Myrica

Note Profile

Botanical

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About

Myrica is bog myrtle or sweet gale, Myrica gale, a low shrub of northern bogs and wet heath. The note is sweet and resinous with a fresh, cool herbal lift. A soft, candy-like sweetness and a light medicinal edge sit behind it. The name also covers bayberry, whose fruit wax has a mild balsam smell.

Scent Profile

Myrica smells sweet and resinous, closer to balsam than to leaf. A fresh, cool herbal lift sits over it, with a touch of mint. A candy-like sweetness and a faint medicinal edge follow. Dry wood and a light spice run underneath.

ScentWheel

Breadthmedium

EnvelopeHeart · ~5h lasting

Family Amber · Musk · Leather, Green & Aromatic

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

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ScentArt

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Origin

Myrica gale is native to cool temperate wetlands across Eurasia and North America. Its essential oil is steam-distilled from the leaves, flowers and twigs. Wikipedia records that 'the foliage has a sweet resinous scent and is a traditional insect repellent, used by campers to keep biting insects out of tents', and that the plant 'is used variously in perfumery and as a condiment'. The note name also takes in bayberry or wax myrtle, Myrica cerifera, whose fruit wax gives the bayberry candle its balsam smell.

Usage in Perfumery

Used in 12 perfumes, filed with resins and balsams. Use it where a sweet-resinous green is wanted with a cool, fresh herbal edge. It is neither a bright citrus herb nor a gum resin. It is not interchangeable with Myrtle or with Bay Rum, both of which are published and both of which are different plants.