Madagascar Elemi Resin

Adam Michael has this to say “We are fortunate to be working with someone now who is forever in and out of Madagascar and is kindly obtaining resins for us. This wild crafted elemi resin from Madagascar is not overly aromatic if you smell it neat, maybe bitter and terpenic at best. However added to the oil burner** the aroma exudes a melody of fresh, lemony sweet, balsamic, and somewhat woody qualities. Within the opening I also detect nuances of bitter almond along with mint and in the heart fleeting trace notes of a musky and incense character.

This material will dilute down fine in alcohol (mostly) should you wish to create a tincture however the end result will be somewhat sticky and as such if you can acquire it I would advise the tincture is made with benzyl benzoate as this results in a far less sticky end material ( I hope to eventually be able to offer this at Hermitage). I highly encourage everyone to tincture this material at 20% for best results as well. Please note tincturing in cold alcohol is not an overnight process (several months) and some parts of the resin will not dissolve and will require filtration.”

Arctander has this to say “This is a very interesting fixative for artificial bergamot, lemon, lime, etc., as well as for the various verbena compositions, e.g. eau de verveine bases and other cologne types. In lavender colognes, fougeres, spicy colognes, etc., it simultaneously introduces freshness  and fixation.”

Botanical Name: Canarium madagascariensis

Origin: Madagascar

** At Hermitage Oils should you wish to burn the material neat we would recommend burning the material on an oil burner opposed to using charcoal disks. If you follow this recommendation we also advise placing a piece of foil in the well of your oil burner and then laying the resin on top. This prevents lots of mess and cleaning after use and by using an oil burner you get to enjoy much more of the aroma of the resin than when using charcoal disks.