The Notes
Tobacco Leaf
Tobacco in perfume smells of the cured leaf, not of smoke: honeyed, hay-like and faintly fruity, like a pouch of pipe tobacco.
Tobacco in perfume smells of the cured leaf, not of smoke: honeyed, hay-like and faintly fruity, like prunes and figs kept in a cedar box. The material perfumers use, tobacco absolute, is extracted from leaves that have never been lit, so there is no ash in it.
Where it comes from
Cultivated tobacco, Nicotiana tabacum, is a tall annual of the nightshade family with large, sticky, hairy leaves. It probably arose in the Andes and was grown across the Caribbean, Central America and northern South America long before Europeans arrived. Jean Nicot, the French ambassador to Portugal, helped bring its seed into Europe around 1560, and the genus carries his name.
Curing
The scent perfumers want is largely made in curing, the slow drying of the leaf over days or weeks. Leaves may be hung in airy barns, dried by heat carried through flues, laid out in the sun or cured over a smouldering hardwood fire. As the leaf turns from green to brown, its carotenoid pigments break down into aromatic compounds such as megastigmatrienone and damascenone, which give cured tobacco its warm, dry sweetness. Burley leaf, air-cured in the shade, is one source perfumers use.
Tobacco absolute
Tobacco absolute is made by solvent extraction of the cured leaves. The solvent yields a waxy concrete, which is washed with alcohol and chilled to leave a dark, viscous absolute. Leaf naturally contains nicotine, and some producers offer low-nicotine grades for perfumery. The material is potent and used in small amounts.
What it smells like
A good tobacco note is sweet, dry and honeyed: sun-warmed hay, dried fruit, old wood and a little leather, with a bitter-green edge beneath. It has a coumarin-like warmth that it shares with hay and tonka, which is why the three sit so easily together. Where a fragrance smells truly smoky, the smoke usually comes from other materials, such as birch tar, guaiac wood or incense, rather than from the tobacco.
How perfumers use it
Tobacco sits in the heart and base. It heightens leather notes, deepens ambers and woods, and pairs naturally with cedar, vetiver, sandalwood and bergamot. A little goes a long way.
In our fragrances
The Library has cured tobacco leaf at its heart, beside papyrus and the powdery restraint of orris, so that it reads as old paper and older bindings: the pipe tobacco forgotten in a waistcoat pocket, not the pipe. Pink pepper and green cardamom strike the match, and Virginia cedar, labdanum and benzoin form a base that is warm without ever becoming sweet. For the resinous half of that base, see our note on amber.