Catnip

Note Profile

Botanical 2 perfumes

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About

Steam-distilled oil of the catnip herb. Mint-family and herbaceous first, with a rough musky-skunky warmth that the true mints do not have.

Scent Profile

Catnip smells herbal and minty first, close to the mint family but rougher. A cool, menthol-like freshness runs through the herb without the clean sweetness of true mint. Underneath sits a rough, musky animal warmth, almost skunky, that mint itself never has. A faint earthy depth and warmth show up in the drydown.

ScentWheel

Breadthmedium

EnvelopeHeart · ~4h lasting

Family Green & Aromatic, Fresh & Citrus

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Materials That Can Make This Note

Perfumers can make Catnip from this natural extract.

Natural extract Catnip oil herbaceous · sweet

Smell words come from published sources.

A given perfume with this note may use this material, or something else.

Origin

Nepeta cataria, a mint-family herb. Premiere Peau gives the method as 'steam distillation of dried flowering herb'. It names the constituents as 'nepetalactone (iridoid), citronellol, geraniol, and menthol-type compounds', and nepetalactone as 'the molecule responsible for feline attraction'.

Usage in Perfumery

A niche natural. Premiere Peau: 'in perfumery, catnip is a niche natural providing herbal-minty character with unusual musky depth. It functions in green-aromatic and herbal compositions where conventional mint would be too clean or predictable', working 'with lavender, green notes, earthy bases'. Bulk Apothecary says that at full strength the oil has an unpleasant maple smell, and in tiny trace amounts an aromatic, sort of woody-minty smell that goes very well with lavender and chamomile. Attested 12 times on Fragrantica and once on Parfumo.