Woods in perfumery:
The Woody are part of the 6 original families (Floral, Citrus, Woody, Oriental, Fougère, Chyprée) according to the SFP (French Society of Perfumers).
Did you know that the vast majority of perfumes that we know, called "feminine" contain woody notes?
Today (finally), the speeches of the brands are starting to soften but let's keep in mind that the woods are for the males, they are too powerful notes for the (especially weak) women - laughs .
Woody notes go with just about everything: warming spices, florals, citrus (vetiver & bergamot = well-known mix), leathers, fruits... they totally personalize the final structure of your perfume and serve also fixers with Head/Heart notes.
The Woody family contains several sub-categories , in which we will classify some raw materials.
Most woody notes are base notes, those that give depth and soul to a perfume. Natural notes are followed by an *:
- Woody-Santalé:
Santal Mysore Essence*: milky.mushroom.leather
Sandalore: amber.powdery.sandalwood
Mysore acetate: sandalwood.floral.soft
Bacdanol: sandalwood.amber.leather
Javanol: sandalwood.rosé.fruity
Polysantol: sandalwood.geranium.amber
Ebanol: sandalwood.hazelnut.coffee
- Woody-Dry:
Cedar Virginia Species*: spicy.resinous.pencil
Atlas Cedar Essence*: balmy.fruity.terpenic
Patchouli Essence*: moist.leather.earthy
Evernyl: dusty.dry.oakmoss
Iso E Super: violet.cedar.amber
Cedryl acetate: cedar.baumé.incense
- Woody-Smoked:
Haitian Vetiver Essence*: smoky.nutty.earthy
Gaïac Wood Essence*: smoky.spicy.balmy
Cypriol Essence*: smoked saffron.oud.
Vetiveryl acetate: vetiver.floral.pepper
- Wooded-Coniferous:
Absolute Oak Moss* (prohibited by IFRA): humus.champi.cuir
Absolute Tree Moss*: cedar.humus.smoked
Kephalis: saffron.coniferous.earthy
Some emblematic perfumes:
"Vetiver" - Guerlain 1959 - Jean-Paul Guerlain / Woody Vetiver
"Nice friend" - Hermès 1986 - Jean Louis Sieuzac / Woody Chypre
"Femininity of wood" - Shiseido 1992 - Pierre Bourdon & Christopher Sheldrake / Woody Spicy
"Boss Bottled" - Hugo Boss 1998 - Annick Menardo & Christian Dussoulier / Woody Spicy
"Statement" - Cartier 1999 - Jean-Claude Ellena / Spicy Musk Woody
"Earth" - Hermès 2006 - Jean-Claude Ellena / Woody Spicy
"One Million" - Paco Rabanne 2008 - Christophe Raynaud, Olivier Pescheux, Michel Girard & Christian Dussoulier / Woody Spicy
"Blue" - Chanel 2010 - Jacques Polge / Woody Aromatic
This list is not exhaustive because there are a lot of beautiful launches: some emblematic, some more commercial.
