The marine note in perfume (marine, aquatic, oceanic) evokes sea breeze, cool water, salt on the skin. But stand on a beach at low tide and breathe deeply, and you will smell something quite different: slightly fishy, a little like boiled cabbage, with seaweed and mud. Perfume does not imitate that smell. It builds an idea of the sea, and that idea comes mainly from one synthetic molecule.
Where the real smell of the sea comes from
Much of the characteristic smell of the sea is dimethyl sulfide (DMS). Algae and phytoplankton in seawater produce a compound called DMSP; when they die or are eaten, bacteria break DMSP down into DMS, which escapes into the air. The ocean releases so much DMS into the atmosphere that it is studied as a factor affecting clouds and climate.
At high concentration, DMS smells of boiled cabbage. At the very low levels found offshore, it blends with salt, seaweed and wind into what people call “the smell of the sea”. Beyond DMS there is the smell of seaweed washed up on the shore and of decaying organisms in the tidal zone.
None of these is something anyone wants to spray on a wrist.
Calone: the molecule that created a whole family
The marine note in modern perfumery practically begins with Calone, the trade name of a synthetic discovered in the laboratories of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer in the 1960s. It smells of watermelon, cool water and salty air, and at high concentration has an oyster-shell note. No plant or natural object is known to contain Calone.
Calone is so strong that only a tiny amount is needed. By the 1990s it had become the backbone of the wave of “aquatic” perfumes for men and women alike, and its smell became so associated with clean, fresh and sea that many people no longer recognise it as artificial.
The other pieces of a marine accord
| Piece of the smell | Materials often used |
|---|---|
| Cool water, watermelon, breeze | Calone and related compounds |
| Air after rain, “ozone” | Fresh-smelling aldehydes, ozonic notes |
| Salt on skin, mineral | Ambroxide, the ambergris note |
| Seaweed | Seaweed absolute (Fucus) in small amounts |
| Green, coastal herbs | Rosemary, sage, citrus |
Seaweed absolute is one of the few natural materials that genuinely smells of the sea. It is dark and intense, with iodine and dried seaweed, and is used sparingly because it pulls the accord towards the tideline rather than the sea breeze.
The salty note usually comes from ambroxide, the same compound behind the ambergris note discussed in the article on amber. Salt itself has no smell; what people call “the smell of salt” is the smell of skin and minerals after exposure to sea air.
The sea in perfume and the sea in life
The marine note is the clearest example of something that runs through this whole series: a note name is an image, not a raw material. There is no “sea essential oil”. A bottle labelled “ocean essential oil” is a synthetic blend, and the name describes the feeling it evokes, not where it comes from.
That does not make the marine note any less valuable. It only means that when you read “marine” on a box, think of watermelon and wind rather than seaweed and mud.
The article on perfume note names places the marine note among the accords, together with amber and leather.
Sources
- Charlson R.J., Lovelock J.E., Andreae M.O., Warren S.G. (1987). Oceanic phytoplankton, atmospheric sulphur, cloud albedo and climate. Nature 326, 655–661. doi:10.1038/326655a0
- Ohloff G., Pickenhagen W., Kraft P. (2012). Scent and Chemistry: The Molecular World of Odors. Verlag Helvetica Chimica Acta, Wiley-VCH.