Product Overview
Our Cypress By-Absolute has a deep, woody-green, balsamic aroma with spicy-jammy top notes over rich layers of animalic amber, damp earth and moss, and hints of hay, smoke and tobacco in the tenacious drydown. This unique extract, or ‘By-Absolute,’ is obtained from solvent extraction of the spent needles, twigs and branches that remain after the steam distillation of Cypress essential oil. The result is a complex absolute for formulators and natural perfumers that adds curious, mossy green and wet forest elements particularly to fougère, amber, chypre fragrances. Its smooth richness rivals Oakmoss, of which it is an interesting and economical alternative. We find it powerfully evocative!
Utilizing the spent material after steam distillation enables us make the most of the Cypress harvest and the wealth of aromatic molecules that are too large to pass through steam. The up-cycled material undergoes a solvent extraction process, yielding a semi-solid, dark green concrète with a powerful balsamic-fatty and pine-like odor. Then, the concrète is washed with ethanol to produce a slightly more mobile, unctuous and greener ‘by-absolute’ containing a large amount of aromatic resin-acids, or oleoresins, that lend depth and complexity.
Originating in the eastern Mediterranean, the majestic evergreen Cypress trees grow both wild and cultivated along the coastlines of Southern France, Italy, Corsica, Spain, Portugal and North Africa.[1] Cypress trees are long-lived and do not easily decay (thus the Latin name sempervirens – ‘lives forever’.) These trees are all about endurance – the oldest living Cypress tree is in Iran and is estimated to be approximately 4,000 years old! These tall, slender trees epitomize upward motion and centered energy.
Possessing many of the uplifting aromatic qualities shared by Cypress essential oil and other coniferous needle trees, along with the added intensity of oleoresins yielded through solvent extraction, Cypress By-Absolute is a multi-faceted and tenacious fragrance component for the natural perfumer.
1 Arctander, Steffen. Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin, 1960, p. 210.
2 Lawless, Alec. Artisan Perfumery or Being Led by the Nose, 2009, p. 68.
3 Arctander, Steffen. Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin, 1960, p. 211.
