01What a resin is
A resin is a compound that is a mixture of an organic compound (a carbon based compound) and a turpene (anything with the formula (C5H8)n), and consequently are insoluble in water. They are naturally secreted by trees in response to physical injury, deterring insects, pathogens and herbivores. They are like plasters for trees with defensive properties in essence.
The resins I will be exploring are going to be, and in this order;
02Oleoresins
Oleoresins are turpene-rich, and contain either an essential or fatty oil (the difference between the latter two is irrelevant in this article). Oleoresins are secreted specifically by coniferous trees in response to injury, and if distilled, they will yield the monoturpene component colloquially nominated “turpentine”, and a “rosin.” Turpentine is the part of oleoresins that is specifically processed further into perfume ingredients, such as in the case of separating turpentine into α-pinene, then modifying that into α-terpinol.
To put that into practical terms, oleoresins generally have a very strong character. The best way to describe them is pine-y, and very forest like. They are also very raw in that sense, and depend on the forest, and the type/species of tree that the oleoresin comes from. When you take that and distil it into turpentine, you are mor or less keeping that same quality but taking away some of the contextual complexity; where sometimes the oleoresins can feel wet, dense, particularly sharp, especially heavy or so, but after making them into turpentine, you are essentially making them more uniform. They stop being something in the forest, rather a smell that was taken from and out of a forest. Afterwards, you have α-pinene, which is what you would use in perfumery when working with a turpentine quality, though again, you take away minor forest-y nuances of it. Something interesting about α-pinene is that at lower dilutions, it offers a greener and more herbal character. Taking that α-pinene and making it into α-terpinol gets you a character that is pleasant and floral; especially resembling lilacs.
Honestly, I do not know if the chemical separation of turpentine into feedstock applies to all perfumes or whether this is an industry standard, but I am inclined to think its the former. My reasoning is that there several perfumes that do indeed smell like the raw turpentine, like the two creations from Tombstone Fragrances: “No Need To Come By,” and “Evergrow.” Both of these fragrances have a very distinct tree resinous smell that comes close to smelling like actual turpentine (with each of the two having its own unique take on it, where No Need To Come By leans into a minty and incensy turpentine smell; and Evergrow combines several different harsh galbanum elements to convey the idea of a dark, overgrown and unexplored forest). Another such house which in my mind could challenge the traditional use of turpentine would be Pineward, as several of their perfumes come very close to that realistic oleoresin smell as well. I do not know if either of Tombstone or Pineward used the actual turpentine, or even if they just heavily dosed the perfumes with the α-pinene, but regardless, it does smell a lot more like raw pine resin than other creations that I have smelled.
For my interpretation of Pineward fragrances, click here.
03Amber
Amber is what most people tend to think of when they think of “resins,” though in the context of perfumery, true tree amber is not really used. Instead there are two ways to think about amber: French Amber and Ambergris (and its replacements):
When people walk into a perfume store and they ask for an amber-y fragrance, they often mean the french type. This is an accord rather than a note, and it is achieved with the combination of vanilla (or vanillin) and labdanum. This was popularized about 100 years ago when synthetic vanillin first came into circulation within the perfume industry; and despite the base of the (french) amber used in modern perfumery still being vanillin and labdanum, perfumers have the liberty of adding stuff like benzoin, styrax, tonka/coumarin, Peru or Tolu balsam, patchouli, incense materials, woods or modern synthetic amber materials. The gist of it is still warm and sweet, like the colour of the fossilized amber. Additionally, this accord is what is often referred to as a “fantasy accord,” where the perfumers attribute a smell to something that virtually smells like nothing.
The second type of amber would be ambergris. French for “gray amber,” it is a product of something happening in the bile ducts/intestines of some sperm whales. It is expelled as either faecal matter or via the mouth, and then takes several years before making landfall. It is also incredibly rare as a raw material. It has a dry, marine, musky, animalic, mineral, woody, slightly sweet scent.
As popularity of perfumes was increasing so was the demand for amber; and so in the late 40s, chemists in switzerland discovered synthetic compounds that could compensate in character for the real ambergris. One such compound was called amborixide, although most people may recognize it by its various trade names such as ambrofix, and amborxan. It is sweet, dry, woody and understandably ambergris like. It is now used a little too much, and in my personal opinion is a skapegoat for making a perfume mass-appeaing, such as in the case of Xerjoff’s Erba Pura and Dior’s Sauvage.
An additional note is that “amber” could refer to oleoresins too in attempt to describe that pine-y smell, which is a technically true thing, since ambers are a fossilized oleoresin more or less, but this is a niche thing, and is used more in the technical parts of perfumery, rather than the everyday life.
04Frankincense / Olibanum
Frankincense, which is also known as olibanum is a resin that is sourced from the Boswellia genus, which’s species produce slightly different variations. Likewise, each species requires a different harvesting time to attain the highest quality of resins (generally speaking, the darker the better). The production mainly occurs in Africa, on the border of ethiopia and Somalia. The use of frankincense in perfumery has spread a lot, but I think the most notable house which I have come across that uses frankincense is Amouage. It is very sharp and crisp, and I sometimes feel the trigeminal activation you would otherwise get with mint. This as a character is pretty interesting in my opinion as it is also notably warm and vanillic. Equally surprising is the fact that it doesnt inherently have that church-y incense character that most people associate with it.
