White Woods
Clean, smooth, lightly creamy dry wood with a soft musky warmth.
You may know it from Freshly sanded pale wood
Where it comes from
A perfumery accord built mainly from woody aroma chemicals.
Worth knowing
It is a scent style, not wood from one specific white tree.
About white woods
No tree gives white woods. The name points at a pale timber, but the material is put together from several woody molecules, and the industry has no fixed formula for it. One perfume-ingredient guide describes typical builds as sandalwood character, white musks and cedarwood molecules, with Iso E Super supplying the transparent, woody part. Its own summary of the smell is clean, subtly sweet and musky-woody, with creamy undertones and little smoke.
Iso E Super does not occur in nature. It gives a fragrance a transparent woodiness with staying power, and one CaFleureBon writer recalled that his wife could smell it on him when he got home from work. Molecule 01, released in 2006, consists entirely of diluted Iso E Super.
The sandalwood side leans on synthetics because the main source of true sandalwood, Santalum album, is a protected species and demand for it cannot be met. Indian sandalwood oil has sold for approximately $2,500 per kilogram. Givaudan describes its molecule Javanol as a rich, creamy sandalwood note with some rosy nuances, and it was introduced to perfumers in 1997.
Cashmeran fills in the soft part. It takes its name from the feel of cashmere, and Perfume Stars describes a soft, powdery warmth with hints of creamy woods, musk and amber. Sources differ on whether it counts as a musk: one calls it musky-woody, while chemistry references set it apart from the traditional polycyclic musks, since it has no benzene ring and is used at much lower levels.
Ambroxan-type materials can add woody, musky and slightly salty nuances. Givaudan lists Javanol as having over 50% renewable carbon content.
Accords it shows up in
How many of the fragrances listing White Woods in our catalogue also carry each accord. We counted this ourselves.
Often paired with
The notes that appear next to White Woods most often in our catalogue.
Well-known fragrances with White Woods
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 White Woods.