Họ Gỗ: đàn hương, tuyết tùng, vetiver, hoắc hương và các phân tử gỗ hổ phách

The Woody family has no founding bottle. Scented woods were used as incense and scented oils from very early times, while in nineteenth and early twentieth century European perfumery woods mostly sat in the base of florals, Chypres and ambers.

According to the SFP, the first SFP classification (1984) focused on women's perfumes, and the Woody and Hesperidic families were added in the expanded version of 1990. This reflects when men's perfumes with wood as the theme became common.

In 1959 Jean-Paul Guerlain composed Vetiver for Guerlain, with vetiver as the axis. In 1992 Shiseido's Féminité du Bois, directed by Serge Lutens and composed by Christopher Sheldrake and Pierre Bourdon, built a women's perfume around Atlas cedar, an unusual choice at the time. In 2006 Jean-Claude Ellena's Terre d'Hermès combined citrus, vetiver and cedar with mineral woody molecules.

The top of a woody composition is usually citrus, pepper, cardamom or conifer. Bergamot and grapefruit give brightness; black and pink pepper give dry spice; cypress, juniper and pine give resinous needle notes.

The heart is where the wood starts to show: cedar with cedrol gives a dry, pencil-shaving note; guaiacwood gives a light smoke; orris and violet are sometimes added to soften. Vetiver and patchouli often appear from this layer and continue into the base.

The base is sandalwood, vetiver, patchouli, ambery woody molecules and musks. East Indian sandalwood (Santalum album) carries santalol, giving a milky, creamy, soft wood note. Vetiver carries nootkatone and sesquiterpenes, giving earth, smoke and a hint of grapefruit. Patchouli gives earth with a wine-like facet.

Santalum album has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 1998, and remained so in the 2018 assessment. The assessment covers wild populations in the native range only; plantations in Australia and elsewhere are excluded. Most sandalwood on the market now comes from plantations, together with other species such as Santalum spicatum from Western Australia and Santalum austrocaledonicum from New Caledonia.

Regulation (EU) 2023/1545 adds several woody materials to the expanded allergen list: sandalwood oil (Santalum album), santalol, Atlas cedarwood oil, Virginia cedarwood oil, patchouli oil, acetyl cedrene and tetramethyl acetyloctahydronaphthalenes, the molecule sold as Iso E Super. New products placed on the EU market after 31 July 2026 must be labelled according to this list.

Ambrox was synthesised by Firmenich in 1950 from sclareol, a compound found in clary sage, as a substitute for the odour of ambergris. Iso E Super was discovered by John B. Hall and James M. Sanders of IFF in 1973. Both molecules are now present in most commercial woody perfumes.

The SFP divides the Woody family into nine subfamilies: E1 Woody (Boisé), E2 Conifer Citrus Woody (Boisé Conifère Hespéridé), E3 Spicy Woody (Boisé Épicé), E4 Amber Woody (Boisé Ambré), E5 Aromatic Woody (Boisé Aromatique), E6 Spicy Leather Woody (Boisé Épicé Cuir), E7 Marine Woody (Boisé Marin), E8 Fruity Woody (Boisé Fruité) and E9 Musky Woody (Boisé Musqué).

E4 reflects the influence of Ambrox and ambery woody molecules. E7 appeared once marine molecules such as Calone came into wide use in the 1990s. On Michael Edwards' wheel the woody area is divided into Woods, Mossy Woods, Dry Woods and Woody Amber. The SFP website does not list perfumes per subfamily; examples here are indicative.

The Woody family offers the widest choice of natural materials. A natural woody accord can take cedar for dryness, sandalwood for creaminess, vetiver for earth and smoke, patchouli for depth. Guaiacwood, agarwood and hinoki add their own facets.

The hard part to reproduce is the ambery woody molecules such as Ambrox and Iso E Super, which give a transparent, diffusive effect that natural woods lack. Clary sage carries sclareol, the starting material of Ambrox, but does not itself give that odour. Labdanum and ambrette can suggest part of a dry ambery facet.

For sandalwood, documented plantation sources are preferable. Many woody oils are now named on the EU allergen list; check before use in a product. This page gives no formula percentages.