AtlasResin
Labdanum
Cistus ladanifer
Cistus resin. A long amber fixative with plum and leather, the usual mass under a classical amber.
- Place in the wear
- Base
- What remains. Woods, resins, roots, musks.
- Office
- Fixative
- Holds the span so the opening does not leave alone.
- Family
- Resin
- Type
- Absolute
- Origin
- Spain and the cistus hills of Morocco
- Span
- Very long. An amber that stains the drydown.
- Odor
- Amber, plum, leather, sun-warmed shrub
- Also called
- Cistus labdanum absolute, Rockrose absolute
- Also CAS
- 8016-26-0
Labdanum is the sticky resin of rockrose, traditionally combed from the leaves or from the coats of goats that had walked through the shrubs. The odor is amber before “amber” became a fantasy name: plum, leather, sun, and a sweet thickness.
It fixes. Bergamot on top of it is the old cologne-into-amber trick. Benzoin makes it rounder and more vanilla. Oud makes it darker and less sweet. It is easy to let it become the whole bottle, which is sometimes exactly right.
The rockrose gives more than one material. Cistus oil is distilled from the leaves and twigs and is brighter and more herbal; cistus absolute is extracted from the leafy twigs rather than the gum; labdanum oil is distilled from the gum itself. Cretan labdanum comes from Cistus creticus and is still combed from the shrub.
Sources
- Fairamour editorial (site entry)
- Fairamour editorial — citation pending
- Fairamour editorial
- PubChem substance records (11)
- Fairamour editorial