Styrallyl Acetate

Description and usage notes:

One of the classic metalic-green notes that is very widely used despite smelling fairly unapealing to most people when pure.  Besides the classic use in Gardenia and other florals, it is useful to add a dry, fresh, fruity top-note to many other compositions.  This material was famously used in L’Air du Temps to create the minimalist sketch of gardenia in the central floral bouquet of that fragrance, where it also works in harmony with traces of Aldehyde C11 undecylenic (as it does in many other well-known fragrances including Miss Dior and Cabochard for example) bridging the top and middle notes.  Jean Carles uses no less than 4% of this material in Ma Griffe, where it is again used alongside aliphatic aldehydes.

Arctander gives some very useful clues on how best to use this distinctive material: “it is conventionally classified as a Gardenia-green material, but its odor is typical only of certain stages of maturity of the Gardenia flower, and only of certain species. However, the ester finds use in numerous fragrance types,mostly those including fruity and green notes, and it plays an important role in top-note complexes including Oakmoss, Galbanum, Allyl ionone, Citrus oils, etc. In spite of its apparent harshness, it can be applied at comparatively high concentration, often exceeding 2 or 3%. If Benzylacetate and Citrus oils are present, the level of the title ester can be still higher. Care should be taken in evaluating the effect of this material too quickly, It will characteristically ‘mellow-in’ the perfume composition very perceptibly after 24 hours, often more in several days or so. Smaller amounts are used in Lilac, Hyacinth, Tuberose, Muguet, etc.”