What Does Tobacco Smell Like?

[FSOCI3TY]

I have been wondering about fragrances that have tobacco as a note because I don't own or smelled any fragrances with tobacco notes. That is because I think that I won't like it due to the assumption that it would smell similar to cigarettes/cigars. I have tried searching for answers online but I haven't found anything useful so I thought of joining Basenotes to find some answers.

I'm just wondering if I would like fragrances with tobacco as a main note if I don't like the smell of cigarette smoke.

I'm fairly new to fragrances and have a lot of questions, thanks.

 

[checkmate]

It all depends because there are so many variations...

You have fresh tobacco leaf (Krizia Moods), bitter pipe tobacco (vintage Gianfranco Ferre for Man), sweet cherry tobacco (Pure Havane by Mugler), a freshly rolled and lit cigarette tobacco (Versace Dreamer), vanilla pipe tobacco (Ford's Tobacco Vanille or Boclet's Tobacco) and there are many other variations.

My recommendation is to read and sample as much as possible to see what suits you!

 

[Bonnette]

Welcome to Basenotes!

Tobacco notes can smell like the sweet-burning smoke of a pipe blend, or the fresh tobacco-impregnated wrapping papers that used to line cigarette packages, or the richness of hand-rolled cigars, or the smoothness of a cigarillo - there's a wide range within this category. Tobacco fragrances are reminiscent of leaf and smoke, without being stale or overpowering. I find them warm, comforting, nostalgic, intoxicating. It's hard to describe them, because they create a mood, more than anything else (to me).

 

[sjg3839]

Two variations could have a roasted leafy or smokey vibe.

 

[hednic]

The sweet cherry tobacco smell is the one I most enjoy.

 

[cacio]

Welcome!

As others were saying, tobacco note can mean many things, from the smoke to the leaf to the humidor, without smoke. Some are actually very sweet. So So you shouldn't exclude them, in principle - perhaps there are some you like.

cacio

 

[FSOCI3TY]

Thank you for the introduction of the different tobacco variations. I will check out each of these fragrances and see what I like.

 

[jbthorpe]

Like many basenoters, i have sampled and/or own several tobacco scents and have only smelled one or two that actually smell anything like actual cigarettes. Sample several and you're bound to find some that you enjoy. Have fun with your journey and welcome to the Basenotes community.

 

[Colin Maillard]

No tobacco scents smell like actual tobacco, at best they just smell like a synthetic replica of some mild, sweet pipe tobacco. Either that or generic dry ash. Nothing like proper cigarettes, don't worry.

 

[donna255]

Many years back I worked near a tobacco factory, every so often this smell would fill the area and I used to think it was like stewed prunes. It was sweet and liqueur like and really well I thought so gorgeous. I was told in the end it was them making snuff. I could never work out who actually used snuff in the late 20th century? This smell was every week so they must have made loads.

 

[Ken_Russell]

Have quite an extensive experience regarding the smell of the actual green tobacco plant/leaves, both in its natural state and once harvested and dried.

Green, earthy, "leafy", earthy, slightly grassy, pleasant even for a non-smoker like myself.

 

[th3]

There's many variations but the common warm note in all.

Like the smell left on your blazer after sitting in a room full of plush cigar smokers.

The note irritates me, physically, as does cigarette smoke. I can smell the cancer from miles away.

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(Opinions are own)

 

[Tmoran]

It takes many many forms. It really depends on whether its pipe tobacco, flavored pipe tobacco, blonde tobacco or any other of the endless varieties. It would be impossible for me to sit and describe the smell of something to you without you having ever smelled it or something similar. It would be like trying to explain color to a blind man who has always been blind. I think your ability to like it may hinge on whether the scent is intending to portray smoked tobacco or unburned tobacco. Some scents do try and mimic the smell of a burnt cigar or cigarette but most of the mainstream tobacco scents are mimicking the smell of processed pipe tobacco. Which many find extremely pleasant. It loses favor with many after being burnt. But most things smell completely different after you light them on fire. My best advice would be to go to a cigar store and if you walk in and don't like the smell you probably wont like the note of tobacco. I used to smoke but I hated it. And I haven't had a cigarette in about 7 years. But I still love the smell and have always loved the smell of various tobaccos in all varieties. Seriously. Go to a cigar store and even smell bags of pipe tobacco they have there. Its like manly potpourri.

