Intensely smoky, tarry and phenolic — reminiscent of burnt wood, creosote, and old leather. Opens with a sharp campfire pungency and settles into a dry, resinous, leathery base with subtle balsamic sweetness.AI · claude-opus-4-7
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Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin, page 80.
Rectified Birch Tar is a pale yellow to brownish yellow, clear and oily liquid.
The oil is easily soluble in alcohol, and does not impart an acid reaction to the perfume in which it is used.
The odor of Birch Tar Oil is distinctly phenolic, very penetrating and diffusive, obviously reminiscent of tar, charred wood and smoke. However, the most characteristic feature in the odor pattern of birch tar oil is the sweet-oily undertone which appears distinctly on the smelling blotter when the first empyreumatic notes have faded away.
To the perfumer, this heart fraction of the birch tar oil is the true and highly appreciated sweet and powerful leather odor for fougères, chypres, men’s fragrances, after-shave lotions, modern fantasy bases, etc.
The tar is produced from the bark of various birch species by slow destructive distillation. The crude tar is subsequently steam distilled, and yields a rectified birch tar.