Tonalide®

Note Profile

Molecule 1 perfume

Drag to turn On Note Island

About

A polycyclic musk that is dusty rather than laundered. Soft and very persistent, with dry wood, a warm ambery weight and an earthy floor under the musk.

Scent Profile

Tonalide smells of soft, persistent musk first, dusty and humid rather than freshly laundered. A powdery dustiness runs alongside it, and a dry, woody body sits underneath with an ambery warmth. A distinct earthy quality marks it out as its own kind of musk. A strong sweetness opens it.

ScentWheel

Breadthmedium

EnvelopeBase · ~30h lasting

Family Amber · Musk · Leather, Floral

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

WorldSee it in Note Island

ScentArt

What is ScentArt?

Materials That Can Make This Note

Perfumers can use this material directly to make Tonalide®.

Tonalide musky · amber · musk

Smell words come from published sources.

A given perfume with this note may use this material, or something else.

Origin

A synthetic. It is an acetyl hexamethyl tetralin, sold as Tonalide and as Fixolide, and it belongs to the same polycyclic musk family as Galaxolide. By the 1980s it was the second most used polycyclic musk after Galaxolide.

Usage in Perfumery

A base fixative used at scale. It gives a composition musky substantivity and a soft dusty weight without the transparency of the cleaner musks, and it turns up wherever a long, warm, powdery drydown is wanted.