Ingredients · Florals · heart note

Diphenyl oxide

Say itdye-FEN-il oxide

Metallic, green geranium-leaf with rosy and faint burnt-rubber edges.

What it is

A molecule made in a lab.

Where it comes from

industrial by-product of phenol manufacture

When you smell it

Heart: the first hours.

What perfumers do with it

Cheap, very stable geranium note for rose and geranium accords, especially in soap and detergent.

Worth knowing

Mixed with biphenyl, the same molecule is sold as an industrial heat-transfer fluid.

Also called

Diphenyl ether; phenoxybenzene