Balsamic Beauties: Labdanum & Cistus
On my walk today I came across some rock rose, a beautiful flowery shrub that grows wild in the California hills where I live. Rock rose (botanical name: Cistus ladaniferus) is a plant that’s near to my heart not only for its striking blooms, but also for the two exquisite botanical essences it gives us — labdanum absolute and cistus essential oil.
Labdanum and cistus are important ingredients in botanical perfumery. They are used to create musk, leather and amber perfume accords naturally, without the need for the synthetic and animal ingredients used in conventional perfumes.
Captivating base notes with very similar scent profiles, labdanum and cistus are both balsamic fragrances — meaning they’re warm, soft and resinous in character. Both have ambery and musky facets, leathery, animalic and woody notes, and faint herbaceous undertones.
The difference in their scent profiles is mostly a matter of degree: where cistus is a diffusive and sweetly resinous balsamic scent, labdanum is all of that and more: more powerful, more resinous, with a persistent ambergris-like backnote. It's incredibly smooth, sensuous and mysterious.
While just as warm and mysterious as labdanum, cistus is somewhat lighter and, to my nose, a bit more animalic in character. A perfumer may use cistus in a formula where a lighter balsamic note is desired — or, for added nuance, they may use both essences.
Extremely tenacious, labdanum and cistus are excellent fragrance fixatives. They add gorgeous depth and resonance throughout a perfume's dry-down. I'm a huge fan of these balsamic beauties and have used them in several CUSANI perfumes: Sanctuary, Love Lavender, Haute Bohème, No. 9, Lotusland and Westport.
I am always amazed — and, as a natural perfumer, forever grateful! — at the ingenuity it took to figure out how to extract aromatic essences from plants. Cistus ladaniferus, indigenous to the Mediterranean region, has provided labdanum for use in perfumery and herbal medicine since ancient times. But over the centuries, extraction methods have varied.
Today, the Cistus ladaniferus shrub yields its essences in two different ways: cistus essential oil is steam-distilled from the plant’s leaves, while labdanum is solvent-extracted from the resinous leaves and twigs.
But in the old days, the method was less scientific: people would comb the thighs and beards of goats that had grazed on rock rose shrubs to get the sticky resin from the plant. True story! They devised small rakes made of wood and leather to more efficiently gather the resin from the goats.
(Legend has it that the discovery of labdanum was accidental after a hungry goat wandered into some shrubs for a snack and then wandered back to its goatherd, who noticed a heavenly smell emanating from the usually odiferous animal.)
The resin thus collected from goats was used to make incense and perfumes, and was also used medicinally in the treatment of coughs, cold, menstrual problems, rheumatism and other conditions. (And rock rose extracts are still used in herbal potions today.)
In Ancient Egypt, labdanum was considered sacred, and they worshipped the goats that brought them the essence. Historical scholars say that Egyptian pharaohs would wear fake beards fashioned from labdanum-drenched goat fur as a symbol of their connection to the divine.
The fascinating rock rose shrub has captivated humanity for millenia with its stunning aromatic offerings. And labdanum and cistus, precious perfumery essences, are the indispensable backbone of many beautiful base note accords. What they add to a fragrance cannot be overstated: scents that are as rich and deep as time itself. — Claudia