Castoreum
Warm worn leather, dry wood, smoke and a faint animal-like sweetness.
Where it comes from
Usually recreated from synthetic aroma materials; natural beaver castoreum is now rare.
Worth knowing
Despite its animal origin, modern perfumes usually use a synthetic recreation.
About castoreum
Castoreum is a yellowish exudate from the castor sacs of mature beavers, which the animals mix with urine to mark their territory. A beaver has a pair of castor sacs and, separate from them, a pair of anal glands, both in cavities under the skin. Vice, in its history of beaver-derived food flavouring, says castoreum is not actually from the anus.
For perfumery the sacs are dried and crushed, and the extract is made from them with alcohol. Another supplier describes the glands as smoked and dried in the sun first. One source on the absolute gives about 5 kg of secretion for every 1 kg produced, and The Good Scents Company lists the commercial absolute as coming from Castor canadensis.
The smell is built from a long list of descriptors. A supplier's account has it sweet and leathery at the opening, ageing into a woody, animalic character that turns resinous toward the end. Delacourte's perfumery blog adds smoky, with facets of fur, ink, plum, black olives and dried fruit. IFF is quoted calling the absolute a warm, powerful and appealing animal note with a sweet leather character. At least 24 compounds are known in it, and phenols are among the ones credited with the smoky side.
Perfumers valued it as a fixative, something that anchors a composition and adds longevity to a base. Sources disagree on whether the natural material is still used. Delacourte says it has been banned from conventional perfumery for some twenty years, with animal-welfare concerns, WWF among them, cited as the reason. Another supplier calls it a niche ingredient that artisanal and luxury perfumers still prize. Annual industry consumption of castoreum is described as very low, around 100 kilograms.
Accords it shows up in
How many of the fragrances listing Castoreum in our catalogue also carry each accord. We counted this ourselves.
Often paired with
The notes that appear next to Castoreum most often in our catalogue.
Well-known fragrances with Castoreum
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 Castoreum.