Note Profile
Angelica seed is the bright half of the plant. It is steam distilled from the ripe seed of Angelica archangelica, and it smells peppery, green and terpenic. A sweet, anisic thread runs under that, and the material closes soapy and powdery with a clean musk finish. It carries none of the skin-like animal depth that makes angelica root behave like a musk. One source states that negative outright: the seed oil has "no animalic depth".
Fresh spice first and hardest. All three sources lead with a peppery, bracing burst, and one calls it almost too much at full strength. A bright aromatic herbal body sits under it, sweet rather than bitter. Green runs through both and is dry and celery-like rather than leafy. A sweet vanillic thread reads as anise, and it is the part two sources call the signature that makes the material recognisable. The finish is soapy and powdery, with a clean musk closing it. There is no animalic depth and no earth, which is the whole difference from the root.
Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.
CAS 8015-64-3
Angelica archangelica seed oil (IFRA NCS H2.12, seed). The note calls itself 'the bright half of the plant' against angelica-root, and the two edges now carry different NCS part letters, H against A, which is the distinction the note is making.
These are facts about the substance, not about any perfume with this note.
A perfume that names Angelica Seed can use a different extract, a reformulated version, or a synthetic reconstruction. It can also hold less than the amount that requires a declaration. We cannot tell which applies. These rows cover only the substances we hold a link for.
The ripe seed of Angelica archangelica, steam distilled. The oil is very pale yellow. Beta-phellandrene is the main component at 33 to 63 per cent, with alpha-pinene at 4 to 13 per cent. The root oil of the same plant has a different composition: alpha-pinene, delta-3-carene, limonene and the musk lactone pentadecanolide. Pentadecanolide appears on the published root list and not on the seed one, which is the chemical reason the seed does not read musky the way the root does. Seed oil is also less photosensitising than root oil.
Used at the top of a composition to lift it. Suppliers name three uses and all three are about freshness: gin accords, modernising white florals, and adding diffusive lift to citrus. It is the standard angelica for gin. It does not fix a blend. Fixing is the root's job, and the same supplier that sells both says so plainly - the seed lifts, the root anchors.
A selection of reviewed perfumes where Angelica Seed appears prominently.
No perfumes featuring this note have been reviewed yet. Check back soon.
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