Do you know something? When I ordered Elemi Crude Resin I wasn't expecting what I got. I always found Elemi Essential Oil to be sort of boring and medicinal and I couldn't imagine really using it all that much in perfumery. But I wanted to experience the resin just to see what it was like.
It came in a solid block that had the consistency of hard butter. Yielding to a firm press of the thumb. As I peeled off the layers of wrapping the smell became stronger and stronger. I plopped the whole raw block of resin out on my work bench and looked at it.
An opaque creamy white mass with shades of yellow and darker cream, bits of bark and seeds and even what look liked flower petals were embedded in it. Essential oils glistened in it's cracks.
It smells like a soft peppery pine thats got a sort of a citrus tang to it, but what I love is the woody background note that is like warm wood.
Arctander says of Elemi Crude Resin solvent extract or absolute "This is a very interesting fixative for artificial bergamot, lemon, lime, etc., as well as for the various compositions, e.g. eau de verveine bases and other cologne types. In Lavender-colognes, fougeres, spicy colognes, etc., it simultaneously introduces freshness and fixation. For many of these purposes, one can omit evaporating the alcohol and use the concentrated extract (''tincture'') as is. Steffan Arctander, Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin P. 222.
Arctander says of Elemi essential oil on P. 223 "Elemi Oil is freely available, but should be freshly prepared from acceptable crude elemi; since the oil tends to resinify and polymerize, the odor can accordingly become disagreeable."
This explains why I prefer the resin over the essential oil and confirms for me that my nose is shit hot.
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