Amberketal

Note Profile

Molecule

About

Amberketal is an IFF captive amber molecule, CAS 57345-19-4, made from manool. It smells dry, powdery and ambery over a bleached wood. What sets it apart from the smoother amber molecules is a sharp trigeminal prickle, a physical sting at the back of the nose that arrives before the warmth does. It is one of the most tenacious amber materials in use, holding above 384 hours on a smelling strip.

Scent Profile

Amber_resinous leads and is the one facet both independent sources name. Premiere Peau calls it a 'dry woody-amber attack' and 'dry, powdery amber'. TGSC lists 'amber' first among five descriptor terms for CAS 57345-19-4. Dry_woody is the wood underneath, and the source is specific about which wood: 'sun-heated driftwood rather than freshly cut timber', so it is bleached and dry, not sappy. TGSC lists both 'dry' and 'woody'. Powdery is stated twice in the same sentence as the amber and is confirmed by TGSC's 'powdery'. Clean_musk comes from TGSC's 'musk' and from the 'musky-animalic undertone' Premiere Peau places under the wood. Below the line, animalic takes the second half of that same undertone and is held low because only one source names it and calls it an undertone. Mineral carries the 'slightly metallic edge', capped there because the same source says it is 'less mineral than Cetalox' and cetalox already holds mineral. Sweet_vanillic is near zero because the material is repeatedly called dry, never sweet. The trigeminal prickle, which is the thing the source works hardest to describe, has no facet in this vocabulary. It is a somatosensory effect, not an odour quality, and no value here represents it.

ScentWheel

Breadthmedium

EnvelopeBase · ~48h lasting

Family Amber · Musk · Leather, Woody & Earthy, Floral

Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.

Origin

A synthetic captive of International Flavors & Fragrances, built from manool. ScenTree records manool as a natural component of the New Zealand pink pine, Halocarpus biformis, so the feedstock is plant-derived and the molecule is not. IFF's own compendium page could not be read: iff.com returned HTTP 403. The maker's phrase 'extremely powerful amber and woody' reaches this record through Wikipedia, one step from the primary page.

Usage in Perfumery

A base note used as a fixative and a volume builder. It lends dry amber depth to amber, woody and chypre structures. It is attested in 1 Fragrantica listing and 2 Parfumo listings across 1 brand, so it is a working perfumer's material rather than a term consumers meet often.