Ingredients · Sweet · dry-down

Vanillin

Say itvuh-NIL-in

Vanilla custard, creamy and soft.

What it is

A molecule made in a lab: the main smell of vanilla.

When you smell it

Dry-down: hours later.

What perfumers do with it

The backbone of vanilla, amber and gourmand accords; sweetens and fixes.

Worth knowing

First synthesised in 1874 from coniferin, a molecule in pine sap; today about 85% is made from petrochemical guaiacol.

Known in

Jicky (Guerlain, 1889)

Also called

4-Hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde

On the label of 74 of the 232 perfumes read so far

SauvageDior · printed “Vanillin”ShalimarGuerlain · printed “Vanillin”Good GirlCarolina Herrera · printed “Vanillin”Bleu de ChanelChanel · printed “Vanillin”Coco MademoiselleChanel · printed “Vanillin”Tobacco VanilleTom Ford · printed “Vanillin”

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