Lacquered Wood in Perfumery | Première Peau

Smooth, glossy, and warm. Like running your hand over a Japanese lacquerware box -- the surface is mirror-smooth, and the smell combines the sealed warmth of the wood beneath with the faint, amber-like sweetness of the lacquer itself. Polished, refined, and interior.

Lacquered wood is a fantasy accord in perfumery capturing the specific scent of wood that has been coated with lacquer -- whether traditional East Asian urushi (from the sap of Toxicodendron vernicifluum), Western shellac (from the lac beetle), or modern synthetic lacquers.

The scent layers two elements: the warm, natural smell of the underlying wood (which the lacquer partially seals but does not eliminate) and the particular chemical-resinous character of the lacquer itself. Traditional urushi lacquer has a faint, warm, slightly sweet resinous smell; shellac has an amber-like, insect-resin warmth; modern lacquers carry a sharper, more chemical quality.

Perfumers reconstruct this using smooth woody materials (sandalwood, Javanol), a resinous-glossy element (benzyl benzoate, which has a characteristic smooth, balsamic quality), and a faint lacquer-like chemical thread.

In a composition, lacquered wood sits in the base. It provides a polished, structured woody quality -- the smell of luxury furniture rather than forest timber.