 

[th3]

It takes many many forms. It really depends on whether its pipe tobacco, flavored pipe tobacco, blonde tobacco or any other of the endless varieties. It would be impossible for me to sit and describe the smell of something to you without you having ever smelled it or something similar. It would be like trying to explain color to a blind man who has always been blind. I think your ability to like it may hinge on whether the scent is intending to portray smoked tobacco or unburned tobacco. Some scents do try and mimic the smell of a burnt cigar or cigarette but most of the mainstream tobacco scents are mimicking the smell of processed pipe tobacco. Which many find extremely pleasant. It loses favor with many after being burnt. But most things smell completely different after you light them on fire. My best advice would be to go to a cigar store and if you walk in and don't like the smell you probably wont like the note of tobacco. I used to smoke but I hated it. And I haven't had a cigarette in about 7 years. But I still love the smell and have always loved the smell of various tobaccos in all varieties. Seriously. Go to a cigar store and even smell bags of pipe tobacco they have there. Its like manly potpourri.

There IS one form of tobacco I absolutely love. If anyone ever did make such a composition... I bet it's out there, somewhere.

It's the taste/smell found in Indian Paan. Betel leaf, slaked lime, areca nut, gulkhand, coconut flakes, sprinkling of cardamom powder and tobacco. Oh my God.

Sent from HTC 10
(Opinions are own)

 

[HankHarvey]

It all depends because there are so many variations...

You have fresh tobacco leaf (Krizia Moods), bitter pipe tobacco (vintage Gianfranco Ferre for Man), sweet cherry tobacco (Pure Havane by Mugler), a freshly rolled and lit cigarette tobacco (Versace Dreamer), vanilla pipe tobacco (Ford's Tobacco Vanille or Boclet's Tobacco) and there are many other variations.

My recommendation is to read and sample as much as possible to see what suits you!

These are all good examples. The only exception I'd take with it is that Versace Dreamer's tobacco smells like a filtered (factory rolled) cigarette to me. Better quality (non-filtered) and hand-rolled cigs have a much different, usually deeper and woodier smell.

No tobacco scents smell like actual tobacco, at best they just smell like a synthetic replica of some mild, sweet pipe tobacco. Either that or generic dry ash. Nothing like proper cigarettes, don't worry.

I occasionally smell an edging of cigar or cigarette tobacco within compositions of masculine scents, but rarely have encountered anything that actually represents full-on green tobacco leaf with any accuracy. The note in its processed iteration is certainly out there, but a realistic, natural tobacco note is rare, possibly impossible to find in perfume.

 

[parker25mv]

I found this article that may be interesting:

Generally tobacco absolute is known for providing an earthy, mossy, woody, sweet aroma with notes of hay, tea, balsam, honey, and fruit, and hints of flowers, leather, and chocolate. The scent of the absolute varies depending upon the quality of the tobacco leaves used. Some absolute is flat, dry, and woody, with a tannin-like quality suggesting black tea and mate absolute. Others are fuller, more rounded and animalic, with more body and almost chocolate-like richness. Potent and very long-lasting, tobacco scent needs to be highly diluted and used in small quantities with complementary essences. According to Arctander, the preferred tobacco for absolute is the 'Virginia' type, of which most suppliers now sell a nicotine-free type. France is the major producer of the absolute, although Bulgaria also markets a significant amount. Other tobacco varieties used on a smaller scale to produce absolute include Burley, Oriental (Turkish), and Latakia (grown in Syria and Cyprus).

