Chlorophyll

Note Profile

Botanical

About

Chlorophyll in perfumery does not name the plant pigment, which has no smell. It names the burst of green leaf volatiles released when plant tissue is cut or crushed. It smells raw, juicy and sharply green, like snapped stems and torn leaves, with a faint metallic edge. It is greener and rawer than galbanum or violet leaf and it fades fast.

Scent Profile

Green is the note and the source says so four separate ways: 'raw, juicy green -- the smell of crushed stems and torn leaves before any single plant character emerges', 'sharp, raw green burst', 'the smell of photosynthesis itself', 'a lawn mower, a snapped stem, a handful of grass'. It is scored at the top of the range because the same source places it as the rawest point on the green scale, 'greener and rawer than galbanum or violet leaf'. Mineral is the second identity: 'faintly metallic, almost bloody quality (from the iron in chlorophyll's breakdown products)'. It is held below violet-leaf's 0.55 because that note's metallic character is stated more strongly and by more sources. Aldehydic comes from the publisher's green-notes page, which calls this chemistry 'sharp and aldehydic' and names cis-3-hexenol. Below sit earthy, which is the only extra facet the second source offers, aromatic_herbal from 'sharper than basil', and sweet_vanillic for the 'faint grassy sweetness' the source says it fades to.

ScentWheel

Breadthmedium

EnvelopeTop · ~1h lasting

Family Green & Aromatic, Elemental

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

Origin

The word is borrowed from the pigment, but the material behind the note is green leaf volatile chemistry: cis-3-hexenol, cis-3-hexenal and related C6 aldehydes and alcohols. These are produced when a plant's own enzymes act on damaged tissue, which is why the smell arrives with the cut and not before it. Perfumers build a chlorophyll accord from those synthetics rather than from any extract of a single plant, so the note has no botanical origin in the usual sense. The faint metallic edge is attributed by Premiere Peau to iron in chlorophyll's breakdown products.

Usage in Perfumery

Chlorophyll is a top-note green used to open a composition with raw plant matter before any single plant is named. It sharpens florals, gives fruit an unripe stem, and sets up green chypres and fresh fougeres. Its tenacity is minimal, so it is used for the first impression and supported underneath by longer green materials such as galbanum or violet leaf.