Hivernal®

Note Profile

Molecule

About

Hivernal is a Firmenich muguet aldehyde, found in 1994 by Beat Winter. It smells of lily of the valley crossed with freshly laundered linen. Hivernal Neo, launched in 2007, is the same molecule made by a shorter route.

Scent Profile

A muguet white floral and a clean laundered-linen musk lead together and neither is clearly on top. That pairing is the point of the material. An aldehydic brightness carries them, which is how both sources classify it: Scentspiracy files it as aldehydic-muguet. Under that sit a watery aquatic ozonic lift and a cold mineral edge, the two facets named for its crisp winter-air character. A general floral roundness and a light green nuance finish it. Nothing fatty is scored, because Perfumer & Flavorist states directly that the fatty side of Lilial is exactly what Hivernal replaces.

ScentWheel

Breadthmedium

EnvelopeBase · ~14h lasting

Family Floral, Amber · Musk · Leather, Fresh & Citrus

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

Origin

A synthetic, and Firmenich holds the trademark. It shares Lilial's dihydrocinnamic aldehyde scaffold, which is why it reads as muguet, but Perfumer & Flavorist says it is well differentiated from Lilial: it replaces Lilial's fatty side with a fresh, clean note. In 2007 Firmenich introduced Hivernal Neo, made by assembling the two main sub-fragments in a single catalytic step. Neo changed the synthesis route and the quality, not the molecule. No CAS is claimed here because the sources disagree on one - see confidence_note.

Usage in Perfumery

A heart-to-base modifier. Scentspiracy calls it extremely powerful and diffusive and says it needs dilution before use. Harry Fremont of Firmenich calls it the freshest and the longest lasting ingredient, and monolithic and linear with unequalled modifying power. So it is used to hold a clean muguet freshness under a composition rather than to give the composition a floral shape. It suits laundry, fabric and clean-white accords.