The tobacco note can be found in the top, middle, or base of a perfume. With its tannin quality, tobacco makes an excellent base for leather compositions, especially with castoreum or hyraceum tinctures and cade oil or birch tar. It also blends beautifully with all 'woody' fragrances, including vetiver, patchouli, sandalwood, cedarwood, juniper, sage, and labdanum. In citrusy colognes, especially those with lime, it adds a polished, sophisticated tone. Tobacco works very well with Oriental spices and with florals (with which it shares some common chemical components), especially rose, violet-iris, geranium, jasmine, and orange blossom. In small amounts, it adds depth, character, and dryness to fougères. It generally adds sweet, sensuous, smoky, and mysterious nuances to a fragrance, giving hints of caramel or whiskey. There are very few other scents that conflict with it in a composition. In terms of the marketing around the concepts of gentlemen's clubs, smoking rooms, and other remnants of high class and 'manly pleasures,' tobacco sometimes is combined with tones of rum and whiskey, in addition to leather and smoky aromas. Finally, tobacco absolute also has excellent fixative properties.

Sometimes considered a subgroup of tobacco perfumes are those that are especially dry and pungent, in which tobacco strongly prevails or in which it is combined for this effect with ambergris or dry, sharp spices like cloves and black pepper. Examples are Maison Incens Oud Deneii, Rania T. Habanero, Sultan Pasha Attars, Jardins d'Ecrivains George, and Creed Tabarome.

Says perfumer Andy Tauer about tobacco, "In perfumery, I love it for its multitude of facets. There is a wood line. There are dried fruits giving it a gourmand character, supported by what brings 'cocoa' to mind. There is an animalic, furry, dirty line. And there is a quality that says 'bathroom, used, not cleaned for a while,' and so much more. Thus, it can be combined with all sorts of other notes: Think flowers, roses. The darkness of tobacco sets the flower petals in fire. Think patchouli, think vetiver, think amber, think musks, think... endless."

Another absolute whose aroma is similar to that of tobacco is Blazing Star (Liatris odoratissima), a plant of the aster family. Sweet, dry/powdery, herbal (coumarin-like), and with undertones of vanilla, it combines well with the same essences as does tobacco.

There is also a tobacco flower absolute, usually sourced from Bulgaria. It very rare and is in high demand by perfumers. This is described as being delicate, subtle, rich, sweet, and spicy-floral, with a fresh and almost fruity note, reminiscent of carnation, violet, and cloves. It is sweeter and more complex than tobacco leaf absolute.

Tobacco Mimics and Synthetics
Other essences are frequently used to create an illusion of tobacco, including coumarin, sage, clove, cinnamon, lavender, vanilla, tonka beans, ambergris, licorice, amber, and deer tongue (lyatrix). Tobacco expert William Poucher includes a formula for a 'tobacco flower base' in his Perfumes, Cosmetics and Soaps that includes rose, carnation, clary sage, honey, jasmine, immortelle absolute, birch tar, coumarin, vanilla, and a hydroquinone, to recreate the flower's aroma. One modern example is Issara Dusita Paris, with tonka beans, clary sage, vetiver, and cedar. Another is Cuba Paris, with the the tobacco note actually only existing in its name. These scents also are sometimes added to emphasize the true tobacco (similar to the addition of coumarin to tobacco in cigarettes).

Synthetic tobacco absolute components are now available, including carotenoids. A well known one is veltonal, with a distinctive tobacco tone and a raspberry-pomegranate fruity accord. 3-Megastigmatrienone, which plays a major role in giving tobacco its aroma, is synthesized commercially and sold under the brand name Tabanon. Other chemicals with tobacco notes very close to the natural include oxophoyl, isophoryl acetate, 3-theaspirone, and 4-oxo-beta-ionone. Certain synthetic nitrous compounds are used in the perfume industry in nano-quantities to make the true tobacco note richer, more vivid, and with more contrast.

 

[slpfrsly]

I have been wondering about fragrances that have tobacco as a note because I don't own or smelled any fragrances with tobacco notes. That is because I think that I won't like it due to the assumption that it would smell similar to cigarettes/cigars. I have tried searching for answers online but I haven't found anything useful so I thought of joining Basenotes to find some answers.

I'm just wondering if I would like fragrances with tobacco as a main note if I don't like the smell of cigarette smoke.

I'm fairly new to fragrances and have a lot of questions, thanks.

A very good question.

Tobacco Absolute smells like a rather fragrant, rich, unsmoked tobacco leaf. It obviously helps if you know what this smells like: particularly in cigars, pipe tobacco, or even from the dried leaf itself.

