Zebrano Wood

Note Profile

Botanical

About

Zebrano wood is the striped African timber of Microberlinia brazzavillensis and M. bisulcata. Woodworkers agree the freshly cut or freshly machined wood smells bad in a specifically animal way. The Wood Database calls it "a cat box that should have been changed a week ago". Turners on Sawmill Creek reach for a horse stable, wet dog and zebra dung. In perfumery the name is used differently. Parfumo records it in 7 fragrances since 2003, almost always in the base, and the reviews we could read describe only a general woodiness. This vector holds both readings at once, which is why its spreads are wide.

Scent Profile

Dry_woody leads because that is the one thing both source families support. The referent is timber, Parfumo puts the note in the base, and the two readable perfume reviews report nothing more specific than wood. It is held below a loud wood because no source describes a strong or characterful wood odour, only a present one. Animalic is the whole reason this note is not interchangeable with any other dry timber. Four independent voices reach for the same register without prompting: zebra dung, a horse stable, wet dog, and a cat box a week overdue. That is a consistent claim about the raw wood. It is capped at 0.40 rather than led with, because no perfumery source confirms the animalic character survives into the accord sold under this name, and the two reviews that describe the finished compositions do not mention it at all. Earthy is the damp, stable-floor part of the same reports, sitting under the animal rather than beside it. Leather, sour, green, creamy_woody and amber_resinous are the low edges: the hide-like turn of the animal note, the ammoniacal bite of the cat-box comparison, the sappy quality of freshly cut wood, and the small resinous warmth Beyond Paradise reviewers call "wet, woody warmth".

ScentWheel

Breadthbroad

EnvelopeBase · ~12h lasting

Family Woody & Earthy, Amber · Musk · Leather

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

Origin

Zebrano is a timber, not a perfumery raw material. No supplier publishes a zebrano essential oil, absolute or aroma chemical, and the wood is not known to be steam-distilled or solvent-extracted. The perfumery note is almost certainly an accord built to signal an exotic striped wood. The odour evidence for the referent comes from woodworking trade and community sources describing sawdust and freshly worked boards.

Usage in Perfumery

Listed in the base, alongside other named timbers such as mahogany and okoume, or under florals. Parfumo dates its use from 2003 to 2013 across 7 fragrances. Estee Lauder Beyond Paradise and Salvador Dali Dali Wild are the two we could read, and both reviews report only "wet, woody warmth" and a "dry woody base".