Cinnamon

What it is

Inner bark from the cassia or Ceylon cinnamon tree, rolled and dried. Restricted in perfumery because cinnamal sensitises skin, so modern formulas carry less than older ones did.

What it smells like

Hot, dry and sweet at once, the smell of the jar rather than of a bun. It raises the apparent temperature of everything near it, and it is the spice people name when they say a fragrance smells like Christmas.

Where it sits

Which layer of the pyramid it is listed in, across every fragrance here that carries it. A base note is one you smell for hours; a top note is usually gone within the first.

What it turns up with

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.

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.

Xerjoff (11), Hugo Boss (10), Jean Paul Gaultier (8), Carolina Herrera (7), Kilian (7), Lattafa (6).