Hemlock

Botanical and geographic origin

English uses one word, hemlock, for two plants with nothing in common:

• the hemlock tree, a conifer of the genus Tsuga in the pine family, Pinaceae, with several species in North America. This is the hemlock of perfumery;
• poison hemlock, Conium maculatum, a toxic herb of the carrot family, Apiaceae. It has no use in fragrance.

The name belonged to the poisonous herb first and was extended to the North American conifer in the eighteenth century. French keeps the two apart: the tree is pruche in Canadian French and tsuga in France, while the poison is ciguë. The word pruche probably comes from an alteration of Prusse, as in sapin de Prusse, Prussian fir.

Two species are the best known: Tsuga canadensis, the eastern or Canada hemlock, and Tsuga heterophylla, the western hemlock.

Olfactory profile

Ormonde Jayne, which made hemlock its signature, does not publish a detailed description of its scent. The technical data available concern the needle oil of Tsuga canadensis, described as smelling of fir needles, woody, herbal and terpenic.

In Ormonde Woman, the house pairs what it calls black hemlock with violet and jasmine absolute, over vetiver, cedar, amber and sandalwood. It files the perfume among its woody scents.

Key characteristics

Production and extraction

Two forms of the material are cited, and the sources do not agree:

• an essential oil, steam-distilled from the needles and twigs of Tsuga canadensis. This is the only form described in the raw material catalogs we consulted;
• an absolute, which Ormonde Jayne declares for Ormonde Woman. The house does not name the species, and we found no supplier that documents a hemlock absolute.

Trade naming adds a twist. Catalogs also sell Canada hemlock oil as spruce oil, a name that usually refers to spruces of the genus Picea.

Ormonde Jayne also calls hemlock a fir. Botanically, Tsuga is in the pine family, but it is a separate genus from the true firs, Abies.

History in perfumery

Hemlock came into niche perfumery through Ormonde Jayne. In the early days of Ormonde Jayne, the Grasse composition house Expressions Parfumées sent Linda Pilkington its list of specialty oils, materials produced in quantities too small for large houses. Black hemlock was at the top of that list.

She built Ormonde Woman around it, launched in 2002 and now the house’s signature scent, and brought it back in 2004 in Ormonde Man, where it meets oud. She has said she loved the word for its connotation, since Socrates drank hemlock and died.

Outside Ormonde Jayne, no reference source we consulted traces the material’s use in fine fragrance.

Notable perfumes

Two perfumes whose house declares the material.

Frequently asked questions

See also