In This Article
What is cade wood?
Cade is a raw material that is, for many, completely unknown. It is a fruit made from juniper. Three species growing in the scrubland are used mainly to give birth to this fruit: the Phenician juniper, scarce and whose fruits are red, the common juniper, preferring siliceous soils, altitude and cold and producing a small blue fruit, and the oxyhedron juniper, whose fruits are much larger and whose leaves have two white stripes. Very early on, cade oil was used for its healing properties. Moreover, it is still very popular today as an antiseptic and disinfectant. Likewise, it constitutes a local treatment for psoriasis or seborrheic dermatitis. It is a dark liquid, very rich in aromatic molecules.It is now listed in the Codex, a collection containing many officinal formulas. Cade is an ingredient that is widely used in many areas. It is used as much as a phytosanitary product as for veterinary medicine or for the pharmaceutical sector. Likewise, it is sometimes used in perfumery.
The scented use of cade
If cade is an ingredient visually close to tar that has interested perfumers, it is quite simply because it has a very powerful smoky smell. Thus, the cade allows, for example, to sublimate a leather accord. Its potency is extreme and it is often prediluted before being used. Moreover, it is in this form that it really takes all its dimension, displaying a soft roughness, both warm and reassuring, somewhat similar to the scent of a campfire. Thus, the cade brings a feeling of comfort allied to a feeling of authenticity.
Soaking up the smell of cade is a bit like going back to the origins of humanity. Imagine: the association of fire and leather The cade would almost plunge us into the heart of Prehistory, becoming a timeless material, somewhat animal and capable of making our imagination travel with a simple breath.
