Peppery Scents to Spice Up Your Perfume Game

Black pepper rests on every restaurant table, a sister of salt, available for you to add if you need to spice up your meal just a little. In my kitchen, the clank, clank, clank of stainless steel on iron sends peppercorns smacking softly against each other. The flames under the vessel toast the pepper, the piperine that gives it its pungency rising up in a smoke. This is usually done when someone in the home is ill and needs to clear their nasal congestion. 

It is why the sight of black pepper in the ingredients list on a perfume put me on a tailspin. Surely this can’t be the same black pepper that I dreaded wafting to my nose when I was ill… Not the same black pepper I always picked out of meals as my mother chastised me about how good they were for my body. 

Spoiler alert: they were the same.

History

In ancient trade, this ingredient I sneaked off my plate and into the bin was so valuable as to be dubbed ‘black gold’. Originating in southern India, the spice trade saw pepper travel to Arab and Roman worlds. Ships were built to make perilous journeys from Egypt to India, the danger only maintaining the luxury status of the spice. The demand was high enough to secure it a position in the Horrea Pipperataria, a repository of exotic spices for sale to the Roman elite. 

When Goth King Alaric besieged Rome, he demanded 3,000 pounds (1360 kgs) of peppercorn along with 5,000 pounds (2268 kgs) of gold and 30,000 pounds (13,608 kgs) of silver, demonstrating to us its value by association. Its increasing value in the middle ages made it a means of international transaction. Everything from taxes, rent, dowries, and freedom could be paid for with peppercorns. 

Production

It is no wonder that these highly valued berries have found their way into luxurious fragrances. The dark brown-black colored pepper we get goes through a long journey– they are grown in areas of high temperatures under partial shade during long monsoons, the berries that become peppercorns are harvested right before they mature, after which they dry and harden. They then go through the process of steam distillation that yields black pepper essential oils.

Fragrance

Pepper has a spicy-woody profile that alters and defines fragrances differently. It can bring a burst of heat, a surprising freshness, warmth, and intensity. It can be found adding character and depth to the timeless elegance of florals in women’s perfumes.

— and with oriental-woody ingredients in men’s perfumes. Pepper can also commonly be seen with ingredients like sandalwood, cardamom, bergamot, patchouli, iris, amber, and vanilla.