Cinnamon Perfumes

Cinnamaldehyde and eugenol: the molecules in cinnamon

In fine perfumery, cinnamon usually means Ceylon cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum), the “true” cinnamon that comes mainly from Sri Lanka. Young shoots of the bushes are harvested, in Sri Lanka around the monsoon rains. The rough outer bark is scraped off, and the thin inner bark is peeled away and dried in rolled quills. Steam distillation of the inner bark yields cinnamon bark oil. It is shaped by cinnamaldehyde (C₉H₈O), which usually makes up 65 to 80 % of the oil. The leaves left over from the bark harvest are distilled into a separate oil, dominated by eugenol (C₁₀H₁₂O₂) at usually more than 70 %. Cassia (Cinnamomum cassia) from China and Vietnam is a different species and contains considerably more coumarin.

On the skin, cinnamon is warm, sweet-spicy and faintly woody, with a dry, powdery finish. Ceylon cinnamon is more layered than cassia and, thanks to eugenol, shows a clove-like facet; the leaf oil is rougher and distinctly more clove-like. With orange or mandarin, cinnamon feels bright and lively; with vanilla or tonka, gourmand and soft; with benzoin or labdanum, resinous and deep.

In this selection, cinnamon sits in the fragrance pyramid – in our range just as often in the top note as in the heart note.