Fun etymological fact: The name frankincense originates from the french “Franc Encens”, meaning true incense. The name Olibanum is related to the greek word for white (similarly to the country of Lebanon, which was named after the its white mountains).
05Myrrh
Similar to frankincense in many ways, this is a resin that is extracted from different camphor tree species. IT IS NOT THE SAME AS CAMPHOR (the material)! Myrrh is actually quite dry, powdery, slightly animalic and bitter. It can also be interpreted as medicinal, as it can resemble iodine.
06Camphor
Unlike Myrrh, which is an oleo-gum-resin, camphor is a single terpene. It is harvested specifically from the Cinnamomum camphora tree, which is a single species of the Camphora phylum (from which myrrh comes from). Camphor smells extremely unique in that it is cold, waxy and sharper than any other component that I have come across. It is not sweet either. On the test strip it is very hospital-like and clinical.
07Elemi
Harvested from Canarium Luzonicum, Elemi oil is steam distilled from the actual elemi resin. It has a notably sharp, pine and lemon-y quality. Most notably, I can pick up on it in Amouage’s Myths Man, Search and Honour Man. It also is quite subtle in YSL’s Babycat.
08Copal
Copal is a particularly interesting resin from the tree Protium copal, which is not used in perfumery due to physical constraints. Distilling it is difficult, and the resin and its chemically processed derivatives are also very difficult to work with in the context of perfumes; and so instead of the true copal oil being used, various combinations of frankincenses can be used to mimic the smell of the raw resin. A very notable example of this is Aedes de Venustas’ Copal Azur, which tries to capture the Mayan Riviera. The notes of it are:
Top: Marine notes, Ozonic Notes, Frankincense
Heart: Cardamom, Patchouli, Frankincense
Base: Ambergris, Myrrh, Almond, Tonka Bean, Frankincense
09Peru Balsam
Peru Balsam is a balsam that is derived from the Myroxylon balsamum tree Central and South America. Funnily enough, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are the main producers of it, not Peru. It is notably very very dense, vanillic and cinammic. It is different from most other resins here in that it truly smells like it looks: a dark crude very viscous liquid. It also has a natural olive-like medicinal quality in its raw form, that is different from that of camphor; where if camphor was herban, this would lean more so towards dense, waxy and sweet. I have also heard it be described as incens-y, which I myself completly disagree with, seeing as the sharp mineraly quality of frankincense is completly absent, and there is none of that trigeminal activation that you sometimes get with incense.
10Labdanum
Labdanum is a resin extraacted from Cistus ladanifer and Cistus creticus, both of which are more commonly known as rockrose. It is generally found as either an absolut or a resinoid. In its absolut form, it is warm, warm, leathery and refined (relative to the resinoid). Labdanum resinoid on the other hand is darker and smokier, and more dense too. It is also more animalic than its counterpart. Additionally, this is one form of balsams/resins that smells particularly animalic.
11Oppoponax
Extracted from the Commiphora guidottii tree in Somalia, this is a resin that is similar to myrrh, albeit sweeter, water and more balsamic. It is also known as sweet or perfumed myrrh. Oppoponax is the commerecial name for bisabol.
12Galbanum
This comes fromt he plant Ferla, and it grows in the northern mountains of Iran. It has an intense green smell and contains the following chemicals: α-pinene, β-pinene, limonene, 3-carene, and ocimene. From the list, the pinenes are compounds that are also present in oleoresins and terpentine; limonene is a compound present in frankincense and in elemi, which gives them that lemon-y and citrus-y opening; 3-carene is also characteristically pine-y and somewhat close to the pinenes; and ocimene, which smells pleasant, sweet and herbal.
Setting all the previous constituent chemicals aside, what does galbanum actually smell like? Well, it is a mineralic green, cold vegetal and more green. The super green opening however does transition into balsamic, earthy and dark(er).
Some of my personal highlights containing galbanum is the aforementioend Evergrow by Tombstone fragrances, and the awardwinning Bad Lilly from Tale Parfums. Evergrow does contain that turpentine smell you would find in a dark forest, but there is an in-your-face galbanum too. It is interesting in the sense that the two components interact constructively: the agressive green and the equally agressive turpentine is a great sharp opening, and the balsamic green of the galbanum darkened by the multifaceted turpentine makes the middle and base of it really good at what it tries to achieve; which is to me, a dark lost forest.
13Mastic
A resin from the mastic tree, it is not something that I can describe on paper well. It feels pine-y, sweet, balsamic yet mineralic. If you ever had mastic gum, then that is what the opening of this resin would smell like. I would add that it has a dry herbal undertone too.
14Benzoin (Resinoid)
Let me clarify something first: benzoin is a chemical, and benzoin is a resin. They are different things, and the benzoin resin does NOT contain the chemical. The resin benzoin is a vanilla-like resin that comes from the Styrax genus of shrubs and trees. It is also chocolate-y, caramel-y, and slightly powdery.
15Storax / Styrax (Resinoid)
Styrax Resinoid is not the same as the STYRAX TREE/SHRUB from which Benzoin (the resinoid) is extracted; styrax is a commercial name for a resinoid known as “storax.” I know this is confusing. This is very animalic, dark and slightly sweet, with a leathery and smokey character.