Base notes, or the longest lasting elements of perfumes, are usually dominated by the scents of wood. There are many different kinds of woods used for perfumes including cedar, rosewood, juniper, pine and agarwood. The oils and distilled essences from these and other woods are very important even to perfumes where you don’t detect their fragrance. In many scents, the woods are used to accentuate other aromas.

Sandalwood, perhaps the best known of all these fragrant woods, grows in India and other parts of Asia. Synthetics are often used for sandalwood, as the forests have been severely decimated from over-harvesting for perfumes and many other wood products. It not only serves as an important note in perfume, it is an excellent fixative that can anchor other scents. B-United by Benetton uses sandalwood as a base note as well as elements of citrus and floral notes.

Agarwood is another Asian tree that grows mainly in Laos and produces a very fragrant oil and resin that perfumers love. Only the smallest bit of the oil is necessary to scent a room and it can take up to twelve hours to unfold. It will last on a person’s skin for more than a whole day and when applied to a porous material such as wooden boxes or cloth the scent can actually last for months. It is also said to have spiritual qualities and to improve access to hidden memories. Perfumers prize its deep and complex aroma. Yves Saint Laurent and Amouage perfumers both use agarwood as a base note in their premium fragrances.

Oudh oil resin, from the Aquilaria tree in Asia, is produced from trees infected with a parasitic fungus. The growth causes them to produce a resin in the heart of the tree over a period of, sometimes, hundreds of years before the infection kills the tree and leaves the resin behind to be chipped away. This resin, called Aloeswood, is very rare and considered the most sacred oil on earth. Its delicious aroma is used only in the finest, most premium perfumes. The lower quality resin is shredded and distilled then dried and used for incense. 

Cedar is another wood valuable in perfumery. Besides the wood’s decay-resistance, its aroma is so fresh and rich that it was used in building the famous temple of King Solomon. Onyx by Azzaro combines spices with citrus and apple, using cedar wood ad juniper to give the scent a refreshing, carefree aroma with delicious lingering signature.

Without aromatic woods, perfumes would lose much of their personality. Synthetic versions of some of these woods have seen increasing use as the forests become decimated from harvesting. Synthetics are often longer lasting than natural oils and give forests time to regenerate, allowing us to enjoy the fragrance of our favorite woods.

Tim Walt

Aldehydes are benzenoid compounds, used to help make synthetic ingredients for perfume. These organic chemicals are a mixture of oxygen, carbon and hydrogen and are often combined with alcohol and natural plant materials and have a strong diffusive effect; that is, they enable the ingredients in a perfume to expand and inundate the formula and enhance their properties. In addition, they can make a perfume “sparkle” and boost the top notes, or the scent immediately noticeable when the perfume is first applied. A perfume with aldehydes is notable for its rich, opulent properties. First used in Chanel no. 5, many modern perfumers such at Yves Saint Laurent and Givenchy take advantage of the sophisticated properties of aldehydes. 

Ernest Beaux, a Russian-born chemist, was the first to use aldehydes in a cologne he named Bouquet de Napoleon to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Borodino. After his work in World War One as both an infantryman and counterintelligence officer with the Russian army, he returned to Paris and continued his experimentation with aldehydes and in 1920 he perfected the fragrances that would become the world famous perfumes, Chanel No. 5 and Chanel No. 22. 

Before adelhydes, nitro benzene was used in perfumes along with fatty acids that mimicked the fragrances of fruit and flowers. With the cost of distilling, pressing and grinding various plants, herbs and other objects in order to get oils and liquid, perfume was out of reach for the woman of ordinary means. Indeed, wealthy women often wore their favorite fragrances specifically for the purpose of flaunting their social station. 

The use of adelhydes with natural oils allowed perfumers to lower their overhead in creating their scents instead of compromising on quality. Scents must have a very precise combination of ingredients with the adelhydes to achieve their aromas. For instance, amyl cinnamic aldehyde is found in many commercial products such as shampoos, fabric softeners and other domestic toiletries and exudes a pleasant floral bouquet. Hexyl adelhydes, on the other hand, produces a fruity fragrance. Aldehydes are particularly well suited to subtle, feminine perfumes or when a more elegant ambiance is desired.

Simply put, aldehydes allow the prime ingredients of a perfume to expand and permeate the base materials. They act as conductive agents, much as a the stalk of a water lily allows the blossom to grow and thrive. Without them, perfumers would still be able to create unique scents but the aroma would not last nearly as long or be consistent throughout the mixture. 

Today, most high quality perfumes make use of aldehydes to enhance not only the scent of their products but the natural ingredients that the contain. Some rare components such as Frankincense can be used a bit more liberally, thanks to aldehydes. The scarcity of Frankincense, a product of the bark of the Boswallia tree, makes perfume containing it very expensive but without aldehydes it would be out of reach for even a millionaire. Other equally hard to find or manufacture ingredients that are highly prized among creative perfumers are available for use thanks to aldehydes. 

Tim Walt