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CAS No.
23333-91-7
Odour (decreasing):
Fresh, earthy, wet. Very diffusive and powerful
Solvent:
DPG to form a 1% solution of Geosmin
Main Synonyms:
octahydro-4,8a-dimethyl-4a(2H)-naphthol
Manufacturer:
IFF / Pell Wall
First isolated by Bush Boake Allen (now part of IFF) and notoriously difficult to buy in small quantities.
Here at 1% in DPG, this is geosmin bought pure from IFF, diluted by Pell Wall and still so strong it must be used with caution. If you are working in fixed oils or wax you may prefer to buy this material at 1% in DEP instead. We recommend you dilute to 0.1%, 0.01% or less for blending.
Geosmin is the scent of warm earth, a freshly ploughed field, the first rain after a dry period (also known as petrichor), damp and deceptively powerful. Geosmin doesn't seem particularly strong when you sniff the 1% solution, or even the 10% solution, but even a few drops can fill the room with the scent of turned earth. Traces in a fragrance can give you a unique effect and greatly increase diffusion. There really isn’t anything else like Geosmin, even though other materials like 2-ethyl fenchol have a superficially similar scent.
According to Brown University: “Geosmin, which literally translates to ‘earth smell’ was scientifically identified more than 100 years ago. In soil, bacteria produce the chemical compound. In water, blue-green algae make it. Along with the pleasant scent of warm, moist soil, geosmin is also responsible for the muddy ‘off’ taste in some drinking water. That is why the substance is of interest to water purification experts and even vintners, who want to keep the benign but pungent substance out of their wine.”
You can read more about the production of geosmin by soil bacteria, and why they make it, in this article on The Conversation.
For those working on a larger scale, we also offer Geosmin at 10% in DPG and we can usually offer limited amounts of the pure product: please contact us for availability and pricing if that’s what you need.
Aroma Chemicals, earthy, fresh, High impact materials, Ingredients for Perfumery, Liquids, Molecules, wet,
Safety Data Sheet (SDS): Download SDS (PDF)
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Each entry contains a short list of scent notes with occasionally other short commentary to assist those who may not have encountered the material previously to decide whether it is of interest: I recommend you make your own assessment of each and every perfumery material you use however.
After pricing, quantity options and other basic details scroll down for narative descriptions: these are intended to assit interested readers as well as potential purchasers to assess the uses and potential of the material in question.
Many of the descriptions contain quotations from the manufacturer of the product and in addition I have quoted fairly extensively from Arctander[1] and from Arcadi Boix Camps[2] – both independent writers and both highly experienced perfumers.
There are also some quotes from Bedoukian[3] where details of the chemistry of a material are significant and from Scent & Chemistry[4] the authors of which have taken an analytical approach to the art of perfumery that is unusual and very useful. Quotations have been included from the extremely useful teaching books by Calkin & Jellinek[5] and Curtis & Williams[6] and Surburg and Panten [7] as well.
Anything not identified as a quotation is my own opinion of the material in question and it’s uses, but I am grateful to many other sources and perfumers as well as the expert authors named here. Please note that these descriptions are copyright of the author and, other than properly achnowledged fair use quoations as defined in English Law, republication in any form is not permitted.
[1] Steffen Arctander: quotations are taken from Perfume and Flavor Chemicals published in 1969 and Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin published in 1961
[2] Arcadi Boix Camps: quotations are taken from Perfumery: Techniques in Evolution, 2nd Edition published in 2009, but containing material written in 1978, 1985, and 1999 as well – where relevant the date of writing is noted with the quotations.
[3] Bedoukian: quotations are taken from Perfume and Flavoring Synthetics, 3rd, Revised Edition by Paul Z. Bedoukian, Ch.E., Ph.D. Published in 1986.
[4] Scent & Chemistry by Ohloff, Pickenhagen and Kraft, published as a book of that name in 2012, from which I have quoted, but also referencing updates on their maintained Facebook page . In addition this tag is used in the descriptions for other works involving the same authors, including:
[5] Calkin & Jellinek: quotations are taken from Perfumery: practice and principles by Robert R. Calkin, J. Stephan Jellinek, published in 1994.
[6] Curtis & Williams: quotations are taken from An Introduction to Perfumery 2nd Edition, by Tony Curtis and David G Williams, published in 2001
[7] Surburg and Panten: quotations are taken from Common Fragrance and Flavor Materials. Preparation, Properties and Uses. 5th Edition by Horst Surburg and Johannes Panten (Copyright 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim), published in 2006
A quick note about spellings: this website is primarily written in British English - it is after all written by an English Perfumer - however most of the authors mentioned here and many of the manufacturers were writing for American audiences and published using American English: where that is the case I have, as far as possible, preserved the spelling used in the source material. As a result there may be inconsistencies on any given page, but that seemed to me better than arbitrarily changing material in the process of quotation.
We’ve recently had a change of policy - and bought some new containers - so now all ingredients are sold by weight whether they are solids or liquids. Only the 10ml and 5ml sizes incorporated in kits, and a few inexpensive materials such as solvents, are still done by volume. Even the 5ml and 10ml sizes will now be filled to contain 5g or 10g regardless of whether the material is solid or liquid.
Liquids up to 10g in glass bottles (where the fill level may vary as illustrated above), 30g and 50g in HDPE Plastic.
Those materials available in 1Kg are normally supplied in aluminium flasks similar to those used for the 500g size, though we do supply a few materials in HDPE bottles as well.
Finally please note that, with some 500 different materials and so many size options we don’t hold ready-to-sell stocks: when you buy perfumery ingredients we will prepare them to order for you. This means that large orders can sometimes take a few days to prepare and also that we don’t offer refunds on ingredients, unless of course there is a fault of some kind.
