Blending perfumes with buddha wood essential oil? If you’re learning to make your own perfumes and looking for an element in the wood family that has excellent fixative and blending qualities then take a closer look at Buddha wood:
Common name: Buddha wood essential oil (wild harvest, Australia) a.k.a Desert Rosewood or false Sandalwood
Genus name: Eremophila Mitchelli
Supplier: White Lotus Aromatics
Note: Base
Family: Wood
Diffusion: 3
Dilution: 10%
Blends well with: “used as a general fixative, precious woods accord, incense perfumes, forest notes…” (White Lotus Aromatics). Amyris, Peru Balsam, Cedarwood Himalayan, Davana, Frangipani, Guaiacwood, Jasmine sambac, Lavender Bulgarian, Pink Lotus, Osmanthus, Palmarosa, Patchouli aged, Rhododendron, Rose Bulgarian, Rose Otto, Rose Maroc, Sandalwood, Siam wood, Tuberose, Ylang ylang extra. (Lotus Garden Botanicals). Wow, this oil plays really nicely with a lot of oils, hmmm, good to know.
Chemical components: almost 100% Ketones! This oil has three unique and closely related sesquiterpene ketones 30-60% eremophilone, 6-25% 2-hydroxyeremophilone, 11-30% 2-hydroxy-2-dihydroeremophilone
Interesting bits: Eremophila breaks down to mean: Phila – to love; and Eremo – a lonely place or desert. “Named after Sir Thomas Mitchell, who led the discovery expedition into Australia.” (Gritman) It’s also interesting to note it’s close chemical relationship to Agarwood… “Its main components are three closely related sesquiterpene ketones – eremophilone; 2-hydroxyeremophilone; 2-hydroxy-2-dihydroeremophilone – none of which have ever before been discovered in nature. Chemically related to Agar Wood.” (Gritman). Distilled from the heartwood and sometimes also the bark of the tree. It grows wild in Queensland and northern New South Wales, Australia.
Their nose: “displaying a soft, rich deep, sweet, balsamic, precious woods(cedarwood-guiacawood-sandalwood complex) bouquet with a delicate mossy-leathery-creamy undertone of good tenacity.” (White Lotus Aromatics). “exudes a powerful woody aroma with meaty and leathery smoky notes.” (Hermitage). “Smooth, sweet, woody, earthy, leathery, slightly smoky with resinous notes” (Lotus Garden Botanicals). “The scent is woody, mossy, and mild with a subtle leathery-smoky note.” (Gritman)
My nose: At 10am the Top opens very warm, like caramel, a balm, a blanket of amber, amber with a hint of vanilla, very indiscreet, and definitely sweet. 15min later and it’s still warm and soft but very hard to trace, very faint, like a murmur more than a beat, nothing sharp about this oil, it’s a lull. After 30min it’s now becoming bolder, it still remains just a twinkle but it seems more aged, mature somehow. This note is a plodder, solemn with a hint of sweetness. 45min into it as the top notes begin to fade this seems to now be coming out of its shell! Stronger, the wood aspect is now felt, creamy wood, deep and thoughtful, very deliberate expression. It’s now 1hr later and the heart note begins soft and creamy like a cloud, it’s fanning out with gentle deliberation, there is nothing hurried about this note at all. 2hrs later and it’s dim, barely there. The word tawny comes to mind. It seems to have settled down into a quiet slumber. Where did it go?! Now 3hrs on and there’s a sharp, dry quality coming out. The wood aspect too is more perceptible, still warm with lots of character and one plus is that it isn’t pervasive, it’s quiet, totally a background note. Heading into the base after 7hrs and Buddha wood is very, very dry and smells vaguely reminiscent of Sandalwood! The wood note is more pronounced in the dry-down still a very tranquil, civilized character but the best term for this note now would be “non-plussed”. After 12hrs it’s still arid, there is an impression of the sacred…but I only get a few whiffs of this before it hides again in the background. 24hrs into the dry-down and it’s truly dry, nice, woody, blanched, like it’s been baking in the sun. It is still very much alive as it’s still communicating with me of course, faded, but still there.
Musings: I purchased a tiny sample of Agarwood attar and being an attar it means it’s mixed with Sandalwood so I’m going to have to get another sample of the pure Agarwood and do my own comparisons to see if my nose picks up any similarities.
It’s interesting to note that I always do my aromatic evaluations before I do my research and write my blog post, so often I am really surprised to find that I got the same general impression that the oil is known for or that my nose is way off in left field somewhere doing its own thing!
12/24 COMPARISON – now, I think I’ve learned something interesting here. It came to me to try a 12hr vs a 24hr scent strip comparison, just totally out of curiosity, following a gut instinct and I can’t believe what a difference it makes in understanding, in discovering different facets of the very oil you just spent the last 24 hours with! There are things that came out in the 12/24 comparison that were totally unexpected! What I got in this comparison is the smoky quality the other noses described but that my nose completely missed or ignored during a straight dry-down evaluation. This type of olfactive exercise, I am guessing, gets the nose to confront and notice more marked or stark differences that make you sit up and go, OH, THAT! Sort of what happens when you walk into a new place and the smells are so vivid, vibrant and alive. Stay there for a day and you barely notice them at all.
I think I’m going to have to do a 0/12/24 comparison too!
Happy sniffing!
MC
Her Two Scents 