Lovage Root

Note Profile

Botanical

About

Lovage root oil is the steam-distilled root of Levisticum officinale. It smells of warm celery, angelica and liquorice, read as earthy and savoury rather than green. It is one of the most powerful naturals in the trade and is used at trace level.

Scent Profile

Lovage root smells of warm celery, angelica and liquorice, earthy and savoury rather than green, close to a root cellar or damp soil. A herbal, celery-like note runs through it, warm and spicy rather than fresh. A sweet, liquorice edge sits alongside a faint nutty, walnut-like note. Underneath runs a savoury, meaty animal depth, and a faint peppery lift sits over the root.

ScentWheel

Breadthbroad

EnvelopeBase · ~18h lasting

Family Woody & Earthy, Green & Aromatic, Spicy

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

What this is made of

Lovage root oil

A natural extract

CAS 8016-31-7

Levisticum officinale root oil (IFRA NCS A2.12, root). The note names the binomial and the organ itself.

How the layers join

Origin

Distilled from the root of Levisticum officinale, an umbellifer in the same family as celery and angelica. Fraterworks names the same three references twice over: 'an intense wave of warm celery, angelica, and liquorice - spicy, sweet, earthy, and almost savoury'. Perfumer's World lists the material under the synonyms 'smallage root oil' and 'smellage root oil' and files it in the spicy family with 'roots, walnut herbaceous'. Both sources describe the whole essential oil in prose. Neither reports instrumental analysis, and no manufacturer datasheet for this material was reachable.

Usage in Perfumery

A trace material. Fraterworks: 'use lovage root oil in micro-doses - it produces extraordinary effects even at trace levels'. It adds savoury warmth to rose and carnation, and earthy depth to orientals, fougeres and spice accords. The recommended partners are oakmoss, opopanax, costus and coumarin. It must be diluted heavily before use.