There are good pine smells, and horrid pine smells – and if you’ve ever sat in the back of a taxi with one of those ‘Christmas tree’-scented cards dangling from the rear-view mirror, you’ll probably get where we’re coming from…
But pine can also be wonderful crisp, spicy, outdoorsy and invigorating – and it’s been closely linked to perfume creation since the time of the early Arab perfumers, who liked it in combination with frankincense, in particular. (And that’ll surely open up your air passages.) The essential oil itself is distilled from the pine needles, young shoots and even sometimes the cones of this familiar evergreen, producing an oil with a refreshing woody-spiciness that conjures up Christmas like nothing else.
But if the Christmas tree’s the most familiar member of the pine family, it’s just one of 115 varieties that grow mostly in the Northern hemisphere. The wood itself is used for flooring, carpentry, for crackling log fires – but in the scented world, with only the lightest touch in actual perfumes for women, and especially men. And somewhat more heavy-handedly in home fragrance, loo cleaners – and those taxi-cab car perfumes…
Smell pine in:
Goutal Nuit Etoilée
Byredo Gypsy Water
Dior La Collection Couturier Parfumeur Granville
Estée Lauder Alliage
Estée Lauder Sensuous Noir
Frederic Malle Dans Tes Bras
Miller Harris Feuilles de Tabac
