Storax bark

Commonly called Styrax by perfumers, Storax bark is in fact of the Liquidambar genus, not the Styrax genus which provides us with Benzoin, another common perfumery ingredient. Storax is obtained from the sapwood/gum derived by pounding the bark of trees called Liquidambar Styraciflua (Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico) and Liquidambar Orientalis (Asia Minor). Styrax resin was imported in quantity from the Near East by Phoenician merchants, and Herodotus of Halicarnassus in the 5th century BC indicates that different kinds of “storax” were traded. It smells balsamic-leathery with floral facets of honey and lilac.