Ingredients · Florals · heart note

Phenylethyl alcohol

Say itfen-il-ETH-il alcohol

Soft, fresh rose petal with honey and a faint bready sweetness.

What it is

A molecule made in a lab.

Where it comes from

made from benzene and ethylene oxide, or by yeast fermentation

When you smell it

Heart: the first hours.

What perfumers do with it

The main rose-absolute molecule; used in bulk for rose, muguet and hyacinth, smoothing everything around it.

Worth knowing

Yeast makes it while fermenting, so every glass of beer or wine carries a trace of rose.

Also called

PEA; 2-phenylethanol; benzyl carbinol