Atlas Cedar is a woody note from Cedrus atlantica, a true cedar native to the Atlas Mountains of Morocco and Algeria. Warmer and sweeter than the pencil-like cedarwood from America, it smells of softly resinous timber with honeyed, slightly balsamic facets and belongs to the woody family.

What does Atlas Cedar smell like?

Atlas cedar has a rounded, almost creamy woodiness that feels older and more mellow than Virginia cedar. There is a faint camphor-like lift at the start, then a sweet, dry heart with hints of honey, hay and tobacco leaf, finishing in a soft balsamic warmth. It is close to Himalayan cedar (Cedrus deodara), its near relative, but usually a touch drier and less spicy. Oils vary with the age of the wood and distillation, from drier and more resinous to smoothly ambery.

Where Atlas Cedar comes from

The tree is a slow-growing conifer of the pine family that grows at roughly 1,300 to 2,600 metres on mountain slopes in Morocco and, in smaller stands, Algeria. Morocco holds most of the remaining trees, with the Middle Atlas forests around Azrou and Ifrane, home also to the endangered Barbary macaque, at their heart. The thick, amber oil is distilled from wood rather than needles, largely sawdust and offcuts from state-managed forestry, with modest yields.

• Also known as: Atlas cedarwood, Moroccan cedar, Cedrus atlantica
• Fragrance family: Woody
• Type: Natural
• Main origins: Morocco (Middle Atlas, High Atlas and Rif); Algeria
• How it's obtained: Steam distillation of wood chips and sawdust
• Key aroma molecules: α-, β- and γ-himachalene, atlantones

Atlas Cedar in perfume history

As a true cedar, the Atlas species belongs to the same genus as the cedar of Lebanon celebrated in ancient texts. In Morocco its timber has long been carved into ceilings, doors and screens in palaces and riads. For much of the twentieth century the oil was a modest material for soaps and colognes; its best-known moment came in the early 1990s, when Serge Lutens and perfumers Pierre Bourdon and Christopher Sheldrake built Féminité du Bois (1992) around it, drawing on Lutens' love of Morocco and helping launch the modern fashion for woody women's perfumes.

Atlas Cedar in modern perfumery

The species is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, threatened by overgrazing, drought and logging, so ethical sourcing and forestry by-products matter more than ever, and the oil costs noticeably more than Virginian or Chinese cedarwood. It is favoured for niche woods, ouds and ambers where a warm, rounded cedar is needed.

How Atlas Cedar wears and what it pairs with

Atlas cedar sits in the heart and base, lasting well into the drydown (the final stage of a fragrance on skin). It pairs well with plum, cinnamon, clove, rose, violet, benzoin, vanilla and musk, and with orange blossom, saffron, orris and labdanum.

Fragrances featuring Atlas Cedar

• Serge Lutens Féminité du Bois (1992)
• Serge Lutens Cèdre (2005)