Benzoin

Emotional Qualities:

Benzoin Sumatra is for the grave side of warmth.  The opening is balsamic but not light; the dry-down stays in a room for hours, darkening it slightly.  Slowness here is not laziness, and depth not darkness; the weight comes from time rather than pressure.  It does not rush a feeling to a conclusion or soften what is happening.  Some people find it suits the moments when feeling is heavy enough that company is what helps, when you want a room that knows how to hold weight rather than one that tries to lift it.  The long evening after a difficult conversation.  The hour set aside to read a letter that has been postponed.  The day that should be sat through rather than worked around.  Companionable without being soft, the scent stays in the emotional climate of a room rather than moving it on.

Comparison with Similar Scents:

Benzoin vs. Vanilla (absolute or CO2) 

Vanilla is sweetness without architecture: a single warm register held throughout, gourmand at the heart and creamy in the dry-down.  Benzoin opens close to vanilla in sweetness but has resin depth underneath it, with a cinnamic-spicy edge at the top and a faint leathery quality through the heart that vanilla does not carry.  Vanilla stays where it starts; moves through stages, evolving slowly for hours. Vanilla is for the kitchen at the end of a meal. Benzoin is for the library after the kitchen has emptied.

Benzoin vs. Sandalwood
Sandalwood is creamy and rounded: a wood note rather than a resin, soft at every stage, milky through the heart and powdery in the dry-down.  The character is smoothed, with no edges. Benzoin has the edges sandalwood does not: a cinnamic spice at the top, a leathery undertone in the heart, a resinous tackiness in the base.  Sandalwood quiets a room; Benzoin darkens it.  Sandalwood suits the morning practice and the room that wants to be cleared.  Benzoin suits the evening and the room that wants to be stayed in.