Brazilian Rosewood
Sweet, smooth wood with a rosy, lightly spicy floral smell.
You may know it from rosewood furniture or a wooden guitar
Where it comes from
Distilled from rosewood trees or recreated with aroma chemicals.
Botanical name: Dalbergia nigra
Worth knowing
Despite its name, it does not smell like rose petals.
About brazilian rosewood
Brazilian rosewood is Dalbergia nigra, a very hard, heavy wood whose colour runs from brick red through shades of brown. Its other name is Bahia rosewood. The word "rosewood" itself comes from the wood's strong, sweet smell, which persists for many years.
The oil that perfumers buy as rosewood, or bois de rose, has never come from Dalbergia at all. It is steam-distilled from chipped wood of Aniba rosaeodora, a tree of a different genus, and each tree yields about 1% oil by weight of wood.
The Aniba populations declined rapidly because of destructive harvesting. The tree once grew more widely than it does today, across Amazonian Brazil (Amapa, Amazonas and Para) and several neighbouring countries. Rosewood oil carries a history of massive overharvesting and species depletion, and its wood and oil now sit on Appendix II of CITES, which allows trade under control.
Dalbergia nigra has its own trouble. It has been on CITES Appendix I, the strictest category, since 11 June 1992. Regeneration among the existing populations is poor, partly because rodents eat the seeds of the few fruiting trees left. Guitar makers still look for old-growth stock, since it is regarded as perhaps the best sounding wood for guitar backs and sides.
Accords it shows up in
How many of the fragrances listing Brazilian Rosewood in our catalogue also carry each accord. We counted this ourselves.
Often paired with
The notes that appear next to Brazilian Rosewood most often in our catalogue.
Well-known fragrances with Brazilian Rosewood
Fragrances that list it in their notes, most-rated first.
Houses that use it most
Ranked by how many of their well-known fragrances list Brazilian Rosewood.