The Notes
Cedarwood
Cedarwood in perfume smells dry, woody and faintly sweet, like pencil shavings, and much of it comes from junipers rather than true cedars.
In perfume, cedar smells dry, woody and faintly sweet, much like a freshly sharpened pencil, with a soft ambery warmth beneath. It is a plain, hard-working material, and a surprisingly awkward one to name, because much of what is sold as cedarwood does not come from a cedar at all.
Which cedar?
The true cedars belong to the genus Cedrus, in the pine family. Yet the most important cedarwood oils are distilled from junipers and cypresses, which share the name and some of the smell. Four names come up again and again.
Virginia cedar is Juniperus virginiana, the eastern red cedar of North America, a juniper in the cypress family that grows from south-eastern Canada down to the Gulf of Mexico. Its fragrant red heartwood has long been used for pencils, and for the cedar chests and closets that keep moths from wool.
Texas cedar is also a juniper, Juniperus mexicana, sometimes called Juniperus ashei. Its oil is sweeter and more balsamic, with a smoky, tar-like shade, and is often described as stronger but less smooth than Virginia oil.
Atlas cedar is a true cedar, Cedrus atlantica, from the Rif and Atlas mountains of Morocco and from Algeria. Its wood gives a warmer, rounder material, with hints of beeswax.
Himalayan cedar, the deodar, Cedrus deodara, is a true cedar from the western Himalayas, its wood strongly aromatic.
How it is made
Most cedarwood oil is a by-product. Sawdust, chips and offcuts from the timber trade are steam-distilled, and the oil is separated from the water. Some is then rectified, a further distillation that removes the darker, tarry edges and keeps the woody heart. In Virginia oil, three molecules make up the greater part: cedrene, thujopsene and cedrol.
What cedarwood smells like
Dry before anything else. Virginia cedar is the pencil box: sharp wood shavings, a little resin, a slightly ambery finish. Texas cedar is heavier and smokier. Atlas cedar is softer and more balsamic, closer to an old wooden drawer than to a pencil.
How perfumers use it
Cedarwood is structure. It gives a fragrance a dry, woody frame in the base, and helps hold lighter materials in place. It sits naturally in woody and fougère accords, beside moss, leather and resins, and it is rarely the loudest thing in the room.
In our fragrances
Three of our fragrances use it. In Racing Green, dry cedar closes the base with saddle leather and oakmoss. In The Library, Virginia cedar joins labdanum and benzoin in a base that is warm without ever becoming sweet, beneath tobacco leaf and old paper. In Henley, white cedar and ambrette keep the base light, with vetiver for gravity. To try all three side by side, there is the Discovery Set.