Cinnamyl cinnamate

Description and usage notes:

Mild, floral, balsamic, and very pleasant smelling, it has nutty, carnation, rose, honey, jasmine and spicy qualities. The main use of cinnamyl cinnamate however is not for its own odour but for its excellent fixative properties. This material occurs naturally in several resins and spices notably styrax, though the material offered here is synthetic and consists of a mixture of isomers.

It is excellent as a blending agent and one of the best non-musk fixatives, especially useful for floral fragrances.

Arctander puts it like this “Very mild, but very tenacious balsamic-floral, soft odor. Hardly any spice note at all. Useful as a fixative in heavy florals, exotic florals, Carnation type fragrances, Hyacinth, Tuberose, etc. and in smaller amounts in Magnolia and similar fragrance types. It blends also well with Labdanum, Patchouli and Oakmoss.”  

According to Ernest J Parry (The Chemistry of Essential Oils and Artificial Perfumes, 1922) “This ester is known as styracin, and is found in storax and other balsamic products, and possibly also in oil of hyacinths … It has an odour resembling that of benzyl cinnamate.”

This material is solid with a melting point around 45 Centigrade.