What it smells like
Lavender, rosemary, sage, thyme, basil. This is drier and more resinous than Green: a Mediterranean hillside in the heat rather than a garden after rain. It is the backbone of most masculine perfumery of the last century.
Where it stops
Aromatic is where Green goes when it dries out. Lavender is aromatic; lavender leaf crushed in the hand is green.
Smells most like
herbal - and in the same register, manuka, blue tansy.
Notes that load on it
Notes from our catalogue whose position on this facet is 0.40 or higher, strongest first. A note is not filed under one facet: it carries a value on all 34 at once, and these are the ones where this axis is doing real work.
-
Manuka
Heart · ~8h
Botanical
3
-
Blue Tansy
Cooling
Heart · ~4h
Botanical
2
-
Pataqueira
Green
Cooling
Heart · ~4h
Botanical
19
-
Santolina
Cooling
Heart · ~5h
Botanical
3
-
Sweet Cicely
Vanilla
Heart · ~4.5h
Botanical
1
-
St. John's Wort
Tobacco & Hay
Heart · ~4.5h
Botanical
3
-
Catnip
Cooling
Heart · ~4h
Botanical
1
-
Ledum
Fresh Spice
Heart · ~5h
Botanical
-
Lovage
Earthy
Heart · ~4.5h
Botanical
1
-
Ajowan
Phenolic
Warm Spice
Heart · ~5h
Botanical
-
Génépi
Green
Heart · ~5h
Prepared
-
Italian Lavender
Heart · ~5h
Botanical
-
Lavender
Floral
Heart · ~4h
Botanical
5,109
-
Artemisia
Green
Cooling
Heart · ~8h
Botanical
714
-
Thyme
Phenolic
Green
Heart · ~6h
Botanical
597
-
Gin
Citrus
Top · ~1h
Prepared
87
-
Oregano
Phenolic
Warm Spice
Heart · ~6h
Botanical
71
-
Damiana
Fruity
Heart · ~5h
Botanical
2
-
Kanuka
Green
Cooling
Heart · ~4h
Botanical
-
Satureja
Fresh Spice
Top · ~3h
Botanical
Materials that carry it
Real substances, each keyed by its CAS registry number, that an external perfumery vocabulary publishes with a term meaning this facet outright. This is the layer that makes a facet checkable against something outside our own database.
| Material | CAS | Terms | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2,10-epoxypinane | CAS 6931-54-0 | herbal, rosemary, sage | |
| butyl 2-methylvalerate | CAS 6297-41-2 | aromatic, chamomile, herbal | |
| 2-butyl-4,4,6-trimethyl-1,3-dioxane | CAS 54546-26-8 | basil, chamomile, herbal | |
| 4,7-dimethylocta-1,6-dien-3-yl 3-methylbutanoate | CAS 1118-27-0 | herbal, lavender, sage | |
| 1-(4,7,7-trimethyl-3-bicyclo[4.1.0]hept-4-enyl)ethanone | CAS 3608-11-5 | herbal, lavender, thyme | |
| thymol | CAS 89-83-8 | herbal, thyme | |
| limonene | CAS 138-86-3 | aromatic, herbal | Declarable IFRA |
| safranal | CAS 116-26-7 | herbal, rosemary | IFRA |
| carvacrol | CAS 499-75-2 | herbal, thyme | |
| labienoxime | CAS 81783-01-9 | herbal, sage | |
| nopyl acetate | CAS 128-51-8 | herbal, lavender | |
| propiophenone | CAS 93-55-0 | aromatic, herbal | |
| ethyl linalool | CAS 10339-55-6 | herbal, lavender | |
| alpha-farnesene | CAS 502-61-4 | herbal, lavender | |
| alpha-terpinene | CAS 99-86-5 | herbal, thyme | Declarable |
| heptyl benzoate | CAS 7155-12-6 | herbal, sage | |
| linalyl formate | CAS 115-99-1 | herbal, lavender | |
| myrcenyl acetate | CAS 1118-39-4 | herbal, lavender | |
| terpinyl acetate | CAS 80-26-2 | herbal, lavender | |
| terpinyl formate | CAS 2153-26-6 | herbal, lavender | |
| benzyl heptanoate | CAS 5454-21-7 | herbal, sage | |
| campholene acetate | CAS 36789-59-0 | herbal, lavender | |
| isononyl propionate | CAS 65155-45-5 | herbal, lavender | |
| citronellyl isovalerate | CAS 68922-10-1 | chamomile, herbal | |
| tricyclodecenyl propionate | CAS 17511-60-3 | basil, herbal | |
| 3-octanone | CAS 106-68-3 | herbal, lavender | |
| (-)-isopulegol | CAS 50373-36-9 | herbal, lavender | |
| 1-methoxyhexane | CAS 4747-07-3 | herbal, lavender | |
| (-)-menthofuran | CAS 80183-38-6 | herbal, thyme | |
| (+)-alpha-pinene | CAS 7785-70-8 | aromatic, herbal | Declarable |
Showing 30 of 595. The full set ships with the published standard rather than being paginated here.
Reading the two flags
Declarable means the substance appears in Annex III of the EU Cosmetics Regulation, so it has to be named on the ingredient list once it passes a concentration threshold. IFRA means an IFRA Standard restricts or prohibits its use. Both are facts about the substance, not about any fragrance: a perfume can contain a declarable material below the threshold and never print it, and a restricted material used within its limit is used correctly.
The source also supplies no common name for a large share of materials, so those display as a bare registry number and are ranked last. They are kept because they are real evidence: dropping them would make the vocabulary look better described than it is.
Anchor terms
A facet on its own is just a word we chose. An anchor is what makes it checkable: a term in an external, independently maintained vocabulary of odour descriptions, built for perfumery materials rather than for us. The material list above is drawn from the direct terms only, because a partial term corroborates too weakly to stand as evidence on its own.
Direct
Terms that mean this facet outright
- aromatic
- basil
- chamomile
- herbaceous
- herbal
- herbal, green,cutgrass
- lavender
- rosemary
- sage
- thyme
Partial
Terms that lean this way but also load elsewhere
- anise
- anise, licorice
- anisic
- fir needle
- licorice
- pine
- tea
- terpenic
The rest of Green & Aromatic
The other facets in this family. A note can load on any of them at the same time as this one, so they are neighbours rather than alternatives.