Building on the Botanical Scents Fragrance Wheel: Dark

Adding the Next Segment

Last week, we added the fourth part of the “second” wheel to the Botanical scents fragrance wheel:

The aim of this project is to reimagine the traditional fragrance wheel used by perfumers and make one that is suited specifically to botanical scents - used by botanical perfumers and aromatherapists.

Over the years that I have been studying botanical perfumery, I have come up with some of my own interpretations/understandings based on the traditional fragrance families/wheel, which - to me - fit more easily with botanical perfumery.

As I started to think about this project, I realized that my Botanical Scents Fragrance Wheel was going to divert from the traditional fragrance wheel by one major component. It would have a “central” wheel: FLORAL. The reason I came up with this was personal. The majority of my fragrances have a floral element.

Building on this central floral wheel, I added the fourth of five different categories - based on the traditional fragrance wheel but renamed to reflect both botanical and personal reasons. The first spoke of this wheel was BRIGHT, the second was VINTAGE, the third was SWEET, and the fourth GREEN. This week, we are looking at the final spoke DARK.

What is Dark in Perfumery?

My interpretation of dark in botanical perfumery for this project is an extract (essential oil, CO2, absolute or other type of botanical extract) which is reminiscent of ancient woods, spices, and those with an amber aroma. This is a nod towards the aroma itself but I was also thinking about the “dark ages” in history when the crusades brought less familiar scents to the western world.

These were the Medieval times when spice trade routes were later established, bringing such treasures as ginger (Zingiber officinale), clove bud (Syzygium aromaticum) and cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum). Dark also includes trees of the ancient world, such as cedarwood (Cedrus atlantica), oakwood (Quercus robur), and sandalwood (Santulum album). And I also added amber into this category - which is a mix of scents such as labdanum (Cistus ladanifer), vetiver (Chrysopogon zizanioides), and tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum). You’ll notice an overlap between the categories VINTAGE and DARK here, as well as others.

Don’t forget you can tincture some extracts, such as tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), to produce a dark note.

So, we have now completed our botanical scents fragrance wheel! I have reordered the outer spokes to complement the neighboring spokes as best as I can. This looks something like this:

I hope that you’ve enjoyed this journey in creating a botanical scents fragrance wheel. Hopefully, it will get you thinking about how to use botanical scents in a different context of the fragrance wheel. However, remember that this is simply my own interpretation and there is no one size fits all.

BONUS Botanical Scents Fragrance Wheel for Paid Subscribers

Remember that I promised a a bonus botanical scents fragrance wheel for paid subscribers? This will include a breakdown on the individual botanical extracts that I would include in the central floral wheel.

And if you’re thinking about individual extracts for the other spokes of the wheel, beyond those I’ve given examples of in this series’ posts, watch out for a fragrance workshop in 2026 when attendees will be given their very own custom botanical scents fragrance wheel for reference! The floral wheel available to paid subscribers (soon) is a preview of what the final wheel will look like.

Learning botanical scents and organizing them into some sort of reference tool is extremely useful as a perfumer.

Perfume formulation can be a puzzle - but it doesn’t have to be! By subscribing to and reading my short FREE articles each week, you’ll get nugget-sized pieces of information to build your scent tools. Upgrade to paid to take that learning deeper, and get examples of actual oils, absolutes, and extracts to build into your botanical scents fragrance wheel (in the coming months).

Please drop a heart below if you like this article, forward it to a friend, or invite someone to subscribe (and perhaps get a free month’s paid subscription for doing so!).

What did you learn from this article? Drop me your thoughts in the comments below.

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”

Socrates (469-399 BC), Greek philosopher