Glossary

Materials & ingredients

A living reference of the botanicals, resins, molecules, and materials that appear across the archive. Each entry links back to the articles where it appears.

A B C F L M N

Aldehyde

Waxy, sparkling, metallic, soapy, diffusive.

Bitter orange

Citrus aurantium

Sharp, green-citrus with a bitter edge and more complex than sweet orange.

Calamus

Acorus calamus

Warm, spicy, slightly medicinal, like ginger crossed with orris root .

Cinnamon

Cinnamomum verum

Warm, sweet, spicy.

Clove

Syzygium aromaticum

Warm, spicy, intensely aromatic.

Frankincense

Boswellia sacra

Bright, resinous, slightly citric when fresh.

Labdanum

Cistus ladanifer

Dark, warm, ambery, slightly animalic.

Myrrh

Commiphora myrrha

Dark, bittersweet, slightly medicinal.

Nutmeg

Myristica fragrans

Warm, woody, slightly sweet and heady.