pale yellow to brownish yellow clear viscous liquid
Odor Strength
Medium
Producing Countries
Haiti, Jamaica
Pyramid
Base
Warm, oily-dry wood with a balsamic sweetness that lingers on paper for days. Not sandalwood — sharper, less milky, with an angular resinous edge that smells like splitting tropical hardwood in humid air.
Dry, oily-balsamic wood with a resinous backbone. Less creamy than Mysore sandalwood, less smoky than guaiac, less green than vetiver. A faint peppery-citrus inflection surfaces on first application — unusual for a base note — before settling into angular, no-frills woodiness. The drydown is long, soft, faintly vanilla-sweet, with a papery quality like old books stored in a cedar chest. Valerianol’s slow volatility profile keeps the scent close to skin for days rather than hours.
Evolution over time
Immediately
Immediately
Faint peppery-citrus bite over dry, angular wood — sharper and less creamy than expected for a base note
After a few hours
After a few hours
Oily-balsamic core emerges, warm and resinous, with a soft papery quality and the first hint of vanilla sweetness
After a few days
After a few days
Persistent dry-wood residue, faintly sweet, close to skin — valerianol’s slow evaporation keeps the scent legible for 400+ hours on blotter
Terroir & Maturity
Indicative 2025 wholesale prices.
The Full Story
Amyris balsamifera is a small tree in the Rutaceae (citrus) family — botanically unrelated to true sandalwood (Santalum, Santalaceae). The common name ‘West Indian sandalwood’ is a trade misnomer. The genus name Amyris derives from the Greek amyron, meaning ‘intensely scented,’ and the wood is so saturated with resin that freshly cut branches burn like torches even when green. Haitian farmers still call it bois chandelle — candlewood.
The essential oil, steam-distilled from heartwood and branches, is dominated by oxygenated sesquiterpenes (approximately 82% of composition). The principal molecule is valerianol (CAS 20489-45-6), a sesquiterpene alcohol comprising 20–44% of the oil depending on plant part and origin. Three eudesmol isomers follow: β-eudesmol (CAS 473-15-4, ~17%), γ-eudesmol (CAS 1209-71-8, ~11%), and α-eudesmol (CAS 473-16-5, ~5%). Elemol (CAS 639-99-6) contributes roughly 9–10%, adding a soft, slightly floral woodiness. The sesquiterpene hydrocarbon fraction (~17.5%) includes β-sesquiphellandrene.
The scent is drier and more angular than Mysore sandalwood, without the latter’s creamy, milky richness. Opening notes carry a faint peppery bite and a hint of citrus — a nod to the Rutaceae lineage. The heart is pure wood: oily, balsamic, slightly papery. In the drydown, a soft vanilla-sweet undertone emerges, carried by valerianol’s slow evaporation. Substantivity on blotter exceeds 400 hours.
Haiti is the near-exclusive global producer, with annual output stabilized at 55–65 tonnes. Trees grow wild in mountainous terrain in the south (Grand’Anse, Les Cayes). The wood is hammer-milled into chips, then steam-distilled in batches lasting up to three and a half days per charge. Oil yield runs 2.5–4%, depending on wood age and moisture content. Compared to Mysore sandalwood oil at several thousand euros per kilogram, amyris oil costs a fraction — making it a economically accessible woody base materials in the perfumer’s palette.
This note in Première Peau. Nuit Elastique · Albâtre Sépia. Sample all seven extraits in the Discovery Set.
The resin content of Amyris balsamifera wood is so high that freshly cut green branches ignite and burn with a steady, bright flame. Before kerosene reached rural Haiti, split amyris sticks served as improvised torches for nighttime fishing and path-lighting — earning the tree its vernacular names bois chandelle (candlewood) and torchwood. The genus contains over 40 species across the Caribbean and Central America, all sharing this combustible trait to varying degrees.
Extraction & Chemistry
Extraction method: Steam distillation of hammer-milled heartwood and branch chips from Amyris balsamifera. The wood must be dried and reduced to chips before distillation. Each charge requires approximately 3.5 days to exhaust the oil. Yield: 2.5–4% depending on wood maturity, moisture content, and plant part. The resulting oil is pale yellow to amber, viscous, with a mild woody-balsamic odor. Haiti is the near-exclusive production origin, with annual output at 55–65 tonnes. Trees are harvested selectively in wild mountainous terrain (Grand’Anse, Les Cayes regions) — responsible producers collect only dead and dried wood to avoid accelerating deforestation.
pale yellow to brownish yellow clear viscous liquid
Boiling Point
291.00 to 300.00 °C. @ 760.00 mm Hg
Flash Point
> 200.00 °F. TCC ( > 93.33 °C. )
Specific Gravity
0.94600 to 0.97800 @ 20.00 °C.
Refractive Index
1.50200 to 1.51200 @ 20.00 °C.
In Perfumery
Base-note fixative and woody extender. Amyris functions primarily as a cost-effective anchor in compositions that require persistent woody character without the price of true sandalwood. Valerianol (CAS 20489-45-6) and the eudesmol isomers provide the fixative backbone — their high molecular weight and low vapor pressure slow the evaporation of more volatile heart notes stacked above them. Amyris bridges well into Oriental, amber, and chypre frameworks. In woody-amber bases, it is a neutral woody substrate beneath richer materials like labdanum or benzoin. In fougère structures, it provides dry wood without competing with the coumarin-lavender axis. Amyris retains its niche in natural perfumery and as a blender that adds an organic, slightly imperfect woodiness that synthetics cannot fully replicate.
