Cistus Absolute Spain
The use of cistus extracts in perfumery has flourished over the years and has become an emblematic ingredient, particularly for its warm, ambery and resinous scent, which creates a constant intensity.
Cistus Absolute has a very clean, soft and honeyed olfactory profile. It can be associated with anything, such as a flower in an eau de cologne, or used to replace synthetic musks to add a deep, sensual dimension to a perfume. It can be used to add ambery and leathery notes to chypre accords or in combination with woody and ambery accords.
Cistus labaniferus is a shrub with a thick sap called labdanum. It blooms from April to June in the form of large white flowers with fleeting purple macules. When the flowers fade, between May and June, new branches appear and the secretive hairs on these young branches begin to produce resin.
Manual pruning of the branches begins in July when they are full of resin. Only the shoots of the year are harvested. Once cut, the branches are gathered in bundles of 25 kg and taken to the processing plant. For a good yield, good weather conditions are essential: if it rains too much during the harvesting period, the plant’s resin is ‘washed away’; if it does not rain and the air is too dry, the cistus suffers water stress, loses some of its leaves and produces less resin.
The twigs are transformed into absolute in a two-step process at our factory: first the twigs are extracted with a volatile solvent to produce a concrete; then the concrete is washed with ethanol to obtain the absolute.
Perched on the branches of the shrub, the flowers have deep red-purple spots called ‘tears of Christ’ at the base of each of the five white petals. Unlike the highly fragrant resin, the cistus flower has no scent.
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