Seaweed isn’t a common ingredient in perfume due to the high cost and low yield of processing it. Since perfume demands extracts of essential oils and seaweed is water based, there are very little amounts of essence to draw out of this ocean plant. Several perfumers experimented with it, however, because of its intriguing aroma of driftwood accented by fresh, briny breezes with a faint touch of iodine.

The essential oils of seaweed is call choya nakh and is so strong that it must be diluted before being added to the aroma palette of a perfume. The most common type of seaweed that was has been used is Fucus Vesiculosus, also referred to a bladderwrack, that is found in the waters and on the shores of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans in the United States and abroad.

More often you will find kelp, a form of seaweed, as an ingredient in perfumes. In the late 1970’s, two German scientists found that female kelp plants release a pheromone that direct the male kelps to the proper place to fertilize the microscopic kelp egg, thus ensuring the propagation of the species. The discovery was made quite by accident when they thought that someone had smuggled a bottle of gin into the lab; on further investigation they found the culprit and published their findings regarding the sexual pheromone.

Of course, pheromones are often used in perfumes and perfumers began experimenting with kelp and other forms of seaweed. Since the whole idea of perfume is to make one attractive to the opposite sex as well as pleasing one’s self, pheromones are a very important ingredient when they can be added to the mix. The unusual odiferous qualities of kelp and seaweed were intriguing to creative perfumers, sparking quite a bit of research and experimentation.

However, you will rarely find a quality perfume that features genuine seaweed notes.
The prohibitive cost of extraction has made it a scarcity, a classic example of irony when one thinks of the miles of beaches strewn with this ocean bounty. Most “seaweed” essences are actually a form of kelp which is referred to as seaweed.

Tim Walt