Rosewood has been prized by carpenters and furniture makers for centuries: we know it as rock-solid, strong, darkly handsome and perfect for everything from guitars to chess pieces.
But wait! It’s not that type of rosewood which perfumers use, with its floral, slightly rose-like odour: that’s from the Aniba rosaeodora tree, better known as Brazilian rosewood. It takes a massive amount of the tree’s wood to produce the oil: each tree’s said to yield just 1%, by weight, of oil to wood. With such huge amounts of timber felled to extract teensy qualities of oil, it’s no wonder that Brazilian rosewood trees – which are grown in the rainforests of Brazil, Mexico and Peru – are now protected, under CITES (the convention which safeguards endangered flora and fauna). It’s also on the official list of endangered flora of Brazil. So: how come rosewood still turns up on ingredients list…? Clever perfumers know that other woods deliver similar effects, and can be used to replace its richness.
Smell rosewood in:
Goutal Eau du Ciel
Cartier Must de Cartier
Chanel Cristalle
Dior Dune
Dior Hypnotic Poison
Dior Poison
Diptyque Tam Dao
Giorgio Armani Sensi
Givenchy Amarige
Givenchy Ange ou Demon
Jovoy Paris Boisé
Nina Ricci L’Air du Temps
Paco Rabanne Ultraviolet
Rochas Femme
Sarah Jessica Parker Lovely
Tom Ford Oud Wood
