Note Profile
Neem comes from the leaves and seeds of Azadirachta indica, a tree native to the Indian subcontinent. The leaves are steam distilled and the seeds are cold pressed. It smells pungent, sulphurous and bitter, like garlic crossed with burnt peanuts. At the trace amounts perfumers use, a warm, faintly animalic fatty note shows, with a little earth. It is used as an accent.
Neem is pungent, sulphurous and bitter: garlic crossed with burnt peanuts, over a sharp, almost toxic green bitterness. Under the sulphur sits a fatty, oily body that outlasts it. At the trace dilutions perfumery actually uses, that fat reads warm and faintly animalic rather than medicinal, and it dries down to a faint fatty residue with a little earth behind it.
Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.
CAS 8002-65-1
CORRECTED 2026-10-09. Neem in perfumery is the pressed seed oil of Azadirachta indica. It has a strong garlic and sulphur smell, and a perfumery glossary says it is used in trace amounts. A 1988 headspace study of crushed seeds finds dipropyl disulfide as the main volatile. Previously: Neem seed oil is a fixed oil used for its insecticidal properties, not its odour.
Neem is derived from the leaves and seeds of the Azadirachta indica tree, native to the Indian subcontinent. Extraction is typically performed via steam distillation of the leaves or cold pressing of the seeds to obtain neem oil.
Perfumers use neem in niche and conceptual fragrances to impart a bold herbal character or to evoke medicinal, earthy facets. It is generally used in trace amounts as an accent in heart or base notes, often paired with vetiver, patchouli, or aromatic herbs.
A selection of reviewed perfumes where Neem appears prominently.
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