Licorice

History

Licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) has carried medicinal value across Mediterranean and Asian pharmacopeias for more than four thousand years, with documented uses in ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Chinese traditional medicine (Wikipedia: Liquorice; Royal Botanic Gardens Kew profile, accessed 2026-05-26). The root supplied confectionery long before perfumery, and the modern Italian Calabrian production around Liquirizia di Calabria DOP still anchors the global confectionery and supplier chain (European Commission Geographical Indications register, accessed 2026-05-26).

In Western fine perfumery, licorice settled in as a heart material during the twentieth century, primarily in aromatic fougeres and oriental gourmands. The defining modern milestone is Lolita Lempicka (1997), composed by Annick Menardo and Christian Dussoulier, which placed a licorice-anise-violet-immortelle architecture at the center of the composition and made the note legible to a mainstream audience (Fragrantica; Now Smell This; Bois de Jasmin, accessed 2026-05-26).

Niche perfumery has since extended the register through several benchmark releases. Brin de Reglisse in the Hermessences range (Hermes, 2007, Jean-Claude Ellena) paired licorice with lavender and hay. L'Eau Bleue d'Issey pour Homme (Issey Miyake, 2004) used a licorice-aromatic structure in a fresh masculine register. Dzing! (L'Artisan Parfumeur, 1999, Olivia Giacobetti) drew on a licorice-leather facet inside its circus-sawdust architecture. The thread continues with smaller niche houses (Stora Skuggan, 1000 Flowers) which keep exploring licorice-aromatic and licorice-woody accords.

Botanical origin

The licorice plant is Glycyrrhiza glabra, a perennial herb of the Fabaceae family, related to peas, beans and clover. It is native to the Mediterranean basin and Central Asia, growing wild from Morocco to Afghanistan, and is cultivated commercially in Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Italy (Calabria) and Spain. The part used in perfumery is the root, which can reach six meters in depth in mature plants (Wikipedia: Liquorice; Royal Horticultural Society plant profile, accessed 2026-05-26).

The Italian Calabrian licorice is considered the reference quality for both confectionery and premium perfumery. The calcareous soils of Calabria give the roots an unusually high concentration of glycyrrhizin, the natural sweetener, and a more complex aromatic signature than central-Asian material (European Commission DOP register; Liquirizia di Calabria producer documentation).

The molecule that anchors the perfumery accord is anethole (IUPAC: 1-methoxy-4-(1-propenyl)benzene, molecular formula C10H12O), the dominant aromatic compound of both Glycyrrhiza glabra and the anise plants (anise, star anise, fennel) (PubChem: anethole; Wikipedia: Anethole, accessed 2026-05-26). This shared chemistry explains why licorice, star anise and anise read as olfactive cousins and are routinely interchanged or combined in perfumery formulas. Note that glycyrrhizin, the sweet principle of the root, is non-volatile and plays no direct role in perfumery; it stays in confectionery and pharmacology.

Accord composition

The food-grade licorice extract is obtained by aqueous-ethanolic maceration of crushed dried roots, followed by evaporation and concentration. Yields are moderate, around 15 to 25 percent extract solids per dry-root weight. The dark, syrupy extract is too heavy and too pigmented to be used directly at meaningful levels in fine fragrance, so it serves mainly as a reference base for synthetic reconstitutions (Wikipedia: Liquorice; Givaudan technical documentation, accessed 2026-05-26).

The perfumery licorice accord is therefore primarily synthetic. Public composition templates converge on:

• Anethole (natural or synthetic): the anise-sweet backbone, usually 60 to 80 percent of the accord mass.
• Star anise essential oil (rich in anethole): adds depth and a slightly green facet.
• Benzoin resin: balsamic warmth, classical partner of licorice in oriental writing.
• Vanillin: smooths the anise edge into a confectionery register.
• Tonka bean (coumarin): hay-sweet bridge into the gourmand-fougere territory.
• Glycyrrhiza glabra root extract: optional, used at trace levels in premium niche compositions for botanical authenticity.

Commercial licorice accords sold by Givaudan, IFF, Symrise and Robertet trade between 120 and 240 euros per kilogram in 2026. Pure synthetic anethole, the main raw material, trades between 25 and 45 euros per kilogram; natural anethole isolated from star anise sits roughly twenty times higher, which explains why the perfumery industry largely uses synthetic anethole without perceptible sensorial loss. Natural Glycyrrhiza glabra root extract trades between 60 and 120 euros per kilogram. Licorice itself is not subject to a specific IFRA restriction, but estragole (a minor constituent of star anise oil) is regulated under IFRA Standard 70 due to a moderate sensitisation profile at high doses (IFRA Standards Library, accessed 2026-05-26).

Olfactive profile

The licorice accord offers an anise-sweet, slightly woody, confectionery-leaning profile with a faint medicinal edge. Blind, it reads as a three-part architecture: an anise-fresh opening that evokes star anise and pastis, a licorice-confectionery heart (sugared root, slightly woody), and a balsamic-vanilla drydown that persists five to eight hours on skin (Fragrantica; Bois de Jasmin; Now Smell This, accessed 2026-05-26).

The anethole signature ties licorice chemically to anise, fennel and basil, which makes the accord a natural partner for oriental gourmand and aromatic-fougere structures. Several niche houses use licorice as a dry, slightly bitter counterpoint to vanilla and amber, building compositions more complex than the standard pastry gourmand. The licorice-vanilla-leather triad has become a frequent contemporary oriental signature, and the licorice-lavender-coumarin axis is one of the building blocks of the modern fougere reset launched by Lolita Lempicka in 1997.

Licorice in perfumery is the anise-sharp surprise that keeps a gourmand from turning syrupy. According to Bois de Jasmin and Persolaise, it is the dry counterpoint that makes the sweet structure legible.Osmetheca · Editorial team, after Bois de Jasmin and Persolaise

Key characteristics

Notable perfumes featuring licorice

Six compositions return consistently in the specialised press as benchmarks for the licorice register. The selection spans 1997 to 2017 and covers the gourmand reset of the late 1990s, the Hermessences niche template of 2007 and contemporary licorice-woody writing.

Frequently asked questions

See also