If not, then it's quite a hard aroma to describe. It's somewhat earthy, leathery, rich, pungent, slightly sweet, intoxicating scent - although these don't really convey the real smell.

Tobacco Absolute, being an absolute, is ideal for using to form the basis of a tobacco 'note' in fragrances. But in my experience, it rarely manages to achieve this in any meaningful way: in part because, although it seems to be a strong aroma, it isn't particularly durable. This may be because it is a natural ingredient, it may be because it is weakened during the extraction process that makes it in to a liquid that can be used in perfumery. Either way, it is offered added in to other notes - synthetic and natural - to create an illusion of tobacco.

These have been described above, but you'll mostly get one of three tobaccos, in my opinion:

1. Dry and green, e.g. Aramis Havana. These are some of the first 'tobacco-centric' fragrances on the market, and they traded on existing fougere templates, using mosses, dry woods, green notes, and a traditional, shortlived citric-floral opening to ground the tobacco note in a fairly sensible, reliable masculine fragrance. These aren't to my taste, frankly, and the tobacco in them tends to be rather uninspiring, but some people love them. The tobacco here is often on the drier, hay-like side.

2. Warm and sweet, e.g. Tobacco Vanille. Tom Ford is largely responsible for this fairly simple yet now abundant type of tobacco aroma that is gloopy, sweet, saccharine, and unisex bordering on feminine. It is meant to smell like a cherry or vanilla tobacco, and those are two of the main components of these types of fragrance. However, although they may be trying to convey the scent of an aromatic tobacco, they are more like vanilla fragrances with the addition of a tobacco undertone, rather than the other way around, and thus can turn in to gourmand-bombs rather than something that is going to smell like sweet, fragrant smoke. Some of these achieve it with excellence, like Mugler's Pure Havane. however, and they seem to be the most popular type of tobacco on the market - in part because they smell like vanilla, which is a universally enjoyed aroma in one form or another.

3. Smoky and spicy, e.g. Akro Smoke. Some newer forms of niche perfume have pushed the boat out with tobacco, and rather than trying to base the tobacco aroma around a rather soft, refined accord of tobacco absolute, they go for something else instead. In other words, instead of trying to create the smell of unsmoked tobacco, they aim for the burnt form. Akro's Smoke is the smell of second hand cigarettes and ash, with a dash of vanilla to keep it sane, but it is rather unwearable in my opinion. Other scents, like Tom Ford's Tobacco Oud Intense, use the burnt aroma along with spices to create the impression of an oriental tobacco. Some of these are more successful than others in conveying a 'tobacco' smell - some simply smell like ash, or burnt wood, as is the case in scents like Naomi Goodsir's Bois d'Ascese.

These are a few other fragrances that straddle the line between these categories, of course. Something like Chergui was a mix of 1 and 2, using dry, hay-like tobacco, but with a warm, sweet accord married to it. Xerjoff Naxos is mostly 2 but also uses 3 in a genius manner, combining a variety of ingredients that give off an overtone of soft smoke when smelled from a distance. A recent release, Villoresi's Atman Xaman, would be a mix of 1 and 3. Another, Byredo's Tobacco Mandarin, is 2 and 3. Almost all tobacco fragrances could be plotted within the space between these 3 forms of tobacco scents.

By and large, tobacco in fragrances is more appealing than the smell of a cigar or cigarette. That is something that's welcomed by most perfume consumers, but there are some who would really enjoy a more authentic smell - for the tobacco absolute to be more prominent, more potent, and more durable within a fragrance.

Some perfumers with use 'notes' like 'tobacco leaf' and 'tobacco flower'. To me, these seem to be conceptual terms only; the latter appears to be more of the smoky aromachemicals paired with white, light floral notes. There may be real tobacco flower in some of these scents but I doubt it is perceptible in any meaningful way when smelling the final product. Tobacco leaf tends to be portrayed as the green, uncured leaf, which in turn has convinced people to read greener, drier notes within a nominal-tobacco blend as being the smell of 'tobacco leaf'. This doesn't make much sense in any real way; rather, this seems to simply be the first category of fragrance I've described, which is the use of greener, woody, grassy notes with a small amount of tobacco absolute (sans vanilla and any sugary smells) to create a hay-like and earthy aroma.