Ingredient Spotlight: Tonka Bean
Lately I've been busy getting ready to release my new fragrance, Tonka Chic. (Packaging ready? Check. Perfume aged three months? Just about. Copy written for website and press release? Soon — very soon! :)) So now seems as good a time as any to tell you about Tonka Chic's namesake ingredient, the tonka bean.
Tonka bean is a powerhouse perfumery ingredient that's one of the most tantalizing botanicals in the natural perfumer’s palette. A middle-to-base note in fragrance composition, its luscious scent profile has made it a perennial favorite among perfumers and fragrance lovers alike.
But how to describe this magical, complex essence that conjures not just one, but several feel-good aromas?
Well, for starters, tonka bean is a gourmand scent that smells good enough to eat. Rich and powdery-sweet, it evokes notes of vanilla, almond, honey, cinnamon and caramel, with hints of butterscotch and cherry. The warm scent of new-mown hay, infused with soft undertones of clove, nutmeg and pipe tobacco, lingers in its delicious dry-down.
It’s truly a fascinating scent that smells as incredible as it sounds!
Tonka bean is a precious perfumery ingredient that has long been a staple in the fragrance world. It derives from Dipteryx odorata, a tropical tree native to South America. The tree bears a fruit that contains a single black seed — the tonka “bean.” The bean is solvent-extracted to produce an absolute, which is the raw material used in perfumery.
Tonka bean was introduced to French perfumers in the 1800’s and initially gained importance as a substitute for vanilla, which was more difficult to harvest than tonka and sometimes in short supply.
Eventually, tonka bean became prized in its own right for its bewitching, multi-faceted fragrance and its excellent fixative properties. Its scent is soft but extremely tenacious, and helps to expand the longevity of a fragrance on the skin.
Tonka bean blends beautifully with a wide array of other essences. Its captivatingly smooth aroma, though sweet, is neutral in tone, lending itself to both masculine and feminine leaning fragrances.
The tonka note is frequently found in luxury fine fragrances, especially in the gourmand, amber, floral and chypre fragrance families. I personally love working with it — Haute Bohème, No. 9, Westport and Neroli Noir all contain tonka to one degree or another.
To those of you keen on healthful perfumery, it's interesting to note that commercial perfume houses mostly use the less expensive synthetic tonka bean scent in their fragrances, presumably to increase their profit margins. But at CUSANI we're all about healthy, synthetic-free perfumery, so we use only the real thing.
Stay tuned for the imminent release of Tonka Chic! — Claudia