Balsamic

What it is

Tree resins: benzoin, styrax, tolu balsam and Peru balsam, tapped from bark and used more or less as they come. Among the oldest aromatic materials in continuous use.

What it smells like

Thick, sweet and sticky, like warm tree sap with a faint cinnamon edge. It sits low and slow in a fragrance and is a large part of why some scents seem to get richer over the first hour rather than fading.

How strongly it is worn

The average strength this accord is listed at, where 100 means it dominates the fragrance.

54 / 100

What builds it

How much more often than the catalogue average. 1.0x would be chance, so these are the things that genuinely travel with it rather than the things that are simply common.

Accords it sits beside

Same measure, with its own family filtered out. Saying woody turns up with oud is a restatement, not a finding.

When it is worn

Against the average fragrance here. The line marks that average, so a bar past it means this is worn in that season or setting more than most.

Houses that use it most

Counted across the fragrances here, which reflects what we cover as much as what a house makes.

Amouage (20), Tom Ford (17), Paco Rabanne (13), Prada (13), Xerjoff (13), Giorgio Armani (12).