What it smells like
Rose, violet, geranium, peony, hyacinth, lily. This is the broad centre of the floral space. It is recognisably a flower, without the animal weight of the white flowers or the dry cosmetic blur of iris.
Where it stops
Floral stops where indole starts. Jasmine and tuberose carry a molecule that is faecal at strength and floral in trace. That changes the register entirely, so they are held separately as White Floral.
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.
-
Bulgarian Rose Absolute
Honey
Heart · ~8h
Botanical
9
-
Kewra
Honey
Heart · ~6h
Botanical
2
-
Bulgarian Rose Otto
Honey
Heart · ~8h
Botanical
1
-
Persian Rose
Honey
Heart · ~8h
Botanical
1
-
Grasse Rose Absolute
Honey
Heart · ~8h
Botanical
321
-
Rose
Honey
Heart · ~8h
Botanical
13,616
-
Lily
White Floral
Heart · ~5h
Botanical
1,272
-
Taif Rose
Honey
Warm Spice
Heart · ~8h
Botanical
153
-
Loukhoum
Powdery
Vanilla
Nutty
Base · ~20h
Prepared
21
-
Phenylethyl Alcohol
Honey
Heart · ~6h
Molecule
1
-
Garden Rose
Green
Heart · ~5h
Botanical
-
Blossoms
Heart · ~6h
Botanical
2
-
Gallic Rose
Warm Spice
Heart · ~8h
Botanical
2
-
Rosa Alba
Green
Heart · ~5h
Botanical
2
-
Nemophila
Heart · ~5h
Abstract
1
-
Rosyfolia
Fruity
Heart · ~5h
Molecule
1
-
Indian Rose
Honey
Heart · ~8h
Botanical
-
Apple Blossom
Heart · ~4h
Botanical
170
-
Tea Flower
Powdery
Nutty
Heart · ~5h
Botanical
3
-
Sugared Petals
Vanilla
Powdery
Heart · ~5h
Prepared
2
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4-methoxybenzyl alcohol | CAS 105-13-5 | floral, hawthorn, hyacinth, lilac, rose | Declarable IFRA |
| hydroxycitronellol | CAS 107-74-4 | floral, lily, peony, rose | |
| phenethyl salicylate | CAS 87-22-9 | carnation, floral, hyacinth, rose | |
| 9-decenyl acetate | CAS 50816-18-7 | floral, magnolia, peony, rose | |
| 2-cyclohexylethanol | CAS 4442-79-9 | floral, lily, peony, rose | |
| (2R)-2-phenylpropan-1-ol | CAS 19141-40-3 | floral, hawthorn, hyacinth, peony | |
| 2-methylphenethyl alcohol | CAS 19819-98-8 | floral, mimosa, peony, rose | |
| 2-methyl-4-phenyl-2-butanol | CAS 103-05-9 | floral, lily, rose, violet | |
| 3-methyl-5-phenylpentan-1-ol | CAS 55066-48-3 | floral, geranium, lily, rose | |
| rosyrane | CAS 60335-71-9 | floral, geranium, rose | |
| citronellol | CAS 106-22-9 | floral, geranium, rose | Declarable IFRA |
| acetophenone | CAS 98-86-2 | floral, hawthorn, mimosa | |
| neryl formate | CAS 2142-94-1 | floral, geranium, rose | |
| propiophenone | CAS 93-55-0 | floral, hawthorn, lilac | |
| farnesyl acetate | CAS 29548-30-9 | floral, orchid, rose | |
| myraldyl acetate | CAS 72403-67-9 | floral, lily, magnolia | IFRA |
| rhodinyl formate | CAS 141-09-3 | floral, geranium, rose | |
| geranyl hexanoate | CAS 10032-02-7 | floral, geranium, rose | |
| geranyl nonanoate | CAS 68039-29-2 | floral, geranium, rose | |
| geranyl propionate | CAS 105-90-8 | floral, geranium, rose | |
| linalyl propionate | CAS 144-39-8 | floral, lily, rose | |
| phenylacetaldehyde | CAS 122-78-1 | floral, hyacinth, rose | IFRA |
| citronellyl tiglate | CAS 24717-85-9 | floral, geranium, rose | |
| rhodinyl propionate | CAS 105-89-5 | floral, geranium, rose | |
| geranyl anthranilate | CAS 67859-99-8 | floral, geranium, rose | |
| l-menthyl propionate | CAS 4951-48-8 | floral, peony, rose | |
| p-tolyl phenylacetate | CAS 101-94-0 | hyacinth, lily, rose | |
| citronellyl ethyl oxalate | CAS 60788-25-2 | floral, lily, rose | |
| (-)-isopulegol | CAS 50373-36-9 | floral, geranium, rose | |
| 2-methyloctanal | CAS 7786-29-0 | floral, lily, rose |
Showing 30 of 1,062. 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
- carnation
- floral
- geranium
- hawthorn
- hyacinth
- lilac
- lily
- magnolia
- mimosa
- orchid
- peony
- rose
- violet
Partial
Terms that lean this way but also load elsewhere
- narcissus
The rest of Floral
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.