Poison

Note Profile

Abstract

About

Poison is a fantasy accord: the bitter-almond smell that folk and forensic tradition reads as cyanide, laid over a dark fruit. It is used as a counter-note, dropped into a sweet gourmand or a fruity floral so the composition reads as the poisoned version of something edible.

Scent Profile

Nutty is the accord's spine and four sources converge on it: 'bitter almond' in the note description, 'Sweet, nutty, intense aroma of almonds reminiscent of marzipan' from a bitter almond supplier, and benzaldehyde's own chemistry. It is held below the published almond at 0.82 on purpose, because Poison is the medicinal end of that smell and not the marzipan end. Fruity is the 'dark fruit' named in the accord's own description and echoed by the company it keeps in both attested perfumes, plum and cassis in one, red apple and wild berries in the other. It carries the widest spread in this vector, 0.25, because no source ever describes that fruit beyond calling it dark. Sweet vanillic is the confectionery warmth that comes with any benzaldehyde note, kept well under almond's 0.40 because the whole point of this accord is that it is the bitter version. Mineral and powdery carry the medicinal, dusty edge that separates poison from dessert; mineral is the closest of the 32 facets to a metallic pharmaceutical bitterness and it is an approximation, not a claim any source made in those words. Coffee cacao is trace only, from the encyclopaedia listing cacao among the accords this note is built into, which is company and not smell.

ScentWheel

Breadthbroad

EnvelopeHeart · ~5h lasting

Family Sweet & Gourmand, Fruity

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

Origin

No manufacturer sells a material called Poison. The accord is reconstructed, and the chemistry behind it is real: benzaldehyde is the molecule that gives both sweet almonds and the almond smell associated with hydrogen cyanide, which is why the two ideas share a smell at all. The University of Bristol states that 'the aroma of benzaldehyde is what gives sweet almonds their characteristic smell' and that heat-processed cherry kernel oil 'is why these cherries smell of almonds'. The cyanide half of the term is cultural, from the phrase used in forensic writing, 'the scent of bitter almonds wafting from the corpse'. Hydrogen cyanide itself is not a perfumery material and contributes nothing that a formula could contain.

Usage in Perfumery

Fragrantica records 6 placements. Parfumo records none. The note encyclopaedia indexes four perfumes, all niche and all either fairy-tale or dessert themed. Toskovat's Things We Never Shared puts it in the heart beside candied almond, plum, macarons and sacher torte. Mischief Academy's The Cursed Apple puts it beside red apple, rose, violet and wild berries. Both use it the same way, as the bitter thing inside the sweet thing.