Labdanum Absolute Spain Clear
Labdanum Absolute Clear develops an interesting concentration of the natural olfactory profile of cistus. The resinous, aromatic and artemisia-like top note is subtle and yet intertwined with the warm and structured leathery, woody and ambery scent.
Labdanum Absolute Clear blends perfectly with the woody and ambery ingredients. It adds roundness and body to chypre and oriental accords. Its leathery facets are often combined with certain opulent florals to bring out an ambery side.
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. 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 from water stress, loses some of its leaves and produces less resin.
The collected twigs are soaked in an alkaline solution, rinsed and filtered to extract the resin. The resin is then separated from the water and dried before being extracted with solvent to obtain the absolute.
In ancient times, the resin of the cistus plant – called labdanum – was harvested by combing the fur of goats that had become covered with it as they wandered up and down the hillsides.
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