Any of a few species who can be infected by the mold that causes the production of oud. Unaffected trees are processed to give us agarwood which is very woody jungle spice flower without the overtop funk of oud.

A very early discovery of fragrance chemists, aldehydes recall a deco world when used as the main thrust of a fragrance. More often we employ aldehydes to lift heavy hearts, recall fresh breezes/air around flowers, or to push the boundaries of space in forward thinking compositions. Aldehydes generally have a stratospherically fresh aroma, with shades of metal, citrus, green, or ozone.

Almond is a building block of many perfumes. It’s useful in tree flowers of the cherry family and can recall sweets, old fashioned soap & perfumes.

A catch all term for tree resins that smell vanillic-balsamic. Most have been with us for thousands of years partly because they can be used with very minimal processing (i.e., pick off tree, light on fire).

The scent of ambergris is the other main base note of perfumery. No one uses the real stuff (sea cured whale vomit worth its weight in gold and illegal in the U.S.) anymore. Instead we have a host of molecules that make up its aroma—stratospherically powerful woody amber aromas that fix modern perfumes. Their power will make your teeth chatter. Desert island stuff like ambrox, cetalox, and ambrocenide.

Pure plant-based musk beauty. Painstakingly extracted from a hibiscus plant, ambrette is exorbitantly expensive. Adds realness & petal freshness to all perfumes. A natural “skin” aroma—soft, oily, umami & fatty with a heart like the inner wet parts of flowers & animals. Blends with anything, especially flowers, ouds, ozones, & citrus. It smells delicately peachy and vegetal (like the best tomato soup) and lasts 4-eva.

Soft and powdery, ambrox and its cousin ambroxan all but created the scent of the 90s (when added to ozonic materials like Calone and Melonal). Ambrox smells fine and pure, like a clean slightly green ambergris. Boney, marine, wonderful.

A familair fruit with tart, floral-peachy sweetness. In perfumes, it has a touch more sophistication than peach. Fun!

Atlas Cedar is a stinky cat litter cedar in the best way. It smells hairy and wild. It can be molecularly distilled to take away some of the funk, but retains its fruity orange vibes.

Basil is fascinatingly complex. The more you sniff, the more shades of aroma are observed. Beside its obvious fresh green gourmandness, basil has a strong spicy bite like cloves that make it useful in building accords of flowers like carnation, wisteria, narcissus, and anything frosty like lily.

The extract of bell pepper is an entirely new material to the perfumer's palette. It was released by Firmenich in 2021 and gives us a very unique fresh, bitter green heart note. It is vegetal but soft and watery with overtones of Earth.

A prime amber. Used in folk medicine for thousands of years, the extract of Styrax Tonkinensis (Siam Benzoin) is brown with soft pink notes of fine sugar, maple, powdery gourmand vanilla, and shades of cinnamon and dry tobacco.

Birch leaves are green & fresh with a fun fruitness. They are dewy and recall Russian baths & forest libations.

Deep spicy smoke campfire. Some varieties smell of hot tires and asphalt.