Colophony

Note Profile

Botanical

About

Colophony is rosin. It is what is left of pine oleoresin after the turpentine has been distilled off, and it barely smells. The two sources that describe it agree on a faint, mellow, syrupy balsamic with a soft pine edge. It is not the sharp terpene bite of a fresh resin.

Scent Profile

Amber-resinous leads at 0.72. Both sources put the resin first and both call it soft: 'balsamic' and 'syrupy' from the retailer, and Wikipedia's single word is the resin itself. It is rounded and balsamic rather than incense-sharp. Dry_woody is Wikipedia's 'faint pine odor', and faint is the operative word. Sweet_vanillic carries 'soft, slightly sweet, and syrupy'. Below the line, green and citrus come from the retailer describing pine resin in general rather than colophony itself, which is why they stay small. Honeyed is the one comparison the reviewer draws, to honey frankincense, and it was drawn on a blend with cedar rather than on colophony alone.

ScentWheel

Breadthmedium

EnvelopeBase · ~24h lasting

Family Amber · Musk · Leather, Woody & Earthy

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

Origin

Colophony is the solid residue of pine oleoresin, mostly abietic-type resin acids. Tap a pine, distil the oleoresin, take off the volatile turpentine fraction, and rosin is what remains. That processing is the whole of its smell story. The bright sharp top that a fresh resin or a needle oil carries is exactly the fraction colophony has already lost, so what is left is quiet. Wikipedia gives it one descriptor, 'a faint pine odor'. A resin retailer describes the same material as 'humble, mellow... soft, slightly sweet, and syrupy'. Its real trades are varnish, adhesives, printing inks and violin bow rosin, not perfumery.

Usage in Perfumery

Parfumo records four placements across three brands. Fragrantica records none. It works as a soft resinous ground rather than a stated top note. In a listed pyramid it is more likely to be carrying the idea of pitch and workshop resin than a dose large enough to do perceptual work on its own.