Skatole

Note Profile

Molecule

About

Skatole is 3-methylindole, an animalic modifier used at micro-dosages. Its smell changes with dose and the change is abrupt, not gradual. At any ordinary strength it is fecal and barnyard. Only at extreme dilution does it turn sweet and floral.

Scent Profile

Animalic is the note. Both sources lead with it and use the same words: 'animal, fecal, naphthyl, civet' in one, 'unmistakably fecal, barnyard, mothball-adjacent' in the other. That is the odour at every concentration a nose actually meets, and it is the reason the material exists. White_floral is the second state, not a second layer. At extreme dilution the same molecule reads sweet, warm and creamy, close to narcissus, and it is found in orange blossom and jasmine for that reason. It is scored well below animalic because perfumery works at the animalic end and the sources describe the switch as abrupt with nothing in between. Floral is the softer, non-white-floral edge of that same dilute state. Below those, a faint sweet_vanillic warmth, a trace of lactonic creaminess from the narcissus comparison, and a small smoky reading for the naphthyl and mothball descriptors both sources give at strength.

ScentWheel

Breadthmedium

EnvelopeBase · ~30h lasting

Family Amber · Musk · Leather

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

Origin

Made synthetically for perfumery. It occurs naturally in the faeces of mammals and birds, where it is the main contributor to the odour, and also in jasmine absolute at 2-3%, in civet paste, in coal tar and in orange blossom. It is not isolated from any of those for perfumery use.

Usage in Perfumery

Used at 0.001-0.01% of a formula, alongside indole, to give white floral accords the living, slightly dirty quality of a natural absolute. Jasmine, tuberose and orange blossom reconstructions carry it. It is also a component of animalic bases and civet reconstructions.