Papyrus

Papyrus as a perfumery note is reconstructed rather than extracted: Cyperus papyrus, the ancient Egyptian reed, yields very little essential oil, so perfumers build the accord from cypriol (Cyperus scariosus, the closely related sedge), vetiver fragments, and dry woody synthetics. The result smells like sun-baked reed, warm earth, and faint smoke. It became a niche-perfumery favourite in the early 2010s as part of the "dry-woody" wave that prized texture over sweetness. Amouage Purpose and Initio Lift Me Up both build around papyrus.