Ether

Note Profile

Molecule

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About

Ether is the note name for diethyl ether, the volatile solvent and old anaesthetic. Reference sources give it the same short phrase: dry, rum-like and sweetish, with a pungent edge. Parfumo lists 9 perfumes carrying it since 2011, nearly all in the top note.

Scent Profile

Ether smells dry and rum-like, with a sweetish, pungent edge rather than any real spirit warmth. That boozy note stays dry, without the sugar or barrel weight of rum or brandy. A faint sweet vanillic touch runs alongside the pungency. At a distance it reads almost fruity, an ethereal, volatile lift like ester rather than ripe fruit. A sharp, sour, faintly mineral bite sits under the whole thing.

ScentWheel

Breadthmedium

EnvelopeTop · ~0.5h lasting

Family Sweet & Gourmand

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 Ether.

Diethyl ether ethereal

Smell words come from published sources.

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

Origin

A synthetic solvent, not a botanical. Diethyl ether boils at about 35 C, which is why it reads as a flash rather than a note with a body. Wikipedia gives the odour as "Dry, rum-like, sweetish odor". PubChem's odour section, citing the Merck Index and Ashford's Dictionary of Industrial Chemicals, gives "Sweetish, pungent odor" and "Ethereal odor". Two related terms, rum-ether and isoamyl-vinyl-ether, are held as rejections and are not this note.

Usage in Perfumery

Thin. Parfumo names 9 perfumes, first in 2011 and last in 2026, and says the note "often occurs in the top note of a perfume". The releases carrying it are niche and tech-themed. No house publishes what its Ether accord is built from, so some of those 9 may be using the word as a concept rather than as a smell.