Basil

Basil is the leaf of a culinary herb, Ocimum basilicum, and perfumers use it for its green, peppery freshness. The fresh leaf smells of crushed stems with a faint anise sweetness and a trace of clove. In perfume the note comes from the essential oil or from an accord built to suggest the leaf. It reads clean and slightly cool, a green accent that sits well beside citrus, lavender and woods. Used lightly it lifts a fragrance. Used more generously it gives a clearly herbal, almost savoury opening that feels natural rather than sweet.

In this range basil mostly sits in the top, with a smaller group in the heart, where it adds a green, peppery freshness to citrus and woods.