Tobacco Absolute

What Tobacco Absolute smells like

Tobacco absolute is sweet, hay-like and honeyed with dried-fruit and leather facets, and smells nothing like cigarette smoke — closer to tonka than to an ashtray, in a glossary's words. The Good Scents Company lists sweet hay, tobacco, mossy, leafy, herbal, old wood, dried fruit, tea and honey; a supplier adds molasses, damp earth and warm wood. It is very potent. Neat, Arctander describes a dark, semi-solid mass of strong, almost repulsive odour. Leaf variety changes it: Virginia lighter and sweeter, Burley darkest, Turkish drier.

Leading note

Sweet cured leaf

Clear facets

Hay

Supporting facets

Honey, molasses, dried fruit

Faint facets

Leather

Character

Rich, warm, potent, sweet

• tobacco
• honey
• hay
• leathery

What makes Tobacco Absolute distinctive

The cured leaf, not the smoke: hay, honey and dried fruit, closer to tonka than to cigarettes.

Concentration and dilution

Strong, almost repulsive neat; sweet and hay-like in small amounts.

How Tobacco Absolute is used

Used in traces in tobacco, leather, oriental and chypre compositions.

Typical role: modifier (used in small amounts to change the character of a blend); fixative (slow to evaporate; helps a blend last and holds lighter notes).

How Tobacco Absolute differs from similar materials

Kephalis

Kephalis is a synthetic woody amber with a tobacco side; tobacco absolute is the natural cured leaf.

Tobacco Flower Absolute

Tobacco flower absolute is floral, with sweet violet and spicy carnation over the tobacco.

Tabanon

Tabanon gives a tobacco note with fruit and flowers from one molecule; the absolute is the whole cured leaf, with hay and honey.

Each difference compares the published descriptions of the two materials. Smell varies with grade, supplier and dilution; compare them side by side on blotters before substituting one for another.

Formulation considerations

It may contain nicotine; check the regulatory position for your product and market.

Identity and classification

Type

Absolute

Origin

Natural

Odour family

Leather / Gourmand

Note position

Base note

Physical form at room temperature

Viscous liquid

Also known as

Tobacco leaf absolute

Botanical source

Nicotiana tabacum

CAS number

8037-19-2

The CAS number was checked on 19 October 2026 against a PubChem substance record that gives it for this material. A natural material is a mixture, so it has no single formula; its composition varies with origin and processing.

Safety and compliance

This page is general information, not a safety assessment or a specification. Confirm identity, composition, IFRA status and allergen content from your supplier's documents for the lot you hold.

Materials it works with

• Coumarin

  Aroma chemical · Powdery / Fougère — hay, sweet, almond, tobacco

• Labdanum Absolute

  Absolute · Amber / Leather — amber, balsamic, leathery, animalic

• Tonka Bean Absolute

  Absolute · Gourmand / Powdery — coumarinic, hay, almond, sweet

• Whisky Lactone

  Aroma chemical · Woody / Gourmand — oak, coconut, woody, sweet

Tobacco Absolute is also suggested as a partner on the pages for Beeswax Absolute, Bran Absolute, Immortelle Absolute, Mate Absolute, Symroxane and Tobacco Flower Absolute.

Used in formulas and accords

Used in 9 published formulas

Tobacco Absolute is an ingredient in 9 perfume formulas in the Formula & Accord Library.

RUŌOD House Originals

Original compositions by RUŌOD House.

• Beeswax Throne

  RUŌOD House Creation · listed as “Tobacco Absolute 10% DPG”, at 10% in DPG

• Black Saddle

  RUŌOD House Original · listed as “Tobacco Absolute 10% DPG”, at 10% in DPG

• Cured Leaf

  RUŌOD House Original · listed as “Tobacco Absolute 10% DPG”, at 10% in DPG

• Dark Rum Cabinet

  RUŌOD House Original · listed as “Tobacco Absolute 10% DPG”, at 10% in DPG

• Ember Tea House

  RUŌOD House Original · listed as “Tobacco Absolute 10% DPG”, at 10% in DPG

• Ivy Wall

  RUŌOD House Original · listed as “Tobacco Absolute 10% DPG”, at 10% in DPG

• Mahogany Library

  RUŌOD House Original · listed as “Tobacco Absolute 10% DPG”, at 10% in DPG

• Night Fougère

  RUŌOD House Original · listed as “Tobacco Absolute 10% DPG”, at 10% in DPG

• Pipe Smoke Orchard

  RUŌOD House Creation · listed as “Tobacco Absolute 10% DPG”, at 10% in DPG

Further reading

• Building a Leather Accord

  Leather styles — smoky, green-bitter, suede, animalic — their building blocks including treated tar oils and isobutyl quinoline, and how to build one.

Questions about Tobacco Absolute

Sources

• PubChem — substance 135345085, checked 19 October 2026.
• The Good Scents Company — tobacco absolute (with Arctander) — odour database.
• Premiere Peau — Tobacco absolute — published perfumery reference.
• Scentspiracy — Tobacco absolute — distributor's description.
• Olfactory profile: the RUŌOD Lab team's synthesis of the published descriptions above, reviewed 26 October 2026. Evidence: more than one published description. Classification and the short description: revision 1. Descriptions of odour are judgement, not measurement.