Cistus Leaf

Note Profile

Botanical

About

Cistus leaf is the essential oil distilled from the leaves and twigs of the rock rose, not from its gum. That distinction is the whole point of the note. The gum gives labdanum, which is deep, sweet and ambery. The leaves and twigs give something drier, sharper and more herbaceous, with a lemony lift and a woody body. Two sources say so independently, one of them naming labdanum directly.

Scent Profile

Aromatic_herbal leads because both trade sources put it there. osmanthos gives the descriptor string 'warm, woody, deep, herbaceous, lemony' and then says the oil is 'more woody and herbaceous' than labdanum. Dry_woody is the same sentence's other half, corroborated by ScenTree calling the oil 'terpenic'. Amber_resinous is present but deliberately held down. This is the one facet both sources measure rather than assert, and both measure it as less: 'a less-amber like aroma than labdanum' and 'less ambered, warm and resinous than the absolute'. Published labdanum sits at 0.92 and cistus-incanus at 0.70, so 0.35 encodes the comparison rather than an absence. Citrus is osmanthos' 'lemony', which is the terpene fraction and the only bright thing in the note. Green is the leaf and twig material itself plus ScenTree's 'rising and terpenic'. Below, cooling_mentholic is the pinene and camphene edge that comes with any twig distillation, earthy and leather are held small with wide spreads because the resin side of this plant carries both strongly and no source says the leaf oil drops them, honeyed and smoky the same, and mineral the sunbaked dryness. Nothing here was zeroed on the grounds that the fetched sources did not mention it.

ScentWheel

Breadthbroad

EnvelopeHeart · ~7h lasting

Family Green & Aromatic, Woody & Earthy

Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.

Origin

Cistus ladaniferus, Cistaceae, a Mediterranean shrub. Eden Botanicals sets out the two extraction routes in one sentence: aromas 'can be extracted through steam distillation or solvent extraction by using the leaves and stems, or by using only their resinous gum, known as Labdanum'. ScenTree describes the leaf and twig route in detail. 'The branches and twigs of the shrub are also used to obtain the essential oil. They are dried and immersed in a bath of boiling water to exude the oils and collect them on the surface.' So this is not a marketing synonym for cistus or labdanum. It is a separate cut of the same plant, and the published notes for the resin side already exist.

Usage in Perfumery

A dry herbaceous woody material for chypres and orientals. osmanthos records that 'Cistus is used often in oriental and chypre fragrances'. Attested on 7 Parfumo entries across 6 brands and absent from Fragrantica. ScenTree notes the essential oil is more expensive than the absolute, which is why a formula reaching for cistus warmth on a budget will use the resin side instead.