Material guide · 11
Material guide: cedarwood — the truth about the pencil smell: it is not actually cedar
· 13 min read
The Virginia and Texas cedarwoods of the catalogue are, botanically, junipers — the EFSA assessment states in black and white that Texas cedarwood comes from Juniperus deppeana. The scent core is cedrol: one 26-subject study found inhaling it lowered heart rate and blood pressure with a rise in parasympathetic activity. 85 suppliers, 388 hours of measured-looking substantivity — the wood family's cheapest workhorse.
The smell of a freshly sharpened pencil has a name. Before we get there, though, a botanical joke.
What matters
- Most catalogue "cedarwood" is not cedar: Virginia and Texas cedarwoods are botanically junipers (the EFSA assessment names Texas cedarwood's source as Juniperus deppeana, in black and white). The name is a habit left over from the timber trade.
- The scent core is cedrol: dry, woody, faintly sweet. Traditional pencil wood smells the way it does because of this family.
- Cheap, tenacious (the 388–400-hour class), 85 suppliers. The most accessible workhorse of the wood family, and the budget complement to sandalwood.
The record
| Main item | cedarwood oil virginia (wood distillation) |
| Odour | cedarwood, cedar, woody, oily, balsamic |
| Strength | medium |
| Substantivity | 388 hours (neat) |
| Registers (cedrol) | listed on several; as always, no limit values |
| Family variants | 16 supplied |
Plain reading: 388 hours deserves a pause. Most substantivity entries in this database sit on the 400-hour top-of-scale convention (the storage article explains), and un-round numbers like 388 and 392 look more like traces of actual measurement. Either way, read it as a base that essentially never leaves, in patchouli's and sandalwood's class.
It is not actually cedar
True cedars are the genus Cedrus: cedar of Lebanon, Atlas cedar. The two most common catalogue "cedarwoods", meanwhile:
- Virginia cedarwood: botanical name Juniperus virginiana. The juniper is right there in the name.
- Texas cedarwood: the 2024 EFSA assessment opens by stating the oil is "obtained from the wood of Juniperus deppeana Steud.", which makes it a juniper as well.
Why the name? Timber-trade habit. Woods with cedar-like grain and smell took the commercial name centuries ago, and the label stuck. The practical point for perfumery: buying "cedarwood" usually means buying juniper wood oil, while true cedar (Atlas etc.) is a sweeter, more resinous thing. The two are not interchangeable, so read the botanical name on the specification.
The same EFSA document supplies the Texas oil's compositional specification:
cis-thujopsene 25–35% (mean 29.8%), cedrol ≥20% (mean 22.0%), α-cedrene 15–25% (mean 16.9%), β-cedrene 3–8% (mean 5.8%).
Four constituents totalling roughly three-quarters. This family's character rests on a handful of sesquiterpenes, and cedrol is the "pencil core" you already know.
For how botanical names, commercial habits and specifications fit together, see Why fragrance-material names so often mislead.
Cedrol and that relaxation study
There is a real study behind this claim: in 2003, a single experiment had 26 healthy participants inhale pure cedrol and recorded changes including lower heart rate and blood pressure. It did not measure sleep, and it did not establish cedarwood oil as a treatment for insomnia.
For how to hold that evidence—and why a physiological change is not automatically a therapeutic effect—read What did that fragrance study actually prove?, where this case is compared with three other recurring claims.
Smelling it
- Evaluate at 10%. Gentle stuff, but neat, the oily side buries the dry wood.
- "Pencil" is the best anchor a beginner gets. Line it up against sandalwood (creamy) and patchouli (earthy), and the three wood brothers separate in one sitting.
- Virginia versus Texas: both junipers; Virginia runs finer and cleaner, Texas coarser and oilier. I could never keep the two straight from written descriptions alone; smelling them side by side settled it for good.
- The cedrol isolate (strength: low) is for when you want the pure dry-wood core without the oil's noise; cedryl acetate runs drier and powdery.
The catalogue family
| Item | What it is |
|---|---|
| cedarwood oil virginia (85 suppliers) | the workhorse, the classic pencil wood |
| cedryl acetate (56) | cedrol's acetate — drier, powdery |
| cedrol (50) | the isolated scent core |
| cedarwood oil texas (47) | J. deppeana, the coarser sibling |
| 12 others | fractions, terpenised grades and specialties |
Regulatory
The cedar family is regulatorily uncomplicated (as always: registers carry no limit values). For skin formulae consult the current IFRA Standards and the supplier's specification, and read the botanical name: virginiana, deppeana or true Cedrus are three different specifications.
Buying it
- Start with Virginia cedarwood: cheap, clean, 85 suppliers, and a good first étude of woody bases.
- For a purer pencil core, buy the cedrol or cedryl acetate isolates.
- It keeps. That is the old blessing of woody bases; there is no freshness race here.
→ Virginia cedarwood in the database: full properties, supplier list, suggested pairings. → Cedrol | Cedryl acetate | Texas cedarwood | Search by odour: try "woody dry" for its neighbours.
References
EFSA FEEDAP Panel, V. Bampidis et al., Safety and efficacy of a feed additive consisting of an essential oil obtained from the wood of Juniperus deppeana Steud. (cedarwood Texas oil) for use in all animal species, EFSA Journal, 22(5), e8799 (2024). PMID 38756350
S. Dayawansa et al., Autonomic responses during inhalation of natural fragrance of Cedrol in humans, Autonomic Neuroscience, 108(1–2), 79–86 (2003). PMID 14614968