Ingredients · Leather & smoke · heart note

Guaiacol

Say itGWYE-uh-kawl

Smoky, medicinal-phenolic, like smoked bacon and burnt wood.

What it is

A molecule made in a lab.

Where it comes from

first distilled from guaiac resin

When you smell it

Heart: the first hours.

What perfumers do with it

Adds realistic smoke and burnt-wood notes to leather, incense and whisky-like accords.

Worth knowing

Named after guaiac resin, from which it was first distilled; it also gives roasted coffee part of its smokiness.

Also called

2-Methoxyphenol