Fruity Woody is subfamily E8 of the Woody family in the SFP table. The SFP describes it very briefly: a tree and fruits, with fruit notes newly found or recently brought back. Wood remains the theme; the fruit gives it roundness, sweetness and juiciness.
Most fruit notes in perfumery do not come directly from fruit. Distilling or pressing soft fruit such as peach, plum or raspberry usually does not yield an oil that smells of fresh fruit, so perfumers build these notes from synthetic molecules such as lactones, ketones and esters, and from a few natural materials that suggest fruit.
Peach and apricot are usually built with gamma-undecalactone, long sold as aldehyde C-14 although the molecule is not an aldehyde; it is often cited as the peach note of Guerlain's Mitsouko (1919). Raspberry uses raspberry ketone, the character odorant of the fruit. Beta-damascone gives ripe fruit, cooked apple and dried rose. Blackcurrant comes from blackcurrant bud absolute. The wood is usually cedar, sandalwood, patchouli and synthetic woody molecules.
Raspberry ketone has an IFRA restriction standard, current version issued at Amendment 49. Beta-damascone belongs to the rose ketones: it has an IFRA Standard, sits in Annex III of the EU Cosmetics Regulation with a maximum of 0.02% total in the finished product, and must be labelled collectively as Rose Ketones under Regulation (EU) 2023/1545. Gamma-undecalactone has no dedicated IFRA Standard and is not on the EU allergen list. Atlas cedarwood oil and patchouli oil are named on the expanded list.
Féminité du Bois (Shiseido, 1992), directed by Serge Lutens and composed by Christopher Sheldrake and Pierre Bourdon, built a women's perfume around Atlas cedar and is often described with dried fruit and spice facets. It is a commonly cited example of wood paired with fruit; the SFP has not published its placement online.
The SFP website publishes only subfamily names; perfume lists per subfamily are in the printed Classification officielle des parfums. Perfumes named here are commonly cited examples, not official SFP placements.
| Layer | Materials |
|---|---|
| Top | Mandarin, Bergamot, Blackcurrant bud, gamma-Undecalactone |
| Middle | Davana, Osmanthus, Damask rose, beta-Damascone, Raspberry ketone |
| Base | Atlas cedarwood, Atlas cedarwood absolute, Indian sandalwood, Patchouli |
Natural materials that suggest fruit are limited but enough to sketch the structure. Blackcurrant bud absolute gives a green berry note, davana gives ripe fruit and liquor, osmanthus gives apricot, mandarin and bergamot give peel. Atlas cedar, sandalwood and patchouli give the wood.
Fresh peach, plum and raspberry have no usable natural equivalent; these notes almost always come from synthetic molecules. A natural version therefore leans towards dried and ripe fruit rather than fresh fruit. This page gives no formula percentages.
| Name | House | Year | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Féminité du Bois | Shiseido (later Serge Lutens) | 1992 | Directed by Serge Lutens; Christopher Sheldrake and Pierre Bourdon. Atlas cedar, often described with dried fruit and spice. SFP placement not published. |
| Fruity molecules · Undecalactone gamma · Raspberry ketone · Damascone beta · Damascenone beta | Lactones and ketones that build peach, raspberry and ripe fruit notes. |
| Fruity materials · Blackcurrant bud · Davana · Osmanthus · Mandarin | The fruity part. |
| Woods · Cedarwood atlas · Sandalwood east indian · Patchouli | The theme of the branch. |
Updated 09/2026. Figures follow the year stated in each source.
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