Petroleum

Note Profile

Mineral 1 perfume

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About

Petroleum is a concept note, not an extract. Perfumery builds an accord to stand for crude oil and its lighter fractions. It smells sweet and industrial at once: a solvent-like sweetness over an oily, tarry body.

Scent Profile

Petroleum smells sweet and sharp, like a solvent, over an oily body. A tar-like, acrid edge sits underneath. At its sour end a sulphur note appears, where the same oil turns rotten.

ScentWheel

Breadthbroad

EnvelopeHeart · ~4h lasting

Family Elemental

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

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ScentArt

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Origin

The referent is crude oil and its lighter fractions, a mixture of alkanes, cycloalkanes and aromatic hydrocarbons. No fine-fragrance house uses crude oil, so the note is built from other materials. Sulphur content changes the smell most. Low-sulphur (sweet) crude smells mildly sweet. High-sulphur (sour) crude carries hydrogen sulphide and smells of rotten eggs.

Usage in Perfumery

Petroleum appears in conceptual and anti-perfume compositions, next to gasoline, rubber and asphalt notes. Fragrantica shows 7 perfumes with the note on 2026-10-10, and Parfumo none. It works as a signature effect for a whole composition, not as a material dosed against others.