Cinnamon in perfumery: the bark that has to be dosed with care
Ceylon or cassia: two barks, two smells
Two trees hide behind a single word. Ceylon cinnamon, Cinnamomum verum, grows in Sri Lanka and southern India; the inner bark of young shoots is stripped and dries into thin pale quills rolled one inside the other. It is sweet, warm, with a floral facet and a citrus echo. Cassia, Cinnamomum cassia, comes from China, Vietnam and Indonesia; its bark is thick, redder, richer in cinnamaldehyde, and its smell is distinctly coarser — it is the one found in confectionery and chewing gum. The distinction is not a gourmet's detail: the two essences do not do the same job in a formula, and the price gap is considerable.
What does cinnamon smell like?
Of a dry, sweet heat, with a prickle that catches slightly at the throat and a woody bark facet. Compared with clove it is rounder and less numbing; compared with nutmeg, sweeter and less dusty; compared with ginger, it has no freshness at all. One thing few pages say has to be added: the bark essence is heavily restricted in perfumery, because cinnamaldehyde and cinnamic alcohol are recognised skin sensitisers. Perfumers therefore work most often with cinnamon leaf, richer in eugenol and closer to clove, or with synthetic reconstitutions, or with the bark at very low doses. That is why few perfumes really smell of a cinnamon stick: what you perceive is an evocation, not a reproduction.
Cinnamon perfumes at Le Soleil d'Or
Oud Cannelle by La Closerie des Parfums is the most direct case: cinnamon sits at the heart, between guaiac wood and myrrh. Naxos by Xerjoff melts it into an accord of honey and jasmine sambac, over a base of tobacco and tonka bean. Bois d'Ascese by Naomi Goodsir, signed by Julien Rasquinet, pairs it with whisky and frankincense in a smoky woody. Histoire d'un Reve by Hubert Maes places it in the middle of a floral bouquet inspired by the 1920s, and ALTHAIR by Parfums de Marly, composed by Hamid Merati-Kashani, uses it as a discreet touch over a milky vanilla.
Cinnamon accords and fragrance families
Cinnamon is one of the pillars of spicy perfumes and, with clove and nutmeg, it forms the warm-spice accord that opens a great many oriental perfumes. Set on vanilla, caramel or apple, it gives cold-season gourmand perfumes. With amber, benzoin and labdanum it tips towards amber perfumes; over leather or patchouli it works as a dry bite. Its other use, rarer and more interesting, is to wake up a floral: a trace of cinnamon on rose or ylang-ylang makes them immediately more carnal.
Who is it for, and when?
Cinnamon is unisex, but it is a note that divides: it points very directly to the kitchen and to the end-of-year holidays, and that association is hard to undo. It therefore asks to be chosen knowingly — rather in the evening, rather from October to February, rather on wool than on bare skin. Winter is its natural ground, where its dry warmth works like an extra layer of clothing. One honest reservation: on very warm skin it can turn sticky and sugary, and some skins tolerate it badly — if you have ever reacted to a cinnamon balm or toothpaste, test it in the crook of the elbow before committing to a bottle.
How to choose your cinnamon perfume
The first question is whether you are after cinnamon as a dry spice or as a sweet. Both exist and they have almost nothing in common. The second is to accept that no perfume will smell of a cinnamon stick as such: the material is too restricted for that, and what you are looking for is an evocation. Try it on skin and wait two hours — cinnamon is very demonstrative on spraying and calms down considerably afterwards. The bespoke discovery box brings together five 2 mL samples composed by hand, each to be worn for a full day. To get your bearings, compare a cinnamon treated as the subject, Oud Cannelle, with a cinnamon melted into a smoky woody, Bois d'Ascese.
Cinnamon at Le Soleil d'Or, a Lille perfumery since 1953
Founded in 1953 by Jeanne Muyllaert on the Grand'Place in Lille, Le Soleil d'Or is an independent perfumery passed down from one generation to the next. Hubert Maes (third generation) turned it into a reference for niche perfumery; today his daughters Victorine and Apolline Maes (fourth generation) uphold the same standards at 22 rue de la Clef, Lille (59800). Our team will let you smell the cinnamon perfumes in the catalogue, with expert advice and guided trials, and can point you in the right direction using our guide to fragrance families.
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