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Storax / Styrax

post #1 of 10
7/4/09 at 11:51am
Thread Starter 
Compiled from the Note Identification Project thread:

Turkish Storax - styrax officinalis, not to be mixed up with Turkish sweetgum or liquidambar orientalis. Black, sticky pieces of a gummy material, tinctured in ethanol, ratio about 1:1. After some research, I found out that styrax officinalis was used in antiquity, but isn't used in perfumes nowadays. It is used only as fragrant incense gum. I bet, since my tincture isn't as sticky as benzoin but is pitch black and stains! Interestingly, the gum smelled strongly of cinnamon and faintly of incense (a delightful cinnamon-y aroma!), but the tincture smells the other way round: strong incense - sweeter than frankincense - with a soft cinnamon aspect.

Storax tincture: warm vanilla resin sweet

Storax - An evil-looking, dark brown liquid--but thin and pourable--awaits me. I expect the worst, I open it and smell and get... A lively, spicy, resinous aroma like tolu balsam, somewhere between cinnamon, clove, and labdanum. You know what this smells like? A major component of Youth Dew.
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post #2 of 10
7/13/09 at 9:33am
Styrax sweet, warm cinnamon/vanilla, with "green" resinous incense. my oil is clear, however (?)
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post #3 of 10
7/13/09 at 10:09am
Where'd you get your oil, Gblue, if you don't mind sharing. I think it's important that we share the source as anyone who has sniffed the same type of oil from many sources knows just how much variation there can be.

Thanks!
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post #4 of 10
7/13/09 at 2:17pm
my oil was sent me by scentophile, so I'm not sure where he got it from!
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post #5 of 10
5/18/11 at 8:54am
Last night I smelled a sample from Eden Botanicals (listed under Liquidambar styraciflua) and it smelled, to my possibly confused nose, EXACTLY like cheap ballpoint ink. Exactly. Very weird. I kept forgetting, minutes pass, sniff sniff, and then looking around in a mild panic to see if I'd sat on a pen.

ETA: Wait -- hmmn. I suppose I've posted this in the wrong place! Liquidambar styraciflua is probably more closely related to Liquidambar orientalis than to Styrax officinalis, isn't it?
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post #6 of 10
5/19/11 at 5:51pm
liquidambar orientalis essential oil: medium brown, medium viscosity. this is the classic "storax" heart/base note.

nothing resinous at all about it. it's very sweet and clean, with a beautiful clean cinnamon note. the sweetness is not really round and balsamic, more honey and simple sugar syrup. i've worn it alone and it smells great for 2-3 hours then gone. very clean, pure and innocent, sweet without being heavy or cloying.
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post #7 of 10
5/19/11 at 5:57pm
MonkeyBars, where is the liquidambar you're familiar with from (vendor or source and also geographic origin)? Does it remind you of ballpoint ink at all?

Apologies to all for any confusion -- but I think this is the only place to put discussion of liquidambar, even though the first post distinguishes it from styrax officinalis. Does anyone know if the two substances smell similar at all? Does anyone know why both are called styrax?
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post #8 of 10
5/19/11 at 11:38pm
I read somewhere that the names come from Latin and Greek, and are confused because there were fewer botanical names in the past. I'm certain mine is NOT a styrax genus. I can't remember where I got the little 2ml vial.

No ink note at all in mine. Very clean, sweet, and with a mild cinnamony spice.
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post #9 of 10
7/25/12 at 3:30am
Styrene is the reason for the ball pen smell in liquidambar. The amount present depends on the process, normally saponified samples are more balsamic and spicy while direct distillation samples contain a large ammountof styrene and are very pungent in their plastic smell.
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post #10 of 10
7/25/12 at 5:35am
This has come up before and I did a blog post to elucidate the differences between Styrax, Storax and Benzoin.

The Styrene content is often deliberately reduced / removed in commercial products so it isn’t always a reliable indicator of origin in itself.

Here is what Steffen Arctander says about that (he is writing here about the essential oil distilled from the balsam of Liquidambar orientallis):

Quote:
True steam distilled styrax oil is a pale yellow to almost water-white, viscous liquid with an odor that is very rich, balsamic-sweet, floral and somewhat spicy, reminiscent of lilac, hyacinth, etc. although it has a distinct topnote of hydro-carbon character, unpleasant and actually not wanted. The topnote can be disposed of by leaving out the “heads” of the steam distillate but, on the other hand, many customers expect this styrene note and it also mellows in to a great extent after some time.

Its main constituent is Cinnamic alcohol.
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