Clary Sage
Aromatic green herbs with a dry, slightly sweet, tea-like warmth.
You may know it from Clary sage herbal tea
Where it comes from
Steam-distilled essential oil from the flowering tops and leaves of Salvia sclarea.
Botanical name: Salvia sclarea
About clary sage
In 16th-century Germany, according to one glossary entry, dishonest wine merchants added clary sage to cheap Rhine wines so they would pass for expensive muscatel. The muscat character is still part of the plant's use. The distilled oil of Salvia sclarea goes into perfumes and also serves as a muscatel-like flavouring for vermouths, wines and liqueurs. Its medicinal use is described as far back as the 4th century BCE, in the writings of Theophrastus.
Commercial crops grow mostly in Europe, in France, Hungary and Bulgaria, and in North America. Within France the producing areas named are Haute-Provence and the Drôme. In the United States the oil is made on a large scale in and around Bertie County, in northeastern North Carolina. Harvest falls in August, during flowering. A tractor cuts, shreds and collects the fresh plants, and the oil is then steam-distilled over one to two hours, by ScenTree's account.
On skin the oil changes as it dries. Premiere Peau's glossary describes an opening that is clean, floral and close to lavender, followed by a musky-amber dry-down. On a blotter the late stages read as dried muscat grapes, warm hay and tea leaves. Perfumers reach for it in tobacco, fougère, amber and chypre structures, and it can also stand in for the presence of lavender oil.
The absolute, obtained after the solvent is evaporated off, is the main source of natural sclareol, its major component, though sources disagree on what share of the absolute that is. The plant itself holds little, with a sclareol content of 1 to 2.5%. Sclareol is also the most common starting material for synthesising Ambrox, which serves as a sustainable substitute for ambergris.
Accords it shows up in
How many of the fragrances listing Clary Sage in our catalogue also carry each accord. We counted this ourselves.
Often paired with
The notes that appear next to Clary Sage most often in our catalogue.
Well-known fragrances with Clary Sage
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 Clary Sage.