Cardamom

Spicy Oriental scents for captivating and powerful perfumes. Between the power and delicacy of its scent, cardamom has never ceased to fascinate aromatherapists, cooks and perfumers since the dawn of time. Native to Sri Lanka and southern India, it was brought back to the West as early as antiquity for its numerous medicinal and olfactory virtues. Today cardamom, a cousin of ginger and belonging to the spicy notes, exhales its bold and refined notes in numerous perfumes, both masculine and feminine.

Cardamom: this warm and sensual spice from India

Originally, the berries of the tropical cardamom plant were mainly used in Ayurvedic medicine for their digestive and tonic properties. The Egyptians, great lovers of Indian spices, imported cardamom for uses as varied as they were surprising: the making of scented waxes and… papyrus!
The Greeks and Romans more readily used the small spicy cardamom berries for medical and culinary purposes, not forgetting of course olfactory and… aphrodisiac uses! Thus, legend has it that Cleopatra, deeply in love with Mark Antony, would burn cardamom perfumes before her romantic rendezvous.
The tropical plant, of which only the berries are used to produce the essential oil, scented homes and important gathering places for centuries. When the method for distilling essential oils was discovered, fine perfumery naturally made great use of it for its elegant and delicately spicy scent, intoxicating the most discerning noses in its sillage.

The use of cardamom berries in today’s perfumes

Cardamom, a cousin of ginger, has the advantage of exhaling fresh and elegant spicy scents. While spicy olfactory notes usually dress mainly oriental perfumes for men or women, cardamom, thanks to its delicacy, can also dress lighter notes for both men and women.
Thus two major perfume trends use cardamom as a raw material: orientals and woodies of course, but also softer perfumes such as florals or citrus. However, cardamom long remained essentially on feminine skin, its masculine use being relatively recent.

Thus in the oriental family, Kenzo Jungle by Kenzo aims to offer its wearers powerful scents, like an explosive and opulent cocktail of spices to exhale. Its masculine equivalent, Kenzo Jungle pour Homme, reveals with greater refinement and discretion what cardamom offers in the way of sensual and light warmth to masculine effluvia.
Thus many woody fragrances, seeking luxurious and refined spicy heart notes, delight in cardamom to trace a warm sillage, such as Dzongkha by L’Artisan Parfumeur or the masculine woody models Bulgari pour Homme by Bulgari. Citrus perfumes also make use of the finesse of cardamom as a heart note to bring out the citrus fruits, offering long-lasting and original scents, such as the Eau Parfumée au Thé Vert by Bulgari.

Cardamom is therefore a spice currently much used in feminine perfumery, and, more recently, in masculine perfumery as well. The undeniable advantage of these small berries lies in their discreet and powdery olfactory charm while remaining exotic and spicy. Thus, many perfumes aiming for refinement and chic can claim the use of cardamom as a heart note. Did you know that Alien, the great success by Thierry Mugler, was composed of cardamom and cumin?