Cashmere Wood
Soft, warm, musky wood with a dry, slightly spicy amber-like warmth.
Where it comes from
A manufactured fragrance material, often based on the Cashmeran aroma chemical.
Worth knowing
It is not wood from a cashmere tree.
About cashmere wood
Cashmere wood is a perfumery name for the smell of the Cashmeran molecule, and the "cashmere" in it comes from the molecule's own trade name, which was chosen to convey the soft feeling of cashmere fabric. The chemical behind it is 6,7-dihydro-1,1,2,3,3-pentamethyl-4(5H)-indanone, also written DPMI. Where a perfume lists cashmere wood, Cashmeran is the material the name usually points to.
The descriptions differ slightly between sources. One reference lists the odour as rich, spicy, fruity, chypre, balsamic and vanilla. Scentspiracy gives it as warm, musky and woody, with spicy-floral nuances, a powdery velvet-like texture and coniferous undertones.
Sources disagree on whether it is a polycyclic musk. One reference says it does not meet the IFRA definition of one, while a Fragrenza article calls it a polycyclic musk compound. Premiere Peau's glossary says it did not achieve widespread use until the 1990s, after perfumers found it gave compositions a textured feel at trace doses.
It also gets mixed up with other woody materials. Iso E Super is a separate IFF synthetic, a smooth woody-amber ketone with a velvet-like feel, first used commercially in a Halston fragrance in 1975. Ambroxan is a different material again, an ambergris-type molecule made industrially from the sclareol of clary sage. Cashmeran, and so cashmere wood, is neither of them.
Accords it shows up in
How many of the fragrances listing Cashmere Wood in our catalogue also carry each accord. We counted this ourselves.
Often paired with
The notes that appear next to Cashmere Wood most often in our catalogue.
Well-known fragrances with Cashmere Wood
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 Cashmere Wood.