Benzyl benzoate

Description and usage notes:

A useful perfumery solvent particularly helpful for nitro-musks, certain natural extracts and other very low-polarity ingredients that can be difficult to dissolve.

Arctander suggests some wider uses: “A classic fixative-blender and solvent in perfumes. Also a modifier in heavier florals, Oriental type fragrances, etc., Tuberose, Yiang- Ylang, Lily, Gardenia, etc. Largely substituted by Benzyl salicylate when a faint odor is desirable. As a solvent for Nitromusks, Benzyl benzoate cannot compete with Dlethyl phthalate in cost, and the practise of keeping Nitromusks in solution on the perfumers shelf is, in the author’s opinion, outdated.”