooms only in the summer months for a very short period starting around 5pm, but its legendary scent reminds me of Scheherazade and magical quests of The Arabian Nights.  Before the flowers bloom, you hardly notice this unexceptional dark green bush, but then suddenly, the tiny white flowers emerge and this burst of perfume is so dramatic and magnetic that even the local fauna agree! The funny image of local cats and dogs coming from all directions out to sit near this bush simply because it smells so wonderful reminds me that animals can relish a perfume just as we do.  And it takes a truly exceptional event on a hot summer’s afternoon to lure me away from idle siestas, fresh mint tea and infinity pools – Atlas Mountains or not!

While the intoxicating spell of The Belle du Nuit has certainly been a source of inspiration for some of my perfumes, Ormonde Woman & Orris Noir particularly, I have sadly never found anyone able to extract it as the petals are the size of a tea leaf and in order to use it in perfume you would need to plant up half the country to extract a kilo of the oil. There is a synthetic form of Belle du Nuit used in the perfume world – Fragonard’s Belle du Nuit and Deep Night by Ghost- but none have yet captured the fascination of the real thing.