Cherry comes in different forms: The bright red cherry of cherry-cola, sweets and glacé cherries through to the darker, boozy black-cherry of liqueurs. Both forms are popular in perfumery. There is no usable natural cherry extract, but this is a note you can compose from aromachemicals. Benzaldehyde is the canonical way and the most recognisable bright cherry of the lot - the same molecule used to flavour cherry cola and cherry sweets. It’s a fleeting top note, so it presents as an opening burst in fragrances rather than a long tail. Anisaldehyde is a great way to extend a cherry note into the heart of a perfume; a powerful sweet-cherry material with a hay-like nuance that adds depth, and in our experience the two together form the backbone of a convincing cherry.
Around that core, other materials can be used to shade the accord and create fullness. Anisyl acetate and anisyl alcohol bring a sweeter, fruity-berry, faintly floral and lipstick-like quality that rounds off the accord. Anisyl acetate is sweeter and stronger, whilst anisyl alcohol is more delicate and subtle; better for floral compositions. Heliotropex N, a heliotrope base, is also very useful in cherry: This powdery vanillic cherry-coloured base note extends the accord well past the fleeting top. Both benzaldehyde and anisaldehyde are deceptively powerful and IFRA-restricted, so check the current safe-use levels as a starting point (see our product pages). For a dark cherry accord, consider combining with adjacent boozy notes such as oakwood absolute.
