Mangrove Wood
Note Profile
About
A dark, salt-soaked wood note. It reads as tannic timber standing in brackish water rather than as clean dried lumber.
Scent Profile
Mangrove wood smells like dark, tannic timber standing in salt water rather than dried lumber on a shelf. A mineral, salty edge runs through it, closer to still, brackish water than to open sea air. Underneath sits a swampy, earthy undertone and a narrow thread of smoke, the same salt-smoke used to cure fish. A tannic, leather-like dryness and a tea-like, hay-ish edge round off the base.
ScentWheel
Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.
ScentArt
Origin
Mangrove wood is the timber of the salt-tolerant trees that grow on tropical and subtropical tidal coasts, the Rhizophora genus being the one the perfumery glossaries imply. There is no distilled or extracted mangrove wood oil. Premiere Peau frames the note outright as "a conceptual base note used in marine-woody and coastal compositions", "built from tannic-woody materials, salt accords, and brackish-organic modifiers". 100BON built a whole fragrance called Bois de Mangrove on it and their perfumer Margaux Le Paih Guerin describes working from the tree's physical character - "ses racines seches" and "la qualite de sa chair qui semble avoir ete imbibee d'eau", dry roots and flesh that seems to have been soaked in water - not from a single named odour profile. A separate and possibly different material exists: Borneo dead mangrove wood left to decompose on the ground, sold as gaharu buaya or "Black Oud", which reads leathery, smoky and animalic.
Usage in Perfumery
A base material in marine-woody and coastal compositions, used where driftwood would be too clean. It sits against seaweed, salt, driftwood and dark woods in fragrances that work the land-sea boundary. 100BON place it in a base of cade, Atlas and Virginia cedar, saffron, leather and white musks.
Similar Notes
Perfumes featuring Mangrove Wood
A selection of reviewed perfumes where Mangrove Wood appears prominently.
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