Clary Sage Absolute PB

This absolute, produced by Payan Bertrand, is a particularly nice example of this extremely useful material.  It is difficult to substitute with anything else but see also the Essential Oil produced from the same plant).  Clary sage absolute is also the starting material from which Ambrofix is produced.  We are presenting the material here in undiluted form in which it is a paste-like solid.  Because that is awkward to handle we also offer clary sage absolute at 20%.

Unlike the essential oil from Clary Sage, this absolute contains significant amounts of sclareol, which is an important ambery fixative, meaning this material is a much more effective fixative than the oil of the same name.  It is also distinctly more mossy in odour and very useful as a booster to the now-heavily-restricted Oakmoss absolute.

Arctander tells us that “Through the usual alcohol washing method, the concréte may be processed into an absolute. About 50% of the concrete is alcohol-soluble matter. Clary Sage Absolute is also green, solid or paste-like, and may separate crystals on prolonged storage under uneven temperature conditions. The crystals are presumably Sclareol, a solid, odorless, non-distillable terpene alcohol which contributes strongly to the fixative effect of the extracted products from clary sage.” 

He goes on to describe the uses of the material: “Clary Sage Absolute is an extremely interesting perfume material … [it] is an excellent modifier, fixative and natural ‘body’ for colognes, lavender-fougéres, chypres, ambre bases, conifer fragrances, forest notes and even floral notes like muguet and jasmin. It blends well with ionones, methyl eugenol, cedarwood derivatives, nitromusks, labdanum products, citrus oils, lavender and lavandin, phenylethyl alcohol and numerous other common perfume materials”.