Ingredient Guide
Pimento berry is also known as allspice (hyakumi koshō, or “hundred-flavor pepper”), Jamaican pepper, or clove pepper, and is native to the Caribbean and Central and South America. The name Pimento derives from the French piment, meaning chili pepper.
True to the name allspice, it smells like cinnamon, clove, ginger, nutmeg, black pepper, and other spices: a scent like various peppers mixed together.
What Does It Smell Like in Perfume?
Pimento berry oil is a natural essential oil distilled from the fruit of Pimenta dioica. It has a warm, full-bodied spicy scent that recalls cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and pepper all at once. Some oils are rich in eugenol as a major component, giving perfume a powerful pungency and sweetness. It differs in both plant species and part used from the leaf oil of Pimenta racemosa used in bay rum.
Choosing a fragrance with pimento berry
Pimento berry is a sweet, warm spice reminiscent of clove and cinnamon. Its character changes between floral and woody surroundings.
- Spice with flowers: Jasmine or orange blossom creates a contrast between floral sweetness and spice.
- Warmth with woods: Cedar or oakmoss may appeal if you prefer quieter woody fragrances.
- Consider the surrounding notes: Bright fruit or deep resins also shape the fragrance beyond pimento berry itself.
Two fragrances featuring pimento berry
Belle de Jour Eau de Parfum (Eris Parfums)
Pimento berry meets jasmine, orange blossom and labdanum, with seaweed, cedar and musk. Radiant flowers and spice intersect with the distinctive character of seaweed.
The Abandoned Mansion (Imaginary Authors)
Pimento berry is paired with cedar, quince, petitgrain, oakmoss absolute and ambreine. Fruit, leaves, woods and moss surround the spice, while a note named “paperbacks” adds the idea of paper.
Find your next fragrance
In Fragrance Finder, choose “Favorite fragrances & notes” on the home screen, then look for notes you enjoy under “Favorite notes”. Select from the available suggestions and press “Next”.
