Olive is a familiar scent and flavor produced in perfumery as an accord between green aromas and leather. A note of contrasts—oily, balmy, bright, yet dark.
Opoponax
Called Sweet Myrrh and sporting the coolest sounding name of all perfume materials, Opoponax is in the same family as myrrh (Burseraceae). It is stronger with complex lactonic buttery balsamic properties.
Orange
Also called bigrade, this oil is pressed or distilled from the fruit of the same tree that gives us orange blossoms. It is juicy and sings in the top of fragrances with a European flair.
Orange blossom is the giving tree to perfumers. The fruits give us bigrade or bitter orange oil. The flowers can be distilled to make neroli or solvent extracted to give orange flower absolute (also the biproduct orange flower water and an absolute of it called eau de brouts). The leaves and twigs give us petitgrain. And there’s even a distilled mixture of petitgrain with flowers called petitgrain sur le fleur. Fancy!
Orris Root
Besides oud, orris—the root of iris—is the most expensive material in perfume. It takes three years to extract its miraculously penetrating powder of fancy blue-violet bliss. Chalky and umami, orris root concrete spruces up the heart of many perfumes. An absolute is also made from it which brings out its chocolate gourmand characteristics.
Besides oud, orris—the root of iris—is the most expensive material in perfume. It takes three years to extract its miraculously penetrating powder of fancy blue-violet bliss. Chalky and umami, orris root concrete spruces up the heart of many perfumes. An absolute is also made from it which brings out its chocolate gourmand characteristics.
Oud is a complex scent that does not have too many analogues in other natural materials. It smells of aged wood, camphor-mint, and not-quite-rotten milk, with nuances of flowers, spices and fruit. It has an underlying richness that is musky, woody, and penetrating; a folksong from the East that we continue to rework.
No single group has the power to make a scent smell more lifelike than ozones. The scent of air and humidity place the sniffer inside the fragrance world. Oceanside, lakeside, rains, even inside factory air; all can be created with ozones.
Pacific Spray
A sweeter ozonic throw than the salty Pacific with green Kelp notes.
Exceptionally pure version of hedione (an umami molecule that makes jasmine smell wet) made by Firmenich. Named for the place you go when you die that is perfect.
Passionflower
The flower of passionfruit, with green tea and cucumber notes. A top note of rare freshness.
Deep red ironlike earth oil of my dreams. Patchouli began as an herb added to pashmina scarfs to keep away moths on long journeys, but soon became a staple of perfumes. It goes in and out of favor with the general public but never with its dedicated fans. Even small amounts are able to hide and embolden base of perfumes.
Deep red ironlike earth oil of my dreams. Patchouli began as an herb added to pashmina scarfs to keep away moths on long journeys, but soon became a staple of perfumes. It goes in and out of favor with the general public but never with its dedicated fans. Even small amounts are able to hide and embolden base of perfumes.
Peach is recreated from a few molecules - mosty lactones, which give us fatty, often fruity aromas. Peach lactones can recall the soft skin of the fruit & sweetness of the juice.
Peony
Soft, rosy petals with an undercurrant of powder and almost watery green Earth.
The distillate of twigs and leaves from the orange blossom tree. Woody sour orange blossom magic. A prime top note.
Petrichor
Petrichor is the the aroma we sniff when it rains. It is caused by the ozonic scent of water mixed with certain compounds like geosmin that bacteria in the soil release when the sky is crying. For most humans it is a calming aroma that connects us to the Earth & sky all at once.
Pine
Pine oil is soft, green, and pungent. It smells of the air of the forest as you'd imagine. Italian dwarf pine is very clean. Some varietals can be harsh and downright dirty.
Pine Absolute
An emerald green sticky balsamic oil with a bitter almost alcoholic mushroom and wood scent. Good pine oil has a mushroom note (Matsutake Alcohol) which isn’t surprising as many mushrooms grow on decayed pine wood. Pine Absolute is useful in conjuring the deep woods of deciduous and sub-arctic forests.
Pine Distillate
Pine oil is soft, green, and pungent. It smells of the air of the forest as you'd imagine. Italian dwarf pine is very clean. Some varietals can be harsh and downright dirty.
