Photography and visual design by Lund x Mauviel

Storax bark

Olfactive Family: Balsamic

Commonly called Styrax by perfumers, it is in fact of the Liquidambar genus (the real Styrax genus provides Benzoin, also used by perfumers). It is the sapwood/gum obtained by pounding the bark of trees called “Liquidambar Styraciflua” (Americas, in particular Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico) and “Liquidambar Orientalis” (Asia Minor). Styrax resin was imported in quantity from the Near East by Phoenician merchants, and Herodotus of Halicarnassus in the 5th century BC indicates that different kinds of “storax” were traded. It smells balasamic-leathery with floral facets of honey and lilac.