Hydroxycitronellal

Description and usage notes:

Sweet floral perfume-like notes with green citrus and melon undertones, regarded by most perfumers as the closest one-molecule match to the scent of lily of the valley flowers.

NOTE: this is best stabilised with the addition of hydroxycitronellol and we now offer it pre-blended in the proper proportions.

Arctander describes the odour as: “Sweet-floral, at first delicate and refreshingly mild, but often increasing in odor strength after short olfactory study. The floral notes are mild, light and resemble Lily of the Valley. The tenacity is good, and the odor diffusion increases significantly when the material is properly blended with lower boiling odorants or modifiers.”

He goes on to suggest it is: “one of the most frequently used floralizing perfume materials. Originially introduced as a ‘Muguet’ material, it finds its way into almost every type of floral fragrance, and a great many nonfloral ones. Its concentration in perfumes may vary from about 1% (which rarely gives effect unless supported by parallel materials) up to 30 or 40% in straight floral types. It is almost a ‘must’ in Muguet (at certain price levels) and Peony, Lily, Sweet Pea, Narcisse, Lindenblossom, etc. and it had a monopoly on these types for more than 40 years during which period not one material appeared that could truly replace Hydroxycitronellal.”

Modern restrictions on its use mean that it is not now used at the levels it was when Arctander was writing, but it remains an essential of the perfumer’s palette.