What is the Perfume Project?

This blog is a constantly evolving forum for thoughts on perfume, perfume-making, plants (especially orchids and flora of the Pacific Northwest) and life in general. It started out chronicling the adventures of Olympic Orchids Perfumes, established in July 2010, and has expanded in other directions. A big part of the blog is thinking about the ongoing process of learning and experimentation that leads to new perfumes, the exploration of perfumery materials, the theory and practice of perfume making, the challenges of marketing perfumes and other fragrance products, and random observations on philosophy and society. Spam comments will be marked as such and deleted; any comments that go beyond the boundaries of civil discourse will also be deleted. I am grateful to all of you, the readers, who contribute to the blog by commenting and making this a truly interactive perfume project.

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

RESINS: BENZOIN

It’s time to get back on track with Materials Wednesday and finish up the series on resins. I’ve written before on myrrh and mastic, but somehow missed one of the important resins, benzoin. This material is used extensively in perfume, mainly as a fixative; it is also used medicinally,  and burned as incense. In other industries, benzoin is used to enhance and fix food flavorings, especially vanilla, as a chewing-gum base, and to flavor tobacco. It is sometimes used in the manufacture of varnish.

Benzoin is the gummy resin obtained from trees in the genus Styrax, mainly Styrax tonkinensis, which grows in Southeast Asia. Benzoin is also known as “styrax” “storax” or “Siam benzoin”. The raw material is harvested in much the same way as other resins, by making cuts in the trunk of the tree, waiting until the sap runs out and solidifies, then scraping the “tears” off of the tree.

Because benzoin is an important commercial product, efforts have been made to study and improve methods for its cultivation and harvesting. There are now Styrax plantations, so benzoin is not in as much danger as some other materials that are still harvested from the wild.

The scent of benzoin resin is mildly sweet and, of course, resinous, and bears some similarity to vanilla. Because the scent is mild, it is a little hard to pick out of a perfume mix, but it does lend its own subtle signature to a blend. A lot of my perfumes contain benzoin in various concentrations.

Benzoin resin comes as a solid, which can be burned as incense or tinctured. When burned as incense, a magical transformation occurs and the smoke creates a powerful scent that is very different from the raw resin, absolute, tincture, or other preparation for use in perfumery. The beautiful, characteristic scent of benzoin used as incense is especially startling the first time you burn it, if you are used to smelling the tinctured or otherwise treated resin. It is unlike any other form of incense, and is one of my favorites.

For perfumery, benzoin can also be obtained as an “absolute”, which is generally pre-diluted with alcohol. Although this dilution makes it pourable, it is still dense and sticky, and cleanup is not fun. The hassles of working with benzoin aside, it is a useful material that I like having in my main selection of basic perfume-building blocks.


[Benzoin resin on tree trunk from Givaudan website, although it seems to be a cropped version of a photo from Accademia del Profumo, or from a website on “securing the future of benzoin in Laos”, or from some other ambiguous source. It seems to be very popular. Benzoin resin clump from an essential oil vendor’s website; Styrax trees image from an Indonesian commerce promotion website, Styrax flowers and botanical drawing from Wikipedia.]

9 comments:

  1. I love benzoin. I've loved it since I was five, when I got pneumonia and the doctor had my mother put tincture of benzoin and eucalyptus oil in the vaporizer! I use it a lot in perfumes, too. (or did, back when I was making them...) What *does* clean it up? I tried detergent, undiluted alcohol, and I think acetone, and *still* could feel it on my fingers!

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    1. Laurie, I can imagine that a combination of benzoin and eucalyptus would be therapeutic. To clean it up I use alcohol followed by heavy-duty detergent. If you get it on your fingers, oil will help clean it off, or just wear disposable gloves when you handle it.

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  2. Thank you for this post, Ellen. Very interesting! I love benzoin in perfumes and as incense too.

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  3. I'm pretty sure I haven't tried it as incense and will have to remedy that asap. I almost always burn copal if I'm making the effort with a resin. I adore benzoin in perfume so I'm very curious now about the smoke.

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    1. Liz, If you burn benzoin you won't be disappointed!

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  4. I tried it during the perfume workshop, it was in solid form, dark brown and very sticky but the scent was gorgeous!

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  5. Thank you for this post! I have heard of benzoin beibg used as a fragrance material but I had know idea it was used in so many different industries!

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  6. I purchased a small vial of benzoin essential oil to experiment with. I thought I would be able to add it to some existing blends to amplify the "amber' notes. I didn't know how viscous it is! It was almost impossible to get out of the vial and forget trying to measure in any meaningful way. I do love the scent though.

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