Cypress Root
Note Profile
About
Cypress root is the root reading of a tree normally distilled from its needles and twigs. The two perfumes that name it use it as a grounding material, dry and rooty rather than bright and green. No source describes the smell of the root itself, so this note is built from how perfumers place it and from what cypress wood does.
Scent Profile
Cypress root smells like a grounding, dry wood note rather than the bright green needles of the tree. It carries an earthy, rooty depth, the smell of ground the root grew in. A resinous, amber-like conifer warmth runs through it. Some green remains from the species itself, alongside a cool, mineral, pencil-shaving edge.
ScentWheel
Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.
ScentArt
Origin
Not a standard extraction. Every technical source on Cupressus oil describes steam distillation from branches, leaves and young cones. The only source that concedes root material is used at all is Wikipedia's cedar oil article, which says oils are taken from 'wood, roots, and leaves' across the wider Cupressaceae family and gives them one odour word, 'woody'. Two indie houses list the note: D.S. & Durga (Mississippi Medicine) and Alkemia.
Usage in Perfumery
Used low in a composition as an anchor. D.S. & Durga place it in the heart of Mississippi Medicine beside cascarilla bark and European black pine, under a base of birch tar and incense, and the brand's own copy says the perfume is 'grounded in incense & cypress root'. Alkemia lists 'gnarled cypress roots' among desert botanicals. Both uses want weight and dryness under a conifer, not the sharp green lift that needle oil gives.
Similar Notes
Perfumes featuring Cypress Root
A selection of reviewed perfumes where Cypress Root appears prominently.
No perfumes featuring this note have been reviewed yet. Check back soon.