Plum

Plum is a deep, juicy fruit note with a jammy sweetness and a slightly tart skin, used in chypre, oriental (amber) and fruity-floral perfumes. It is created as an accord, usually from lactones, fruity esters and damascones, and is prized for adding dark, velvety richness to a composition.

What does Plum smell like?

Plum smells darker and more wine-like than most fruits. Fresh plum has a tart, almost sour skin around sweet, honeyed flesh, and perfumers often exaggerate the ripe, jammy side so it reads as plum compote or liqueur. Compared with peach, which is creamy and bright, plum is heavier and more purple in character, sometimes with a hint of almond from the stone. It can be crisp in a fresh fruity-floral or brooding and boozy in an amber.

How perfumers create Plum

Plums give no usable essential oil, so the note is built from synthetics. Peach-type lactones supply softness, fruity esters add juice, and damascones contribute a cooked, rose-and-dried-fruit depth. Classic perfumery also relied on specialty bases: Prunol, a plum base associated with the historic house De Laire, is widely said to have been used in Rochas Femme.

Also known as: Prune (French), damson, Prunus domestica
Fragrance family: Fruity
Type: Accord (created by the perfumer)
How it's obtained: Built from lactones, esters and damascones
Key aroma molecules: Gamma-undecalactone, damascones, fruity esters

Plum in perfume history

Plum has an elegant history in perfumery. Edmond Roudnitska's Femme for Rochas, created during the Second World War and launched in 1944, wrapped a dark plum accord around a chypre structure and is often cited as a benchmark. Dior's Poison of 1985 made a plum-and-spice accord the heart of one of the decade's loudest scents, and Serge Lutens' Féminité du Bois (1992) married plum with cedar in a design that influenced a generation of fruity woods.

Plum in modern perfumery

Plum remains a favourite for evening and winter perfumes, where its jammy depth works with rose, oud and spices. Niche houses use it to add colour to woody and leather compositions, while mainstream launches pair it with patchouli and vanilla for rich, modern chypres.

How Plum wears and what it pairs with

Plum sits in the heart and lasts well, often lingering into the drydown (the final phase of a perfume on skin). Classic pairings are rose, cedar, patchouli, cinnamon, clove, oud, vanilla and benzoin.