Pineapple
Tropical fruit with iconic tatse and aroma. Very sweet with an undercurrant of sour citrus and sweet, buttery vanilla.
Snappy peppery-floral top note from schinus mole tree (not related to black pepper, but nonetheless rad.
Pinyon Pine
A desert pine whose amber is used in traditional incense. Distilled needles have a delicate orange frankincense tone that smells very southwest sacred.
Pistachio
A gourmand dessert note that captures pistachio flavored sweets. A close cousin to cherry and almond. It smells fun. Like a vacaction you once went on.
Rose is too versatile to disregard as old fashioned. Like jasmine, rose is a crucial heart enhancer to many perfumes. Just a little of distilled rose otto can drastically change and enliven a formula. Rose absolute is rich, green and bring-tears-to-your-eyes-beautiful.
Rose is too versatile to disregard as old fashioned. Like jasmine, rose is a crucial heart enhancer to many perfumes. Just a little of distilled rose otto can drastically change and enliven a formula. Rose absolute is rich, green and bring-tears-to-your-eyes-beautiful.
Rose
Rose is too versatile to disregard as old fashioned. Like jasmine, rose is a crucial heart enhancer to many perfumes. Just a little of distilled rose otto can drastically change and enliven a formula. Rose absolute is rich, green and bring-tears-to-your-eyes-beautiful.
Since being overharvested, we now rebuild the aroma of the bitter rosy fresh wood that provides such interest in the top notes of perfumes. Shellac, boxes, paint, and furniture vibes.
Saffron
A beguiling spice that smells like nothing else. Woody and loud and recalls the lands from whence it came—India and the Middle East. Wonderful in rose and oud, but sneaky in modern fumes as well.
Sandalwood is complex but one of the most balanced oils with tones of milk, peach, musk, cedar, rose, coconut, and violet. A fixative, it can also disappear into the background, letting other notes shine through until hours later when it returns. Traditionally grown in Mysore, India, but over harvesting has left it out of the commercial perfumer’s pallet for about 20 years. We now use sandalwood grown sustainably elsewhere and reconstruct its aroma with molecules.
Sandalwood is complex but one of the most balanced oils with tones of milk, peach, musk, cedar, rose, coconut, and violet. A fixative, it can also disappear into the background, letting other notes shine through until hours later when it returns. Traditionally grown in Mysore, India, but over harvesting has left it out of the commercial perfumer’s pallet for about 20 years. We now use sandalwood grown sustainably elsewhere and reconstruct its aroma with molecules.
Sandalwood is complex but one of the most balanced oils with tones of milk, peach, musk, cedar, rose, coconut, and violet. A fixative, it can also disappear into the background, letting other notes shine through until hours later when it returns. Traditionally grown in Mysore, India, but over harvesting has left it out of the commercial perfumer’s pallet for about 20 years. We now use sandalwood grown sustainably elsewhere and reconstruct its aroma with molecules.
Tea plants create the most aromatically diverse beverage on the planet. From floral white, to grassy green, fruity oolong, malty black, shroomy pu'er, (and so much more). Tea in perfume is often used for its vegetal, earthy throw.
Thyme
A medicinal herb with a smoky side offering powdery green agrestic impressions.
Tobacco
An extremely varied plant with complex aromas of musty fermented earth, vegetal hay, and a deep spicy floralcy. Can recall pipes, dandies, old times, hills, and barnyards.
Spicier (cinnamon) than Siam Benzoin, it is heavy and powdery smelling of red potpourri. Tolu is powerful and perhaps the most gourmand of the ambers besides vanilla.
Tonka
A delicious gourmand bean full of coumarin—a vanilla-like chemical found in hay & wild grasses. Sweet like dessert, grassy like the countryside.
A desert island flower at DSD. Tuberose absolute is a different fragrance than the flower. It is much more compacted—earthy mushroom with fine fatty pink flower aromas, suggesting subterranean caves and chalky earth. Real tuberose is more delicate but strong with fatty cheese tones over creamy white flowers.
Penetrating, powerful, old world elegance with a touch of smoke. Global warming, demand and weather have destroyed many of the crops of this particularly labor-intensive plant product, making it extremely expensive. Synthetic vanilla molecules (like vanillin) are just as important to perfume as the real stuff.
