Pine Tree is a woody-resinous note that evokes the whole tree: bark, sap, cones and needles together. It belongs to the woody family and smells warmer and more balsamic than a pure needle note, with a sticky resin sweetness beneath the classic green, forest-fresh top.

What does Pine Tree smell like?

A pine tree note is broader than a needle oil. The freshness is there, but it sits over sun-warmed bark, golden sap and the faintly smoky, dusty smell of a forest floor strewn with cones. Perfumers often build in a touch of resin or balsam to give that rounded, amber-tinged warmth. Compared with a cedar note, it is greener and stickier; compared with fir, it is sharper and less jammy.

Where Pine Tree comes from

There are more than a hundred species of Pinus across the northern hemisphere. In perfumery, the tree gives several materials: needle oils by steam distillation, turpentine from distilled resin, and pine tar from the heating of wood. The most important contribution, though, is turpentine, which supplies alpha- and beta-pinene for the synthesis of many aroma chemicals.

• Also known as: Pinus species, pine wood
• Fragrance family: Woody
• Type: Natural and synthetic (usually an accord in perfume)
• Main origins: Northern hemisphere forests; turpentine from the USA, China, Brazil and Europe
• How it's obtained: Needle oil distillation; tapping and distilling resin into turpentine
• Key aroma molecules: Alpha-pinene, beta-pinene, bornyl acetate, terpineol

Pine Tree in perfume history

Pine resin has been used since ancient times; the Greeks flavoured retsina wine with Aleppo pine resin, a tradition that continues today. The tree's greatest influence on perfumery came in the 20th century, when chemists learnt to convert turpentine-derived pinene into terpineol, linalool, geraniol and citronellol. Much of the synthetic floral palette therefore has a pine tree at its origin, even when the finished perfume smells nothing like one.

Pine Tree in modern perfumery

As a note, pine tree is used to create immersive woodland atmospheres in niche perfumes and home fragrance, often alongside moss, earth and smoke. Its supply chain is tied to forestry and the paper industry, since crude sulphate turpentine is a by-product of pulping, which makes pine chemicals relatively sustainable and abundant.

How Pine Tree wears and what it pairs with

The note bridges top and base: fresh at first, then resinous and woody for several hours. It works with cedarwood, fir balsam, oakmoss, vetiver, birch tar, juniper, lavender and labdanum.