Lesser Calamint
Note Profile
About
A wild mint-family herb that is not a clean mint. Sweetly minty on top, oregano-like and dry underneath, with a green leaf body between them.
Scent Profile
Lesser calamint smells like a cross between mint and oregano, not a clean mint on its own. A sweetly minty top sits over a dry, herbal oregano-like base, with a green leaf body running between the two. The herb side reads as the undercurrent rather than the top note.
ScentWheel
Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.
ScentArt
Materials That Can Make This Note
Perfumers can build Lesser Calamint from materials such as:
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Pulegone minty
Smell words come from published sources.
A given perfume with this note may use some of these, or something else.
Origin
Clinopodium nepeta, also catalogued as Calamintha nepeta, a low grey-green perennial of southern Europe. In Italian cooking it is nepitella. The essential oil is steam-distilled from the leaves and flowering tops. Only one aromatherapy supplier was found selling it, and no fragrance house publishes a data sheet for the species.
Usage in Perfumery
Documented use is thin. Fragrantica files it under greens, herbs and fougeres, which fits: it is a top-to-heart herbal accent for fougere and aromatic structures, where the oregano side gives it more grip than a straight mint would have. Two perfumes on Fragrantica and one on Parfumo list it.
Similar Notes
Perfumes featuring Lesser Calamint
A selection of reviewed perfumes where Lesser Calamint appears prominently.
No perfumes featuring this note have been reviewed yet. Check back soon.