Perfume boxes often carry a list of “notes” in English: jasmine, tuberose, sandalwood, amber, musk. Vietnamese readers face two problems. The first is translation: what flower is jasmine, what flower is tuberose. The second is harder and rarely mentioned: not every word on the list is a real thing in the bottle.
This article translates about thirty of the most common note names and, for each, adds one more point: whether the natural material can actually be made to give up its smell, or whether the note is rebuilt from other compounds.
Three kinds of “note”
Before the tables, three cases need separating, because they decide how to read any list of notes:
- A real natural material exists. Jasmine, rose, sandalwood and patchouli all give an essential oil or an absolute. The note may come from that material, from a synthetic imitating it, or from both.
- The plant is real, but it will not give up its smell. Lily of the valley, orchid, gardenia, peony and cherry blossom give almost no usable oil. Notes bearing their names are almost always built from other compounds.
- There is nothing to correspond to. Amber, marine and leather in perfumery are “accords”: smells a perfumer builds from several compounds to evoke an image. No plant or object can be distilled to give them. The tobacco note and most fruity notes are built in much the same way.
All three are legitimate in perfumery. They differ only in the answer to one question: “does this word on the box mean the bottle contains a natural material of that name?”
Floral notes
| Name on the box | In Vietnamese | Natural material |
|---|---|---|
| Jasmine | Hoa nhài, jasmine grandiflorum | Yes, as an absolute |
| Tuberose | Hoa huệ | Yes, as an absolute |
| Rose | Hoa hồng | Yes: rose otto and absolute |
| Ylang-ylang | Ngọc lan tây | Yes, distilled oil |
| Neroli | Bitter orange flower, steam distilled | Yes |
| Orange blossom | Bitter orange flower, solvent extracted | Yes, as an absolute |
| Osmanthus | Hoa mộc | Yes, as a very expensive absolute |
| Magnolia, champaca | Magnolia family, such as white champaca | Yes, for some species |
| Lotus | Hoa sen | Yes but rare; mostly an accord |
| Lavender | Oải hương | Yes, distilled oil |
| Linden | Hoa đoạn | Yes, a rare absolute |
| Iris, orris | Iris rhizome | Yes, very expensive |
| Violet | Violet | The leaf gives an absolute; the flower note is usually built from ionones |
| Mimosa | Silver wattle (Acacia dealbata) | Yes, as an absolute |
| Lily of the valley, muguet | Lily of the valley | No; always an accord |
| Orchid | Orchid | Almost never; except vanilla, which is an orchid |
| Gardenia | Gardenia | Almost never; usually an accord |
| Peony, freesia | Peony, freesia | No; accords |
| Cherry blossom, sakura | Cherry blossom | No; an accord |
| Frangipani | Frangipani | Very rare; usually an accord |
| Heliotrope | Heliotrope, same genus as Indian heliotrope | No; built from heliotropin |
The word “floral” on a box is not the name of a flower. It refers to the whole floral scent family: any smell that evokes flowers, real or built.
Iris is a memorable example: the smell is not in the flower but in the rhizome. The rhizomes are usually dried for years before processing, because the powdery, violet-like smell only develops gradually as they dry. That is why orris butter is among the most expensive materials in perfumery.
Lily of the valley is the opposite case. The flower smells wonderful but will not give up its smell, so the muguet note is always built. One of the most common building blocks, lilial (butylphenyl methylpropional), was banned from cosmetics in the EU from 1 March 2022, and perfumers have had to rebuild the note with other compounds.
Woods, resins and base notes
| Name on the box | In Vietnamese | Natural material |
|---|---|---|
| Sandalwood | Đàn hương | Yes, but often replaced by other species or synthetics |
| Cedarwood | Cedar or juniper | Yes, two different groups of trees |
| Vetiver | Hương bài | Yes, oil from the roots |
| Patchouli | Hoắc hương | Yes, oil from dried leaves |
| Oud, agarwood | Trầm hương | Yes, very expensive; most perfumes use an accord |
| Frankincense, olibanum | Nhũ hương | Yes |
| Myrrh | Myrrh | Yes |
| Labdanum | Labdanum | Yes |
| Benzoin | Benzoin | Yes, a resin from Styrax trees |
| Tonka | Tonka bean | Yes; the main odorant is coumarin |
| Vanilla | Vanilla | Yes, as an absolute or CO₂ extract |
| Amber | Amber (in perfumery) | No; an accord |
| Ambergris | Ambergris | Yes but extremely rare; usually synthetic |
| Musk | Musk | