Description and usage notes:
Strong, smoky material with a leathery quality. Paler in colour and less bonfire-like than Cade Oil but still potent and dark brown.
According to Payan Bertrand this material is “Obtained by rectification of crude birch oil which is obtained by slow destructive distillation from birch bark (Betula pendula R.).”
Crude Birch Tar should not be used in fragrances.
Arctander describes the product like this: “Rectified Birch Tar is a pale yellow to brownish yellow, clear and oily liquid, The odor description, ‘like Russian leather’, is conventional, but somewhat incorrect. Russian leather smells of birch tar because the leather is tanned with the tar products which also preserve this special type of leather. This circle of odor association is similar to the well-known: vanillin smells of chocolate!”
He goes on to talk more about the odour: “… distinctly phenolic, very penetrating and diffusive, obviously reminiscent of tar, charred wood and smoke (all of which have their odor from components of the birch tar oil!) However, the most characteristic feature in the odor pattern of birch tar oil is the sweet-oily undertone which appears distinctly on the smelling blotter when the first empyreumatic notes have faded away. These notes caught the immediate interest of perfumers long ago… ”
This material does not contain any of the 26 potential allergens that must be declared on the label under EU regulations and has been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the IFRA specification standard for this material, with a maximum usage of 0.2% of the finished product in most categories (see certificate for details) – in practice far more than you are ever likely to want to use.
Please note however that it is not food grade in the EU.
Documents
Allergen Statement
lucapoier10 (verified owner) –
intense smoke with phenolic leathery aspects
should maybe be diluted for easier dosage…
Emmanuelle (verified owner) –
Great quality ingredient! Not for mainstream fragrances but leaves an intense smoke and bark scent! Diluted at 1% is already plenty
eveafloriste (verified owner) –
Big time knock-your-socks-off woodsmoke. 1% dilution definitely. Works wonders with turpenic scents, and a great component for gunpowder blends.
kamil_z381 (verified owner) –
Liquid smoke – this says it all. Imagine sitting next to a slowly burning down campfire, as the smoke starts to rise. This is the exact smell you get.
Carlos Silva (verified owner) –
I find birch tar leathery at really low concentrations and even then it’s still noticeably woody/smoky. I’m smelling camp fire you’ve ever smelt in a few milliliters.
Awesomeeee
hajjikram (verified owner) –
Ikram
This one makes me laugh. I opened the bottle and I smelled smoke. Anyone who smells this will instantly know what it is. It brought me back to our days as children burning small fields (called veld in South Africa); smoke, warmth, sound of crackling wood and straw. This stuff is really good for creating smoky accords but it is nuclear. I diluted mine to 10% and added 1 drop to my blend and it killed everything else; I then diluted it again but to 1% and it worked wonders.
This one will conjure up many images in peoples minds, I mean who doesn’t like a good camp fire. I only get smoke and wood but no leather; maybe my nose isn’t yet well trained.
localjshop (verified owner) –
Very interesting scent. After experimenting with this for a bit, the next day every room I went in, people were asking me if I could smell something burning. People were literally checking if they had loose wiring. I suppose it’s gotta be used in moderation 🙂
kevin (verified owner) –
I bought this for a smoky fragrance and am not dissapointed , my partner hates the smell and says i smell like a bonfire but i love it if i’m sat outside in the evenings because its like being near a lovely wood fire so i would recommend this to those who are after a smoky smell.
It does dry down to a leathery note too.