What it smells like
Eugenol-driven and dense. These spices carry a sweet, faintly medicinal, almost dental warmth. They are powerful enough that a fraction of a percent will colour an entire composition.
Where it stops
Warm Spice touches Amber through resinous sweetness and Leather through eugenol. That is why clove turns up in so many leather fragrances.
Notes that load on it
Notes from our catalogue whose position on this facet is 0.40 or higher, strongest first. A note is not filed under one facet: it carries a value on all 34 at once, and these are the ones where this axis is doing real work.
-
West Indian Bay
Dry Wood
Heart · ~8h
Botanical
-
Cassia
Heart · ~8h
Botanical
31
-
Cinnamon
Vanilla
Heart · ~8h
Botanical
2,508
-
Clove
Phenolic
Heart · ~8h
Botanical
1,051
-
Cinnamon Leaf
Dry Wood
Base · ~36h
Botanical
23
-
Carnation
Floral
Fresh Spice
Powdery
Heart · ~8h
Botanical
678
-
Star Anise
Vanilla
Aromatic
Phenolic
Heart · ~8h
Botanical
276
-
Pimento Leaf
Heart · ~6h
Botanical
11
-
Clove Leaf
Phenolic
Heart · ~7h
Botanical
-
Eugenol
Phenolic
Heart · ~8h
Molecule
-
Ishpink, Ocotea Quixos
Floral
Heart · ~7h
Botanical
-
Mulled Wine
Boozy
Citrus
Fruity
Heart · ~6h
Prepared
-
Shamama Attar
Amber
Creamy Wood
Aromatic
Base · ~24h
Prepared
-
Mace
Fresh Spice
Heart · ~5h
Botanical
24
-
Speculoos
Vanilla
Lactonic
Heart · ~8h
Prepared
-
Allspice
Heart · ~8h
Botanical
71
-
Cinnamon Sugar
Vanilla
Heart · ~8h
Prepared
-
Nutmeg
Heart · ~4h
Botanical
1,740
-
Gingerbread
Vanilla
Fresh Spice
Base · ~18h
Prepared
19
-
Cumin
Animalic
Earthy
Heart · ~5h
Botanical
341
Materials that carry it
Real substances, each keyed by its CAS registry number, that an external perfumery vocabulary publishes with a term meaning this facet outright. This is the layer that makes a facet checkable against something outside our own database.
| Material | CAS | Terms | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| eugenol | CAS 97-53-0 | cinnamon, clove, spicy | Declarable IFRA |
| methyl eugenol | CAS 93-15-2 | cinnamon, clove, spicy | IFRA |
| perillaldehyde | CAS 2111-75-3 | cinnamon, clove, spicy | IFRA |
| isoeugenol phenylacetate | CAS 120-24-1 | cinnamon, clove, spicy | |
| myrtenal | CAS 564-94-3 | cinnamon, spicy | |
| beta-pinene | CAS 127-91-3 | nutmeg, spicy | Declarable |
| cinnamaldehyde | CAS 14371-10-9 | cinnamon, spicy | |
| cinnamonitrile | CAS 1885-38-7 | cinnamon, spicy | IFRA |
| cis-isoeugenol | CAS 5912-86-7 | clove, spicy | |
| dihydrocoumarin | CAS 119-84-6 | cinnamon, spicy | IFRA |
| eugenol acetate | CAS 93-28-7 | clove, spicy | Declarable |
| salicylaldehyde | CAS 90-02-8 | cinnamon, spicy | Declarable |
| sodium ferulate | CAS 24276-84-4 | clove, spicy | |
| acetylisoeugenol | CAS 5912-87-8 | clove, spicy | |
| cinnamyl eugenol | CAS 532-08-1 | cinnamon, clove | |
| ethyl isoeugenol | CAS 7784-67-0 | clove, spicy | |
| eugenyl benzoate | CAS 531-26-0 | clove, spicy | |
| furfural acetone | CAS 623-15-4 | cinnamon, spicy | IFRA |
| methylisoeugenol | CAS 6379-72-2 | clove, spicy | |
| methyl isoeugenol | CAS 93-16-3 | clove, spicy | |
| beta-caryophyllene | CAS 87-44-5 | clove, spicy | Declarable |
| cinnamyl cinnamate | CAS 40918-97-6 | cinnamon, spicy | |
| cis-cinnamaldehyde | CAS 57194-69-1 | cinnamon, spicy | |
| eugenyl isovalerate | CAS 61114-24-7 | clove, spicy | |
| cis-methylisoeugenol | CAS 6380-24-1 | clove, spicy | |
| trans-cinnamic alcohol | CAS 104-54-1 | cinnamon, spicy | Declarable IFRA |
| alpha-ethylfurylacrolein | CAS 904295-77-8 | cinnamon, spicy | |
| alpha-methylcinnamaldehyde | CAS 15174-47-7 | cinnamon, spicy | |
| alpha-methyl cinnamaldehyde | CAS 101-39-3 | cinnamon, spicy | IFRA |
| cinnamaldehyde diethylacetal | CAS 7148-78-9 | cinnamon, spicy |
Showing 30 of 364. The full set ships with the published standard rather than being paginated here.
Reading the two flags
Declarable means the substance appears in Annex III of the EU Cosmetics Regulation, so it has to be named on the ingredient list once it passes a concentration threshold. IFRA means an IFRA Standard restricts or prohibits its use. Both are facts about the substance, not about any fragrance: a perfume can contain a declarable material below the threshold and never print it, and a restricted material used within its limit is used correctly.
The source also supplies no common name for a large share of materials, so those display as a bare registry number and are ranked last. They are kept because they are real evidence: dropping them would make the vocabulary look better described than it is.
Anchor terms
A facet on its own is just a word we chose. An anchor is what makes it checkable: a term in an external, independently maintained vocabulary of odour descriptions, built for perfumery materials rather than for us. The material list above is drawn from the direct terms only, because a partial term corroborates too weakly to stand as evidence on its own.
Direct
Terms that mean this facet outright
- cinnamon
- clove
- eugenol
- nutmeg
- spicy
Partial
Terms that lean this way but also load elsewhere
- saffron
The rest of Spicy
The other facets in this family. A note can load on any of them at the same time as this one, so they are neighbours rather than alternatives.