What does Cherry smell like?
Cherry in perfume has two sides. One is juicy and tart, like fruit picked in early summer. The other is darker: pit, brandied sour cherry, marzipan. That bitter almond facet comes from benzaldehyde. Dosed one way you get candy syrup. Dosed another, a deep liqueur. The best cherry perfumes keep both, and the fruit turns almost woody in the drydown.
Origin and production
The cherry tree (Prunus avium for sweet cherries) bears fruit too fragile and too faint to extract. So the note is made in the lab. Benzaldehyde, first isolated from bitter almond in the 19th century, is its base. Fruity esters and lactones add the flesh. Some houses add liqueur or tonka notes to suggest kirsch.
How perfumers use it
The perfumer picks which side of the cherry to show. Lolita Lempicka Le Premier Parfum melted it into licorice and vanilla back in 1997. Guerlain La Petite Robe Noire makes it a dark, sugary cherry over almond and tea. Tom Ford Lost Cherry pushes liqueur and almond to the front, with dense results. Burberry Her Intense and Emporio Armani In Love With You keep it lighter and closer to fruit candy.
How to wear it
Boozy cherries like Lost Cherry suit autumn evenings. Tart versions work better by day. Don’t double the dose in summer, since the sugar turns cloying in the heat.