Damascone

Note Profile

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About

A rose ketone. Used without an isomer name the term maps onto beta-damascone, CAS 23726-91-2, the commercially dominant form. It smells of stewed plum and blackcurrant over a rose-floral core, and turns dry and tobacco-like within minutes.

Scent Profile

Damascone smells of stewed plum and blackcurrant, dense and overripe, over a rose-floral core. Within minutes it dries down and turns tobacco-like, a dry, warm leaf note replacing the fruit. A faint honeyed undertone runs underneath the whole thing. A light green, woody edge and a wine-like warmth stay in the background, with a jammy sweetness holding the fruit together.

ScentWheel

Breadthmedium

EnvelopeBase · ~18h lasting

Family Fruity, Floral, Amber · Musk · Leather

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

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Materials That Can Make This Note

Perfumers can use this material directly to make Damascone.

Damascone (E)-1-(2,6,6-trimethylcyclohexen-1-yl)but-2-en-1-one plum · honey · tobacco

Smell words come from published sources.

Allergens perfumes with this note can list: Damascone

A given perfume with this note may use this material, or something else, and may or may not contain the allergens above.

Origin

Firmenich chemists found beta-damascone at trace level in Bulgarian rose oil in the 1960s and 1970s. Rose oil holds under 1% of it. A close relative, beta-damascenone, carries most of that oil's smell. In nature the damascones form when carotenoids break down. Perfumery material is made synthetically. The family takes its name from the damask rose, Rosa damascena.

Usage in Perfumery

Damascone is very strong, so most formulas use only a trace. Some perfumes overdose it: Dior's Poison (1985) used damascones at high levels, after Tea Rose and Nahema. It gives dark-fruit body and a rose lift to rose, fruity and tobacco accords. It is a standard part of a modern rose reconstruction.