Carbon

Note Profile

Mineral

About

A constructed smoky-mineral accord named after the element. It evokes charcoal, coal and hot metal. Elemental carbon has no smell of its own.

Scent Profile

Mineral and smoky are held almost level on purpose, because the two independent sources lead with different ones. Fueguia describes its own carbon note as 'smoky yet fresh; fire; charcoal; outer space; mineral; resin; salty; burning metal'. C&A Perfume, writing about the neighbouring coal ingredient, gives 'a deep, earthy aroma with pronounced smoky and mineral facets'. Earthy is the word both sources use, in 'ancient terrains' and in the charcoal itself. Below the naming line, dry_woody is the wood the charcoal was, amber_resinous is Fueguia's 'resin', sulphurous is the burnt-metal edge, and powdery is the dust a black solid leaves. Nothing here is scored above what a source states, because there is very little to state.

ScentWheel

Breadthbroad

EnvelopeBase · ~20h lasting

Family Elemental, Woody & Earthy

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

Origin

Not a material. Graphite and diamond are solid covalent networks, effectively non-volatile, so they are odourless. Houses build a carbon accord from smoky and mineral molecules instead. C&A Perfume states that the related coal effect is made with materials such as safranal and isophorone, because coal itself cannot be distilled.

Usage in Perfumery

Rare and close to bespoke. Parfumo records the note in only 4 perfumes, first in 2000 and last in 2022, under its 'Not classified' category. Fueguia 1833 uses it in Equation as a tonic note named 'Carbon Purificado', purified charcoal.