Smilax

Note Profile

Botanical

About

Smilax in perfumery is the florist's bridal vine: long strands of small glossy green leaves. Parfumo files the note under Green notes and that is the only category any source gives it. The material sold to florists as smilax is usually Asparagus asparagoides rather than a true Smilax, so the name points at a look, not at a species.

Scent Profile

Green is the only facet above the reporting threshold, and both usable sources say it: the florist reference describes glossy green leaves and nothing else, and Parfumo's own category for the note is 'Green notes'. It sits below grass and galbanum at 0.88 because no source calls this material sharp, crushed or sappy. It is a leaf on a vine, described for how it drapes. Floral, sweet_vanillic and earthy are all below threshold and are carried on purpose rather than zeroed. Smilax aspera flowers are recorded as 'heavy sweet perfume', and the Eiverwold pyramid points at the sarsaparilla reading, which if right would push sweet_vanillic and earthy toward the published sarsaparilla values of 0.38 and 0.72. Those two facets carry the widest spreads in the vector for exactly that reason.

ScentWheel

Breadthbroad

EnvelopeTop · ~2h lasting

Family Green & Aromatic

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

Origin

No supplier sells a smilax oil or absolute. The name reaches perfumery from the cut-flower trade, where smilax means the fine trailing green line used in garlands, table runners and arches. Parfumo records 32 perfumes with the note. The true Smilax genus is a separate matter: Smilax ornata root is sarsaparilla, already published here as its own note, and Smilax aspera is valued for flowers with a heavy sweet perfume. Neither is what a florist means by smilax.

Usage in Perfumery

It is used as a green top accent. Molinard's Îles d'Or pairs it with honeysuckle and mimosa, a green-floral opening with no rooty material near it. Havenhollow's Eiverwold does the opposite and lists it beside sassafras, wintergreen, sweet birch and tolu balm, which is a root-beer set. Perfumers are not using one referent.