Benzoin

Sweet, warm and balsamic, with a vanilla, slightly powdery softness.

Benzoin is the resin of Styrax trees from Southeast Asia. The sweet, vanilla-like Siam benzoin comes mainly from Laos and Vietnam, the drier Sumatra benzoin from Indonesia.

The bark is scored, and the resin that seeps out hardens in the air into pale tears and lumps, which are collected by hand. Because the resin is too viscous for distillation, it is extracted with solvents into a resinoid.

Benzoin is like a warm blanket: sweet, balsamic, vanilla-like, slightly powdery. In our range it sits in the base of 101 out of 116 fragrances. There it holds more volatile notes in place and rounds them off – and alongside labdanum and vanilla it is a pillar of the amber accord.

Balsamic-sweet, amber, with a vanilla side.

In our fragrances, it often appears alongside Vanilla, patchouli, sandalwood, bergamot, elemi, cypriol, May rose.

The name has travelled far: Arab traders called the resin lubān jāwī, “frankincense from Java”. In the Romance languages it became benjui, in French benjoin – and finally benzoin.

• Benzoic acid was originally obtained from this resin – Nostradamus described its dry distillation as early as 1556.
• The name comes from the Arabic lubān jāwī – “frankincense from Java”.
• Benzene also owes its name to benzoic acid – yet benzoin smells nothing whatsoever like petrol.

Siam benzoin consists mainly of benzoic acid and its esters, plus vanillin, which gives it its vanilla-like note.