The ABCs of Essential Oils: Ho Wood

Cinnamomum camphora

"H" has some good woods, like hiba and hinoki, but ho wood is easier to find and cheaper to buy. There's also helichrysum, an amazing aromatherapy essential oil, but I'm not an aromatherapist. Ho wood isn't one of those essential oils you should run out and buy, but it's a good oil for explaining some aspects of EOs.

First, ho wood oil might also refer to what is actually ho leaf oil. When buying essential oils, look to see what material it is distilled from, such as the wood, bark, branches, twigs, and/or leaves. I know it as ho wood, so that's how I'll refer to it here. There are three chemotypes of ho you can find, and as the Latin binomial suggests, camphor is one of them. Ravintsara is the cineole chemotype of ho leaf oil, and it is often confused with ravensara. Not only do they have similar names, but they're both distilled from trees in Madagascar. It's like someone was messing with us naming them.

The third chemotype, and the one I'm most familiar with, is linalool. You can also fractionate the camphor off from the camphor-type, leaving you with linalool and small amounts of other constituents. You might recognize linalool (aka linalol) from ingredient lists, where it's listed because Europe requires certain known allergens to be declared in the ingredients, whether they come from natural or synthetic sources. It's scent is a sweet, spicy, and woody floral present in many essential oils, with ho leaf ct. linalool leading the way. Linalool is one of the numbers in Lavender 40-42 essential oil, the other being linayl acetate.  There's also quite a bit in coriander seed essential oil. If you have that EO, give it a sniff and try detecting a rosy-floral note to it.

Rosewood (aka bois de rose) is also comprised mainly of linalool, and some consider ho wood oil a substitute for it. I think it could work ok as a substitute in some products, like soap, for fine perfumery, rosewood has a much finer scent compared to the ho wood oils I've sniffed. The problem with rosewood is that it is listed as an endangered species, per CITES. Listed under Appendix II, it does not currently face extinction, but might some day. When shopping for rosewood essential oil, look for sustainable oils distilled from twigs, branches, and leaves. Also buy from a reputable buyer, since rosewood is easy to adulterate. Consider alternatives, such as ho wood or the aromachemical linalool. 

Other Ho/Rosewood Notes:

Linaloe wood and seed oil (Bursera delpechiana)

Previously:
Ginger
Frankincense

Eucalyptus

Davana
Coffee
Bergamot
Anise

Vanilla and More

New Gardenia and Sandalwood Fragrance

Before we get to Lab #3 Vanilla, I'd like to introduce Gardenia Sandalwood Natural Fragrance, available in our Etsy Store. The gardenia is infused in apricot kernel oil, and while sweet and beautiful, the scent doesn't last long on the skin. I added some sandalwood so there would be something there once the gardenia was faded, and it provides soft, lingering back up to the gardenia.

On to the vanilla. When I first started studying fragrance, I loved vanilla. It's a nice scent after all. But as I continued, I started using a greater variety at base notes, and at times I didn't even have any vanilla absolute or CO2 on hand. Once I realized I wanted to make something with vanilla but didn't have any, I made sure to get some. Plain it may be, but it's still useful to have around.

This fragrance starts with a vanilla infusion, with vanilla CO2 added for more depth. Peru balsam, which has some vanilla notes to it, was then added. At that point I left it alone for a long time, and wasn't sure what else to do with it. One day after sniffing it, I decided it needed some wood notes, and so I added Himalayan cedarwood and some sandalwood. As with the Neroli Rose, this fragrance has no top notes. It is available through the Ivre de Fleurs store for $15 for a 4ml roll-on bottle.

New Limited Edition Fragrances!

Fragrances #1-#5

The Lab fragrances are limited edition perfume that explore different ideas in scent. Each silver roller ball holds 4ml and costs between $10-20, depending on the essences used. Each perfume is naturally scented, including some with rare and expensive oils. All of them will be available through the Ivre de Fleurs website, and #4-#7 will be posted to Etsy soon. I will also add sample sizes for sale on Etsy.

I will be writing about each of the fragrances in separate posts, starting with #1 today.

The Lab #1- Wood
When I started making perfume, I loved all the florals- rose, jasmine, neroli. I still love them, but over time I have come to appreciate pretty much all of the scents out there. Except for clary sage, but I do like blending with that one. I just don't like it alone.

I love the various wood scents out there, in particular rosewood and sandalwood. Sadly, these face endangerment, but I hope with increased attention, there will be a way to protect these trees and obtain their beautiful oils. I know for rosewood that some distillers use the branches, and I've seen it distilled from the leaves as well.

 Virginian cedarwood is pretty far down my list of woods. It turns out it's not even from a cedar tree, but from a juniper tree (Juniperus virginiana). It has a scent like a pencil, which can still be nice and useful, but it's not my preferred cedar. For this fragrance, I decided to use Himalayan cedarwood, a real cedar (Cedrus deodora). It creates a nice bridge between the top note rosewood and the base note sandalwood.

In the future I might build off of this fragrance- I thought about adding agarwood, but that stuff is expensive, and I wanted to keep these relatively affordable.