Elderberry

Note Profile

Botanical 1 perfume

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About

Dark, winey, sweet-tart berry with a jammy depth

Scent Profile

Elderberry smells of ripe berries: dark, winey and sweet-tart. It opens tart and slightly sulphurous, like a young, tannic red wine. After an hour it turns jammy, with a damp, mushroom-like earthiness and a faint animal depth. Late on it dries to a quiet, syrupy dark fruit.

ScentWheel

Breadthmedium

EnvelopeHeart · ~4h lasting

Family Fruity

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

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ScentArt

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Materials That Can Make This Note

Perfumers can build Elderberry from materials such as:

Damascenone plum · tobacco · sugar

Smell words come from published sources.

Allergens perfumes with this note can list: Damascenone

A given perfume with this note may use this material, or something else, and may or may not contain the allergens above.

Origin

The note is based on the berries of the Sambucus nigra shrub, native to Europe. An absolute can be solvent-extracted and a thin oil distilled, but neither is widely available. Most elderberry notes are accords built on blackcurrant bud absolute and fruity lactones, sometimes with a touch of castoreum or civet base. The flower smells almost nothing like the berry and has its own note. Fragrantica uses 'Black Elder' as another name for elderflower, so that term resolves to elderflower and not to this note.

Usage in Perfumery

Perfumers use elderberry as a heart or accent note for a dark, winey fruitiness. It sits with other berry notes, musks and woods, and in fruity and wine-themed compositions.