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Sceintific name: 2,3,3-trimethyl-2H-inden-1-one

a.k.a.: Safraleine

CAS#: 54440-17-4

Supplier: Perfumer’s Apprentice

Note: Base – leathery, spicy, woody, warm (Givaudan)

Family: Leather

Diffusion: High

Their nose: Safraleine exhibits warm, powerful, leathery and tobacco facets but its complexity also reveals characteristics of spices reminiscent of natural saffron, enriched by rose ketone-like floral aspects. (Givaudan)

This is a very versatile ingredient: in low doses you can add a spicy undertone to any fragrance, while higher doses will give you a distinct leather note. Blends well with Suederal but can also be used effectively with traces of birch tar in leather compositions. The effect is softer than suederal, more like skin and less like leather depending on what you use with it. (Hermitage)

…a combination of shoe polish/black cherry/air conditioning refrigerating fluid. (Perfume Shrine)

My nose: opening notes are of new leather, a hard leather surface, pristine office space, dentist office, contemporary, minimalism, plastic, rubber(?), hint of something pungent like peppermint (what the heck?!). After 30min I get the peppermint aspect even more, not as harsh to my nose as the first time I introduced my nose to this a year ago, so it’s really interesting to see how my brain has adapted to this aroma chemical to give me a more rounded impression. 1hr later and I get something sharp but not unpleasant, dry, I actually think it’s beautiful  now, I smell this with mint! 2hrs into the dry-down and the projection is still strong, I can smell it above the others when I walk into the studio. I marvel that there is definitely another side to Safraleine that goes beyond harshness, there is also an uplifting side to it. 3hrs later it’s still sharp, but now I get cold steel, more cool, seems to be receeding now a bit, if I could give it a colour it would be grey, steel grey. After 7hrs it smells more constructed, something of mechanical grease, fading the mintiness is almost gone. 11hours later and it’s now more plastic-like in the dry-down but there’s also a brighter side to this and I am convinced there is a camphor-esque quality to it that makes it uplifting.

Blends well with: although I haven’t used this in a blend to date, I have discovered that it is can support the building blocks of the leather family such as Castoreum (real or synthetic), Tobacco and Birch Tar rect’d. I certainly want to try this with something minty, peppermint, spearmint, whatever, I’ve got to appease this curiosity!

Considerations: the TGSC recommended dilution for smelling is 10% or less. My dilution is also at 10%.  Not to exceed 3% in your fragrance concentrate.