Reference point
A piece of red lac bought from a traditional medicine shop, gently warmed.
Do this before you read on. An entry only works when you have just smelled the thing.
Sweet, warm, with a honeyed note and a touch of leather. When warmed the sweetness comes through clearly; at room temperature it gives off almost nothing.
This is a resin secreted by an insect on the branches of a tree, not the tree’s own resin. In origin it is an animal material, not a plant one.
Very heavy and very lasting. Lac has long been part of lacquer work and incense making.
How to smell it
Take a small piece, put it on a scrap of metal and warm it high above a candle flame so it heats without burning. Smell the vapour rising. If it burns, the sweetness is lost and only the scorch remains.
Why this one is hard
Because at room temperature it has almost no smell, so first-time testers usually conclude it is odourless. Heat is a precondition.
Don’t confuse with
This entry
Lac resin
Woody & Resinous family
Lac gives off its smell only when warmed, directly sweet with a honeyed note; agarwood is more reserved, with a smoky honey note, and clings for a very long time. Lac is directly sweet; agarwood is closed.
Scientific note
Red lac is a resin secreted by lac insects (genus Kerria) on tree branches, not the tree’s own resin. Its main components are resin acids such as aleuritic, shellolic and jalaric acid — large molecules that do not evaporate at room temperature, which is why lac is almost odourless when left alone.
The warm sweetness that appears on heating most likely comes from thermal breakdown products, but we have not found a volatile analysis that names the compounds. Do not confuse it with white benzoin — the resin of the Styrax tree — which is rich in vanillin and benzoic acid: two different materials that share a common name.
In Vietnamese life
Lac was once an important export of the northwest, used for varnish, dye and as the binder in lacquer work. Its role as an aromatic in Vietnam has always been secondary to its role as a material.