Tonkalactone®

Note Profile

Molecule

About

Tonkalactone is a Symrise captive, not a synonym for tonka bean. Perfumers who work with it describe it in three words: milky, creamy and almond-round. It is the creamy side of tonka held on its own, without the dry coumarinic hay of the raw bean. No manufacturer data sheet or CAS number is public, so the vector is built from two trade write-ups of two finished fragrances and is deliberately spread wide.

Scent Profile

Lactonic leads. Both sources put a dairy word first: 'milky, creamy texture' and 'unctuous'. Nutty follows the one directly odour-bearing phrase found anywhere for the material alone, Symrise's 'the almond-like roundness of Tonkalactone' - a round almond, not a bitter kernel snap. Sweet_vanillic is the tonka reference the makers themselves reach for, 'the creamy side of tonka', and the vanilla and cinnamon it is always blended with. A light aromatic_herbal lift records the Rabanne claim that it 'fuses the herbaceous facet of lavender' with the cream, but one source says that and the material there is a lavender co-distillate, so the facet stays low and its spread stays wide. Powdery and tobacco_hay sit at the bottom because tonka's own dry hay is the part every source says this material is not.

ScentWheel

Breadthbroad

EnvelopeBase · ~14h lasting

Family Sweet & Gourmand

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

Origin

Proprietary captive from Symrise, sold through its de Laire base range. The name implies a lactone but no source states the chemical class or gives a CAS number. It is a synthetic material, not an extract of tonka bean.

Usage in Perfumery

Rare. Parfumo records two placements across two brands and Fragrantica records none. It appears in Symrise's own Tabac Bourbon DL base next to Bourbon vanilla absolute and cinnamon, and in Rabanne Million Gold For Her, where it is co-distilled with lavender oil. Both times it is used to round and smooth a gourmand accord rather than to lead it.