Description and usage notes: A powerful, fresh and diffusive base which emerged out of Roman Kaiser's early analytical 'Headspace' work at Givaudan in the early 1980s. His team were tasked with reconstructing the characteristic herbaceous scent that develops in a traditional Scandinavian sauna as people beat their bodies with birch twigs. The result was developed into the base Birch Leaf Givco 166 which went on to become widely used in many successful fragrances, most notably Calvin Klein's Escape for Men. Described as green, herbaceous, vegetal and fresh. At Pell Wall we find that alongside its airy astringent verdancy it also has shades of tea and spice - particularly cardamom, coriander seed and betel leaf. Due to its deceptive strength we have found it easier to evaluate and blend with once diluted down to 1%. Although Birch Leaf Givco beautifully harmonises with all types of notes and accords, we find it particularly successful in woody compositions where it provides huge lift, diffusion and novel freshness, quite different from the cut-grass green note of cis-3-hexenol. It also works well as a part of spice, resinous and unsurprisingly, green accords.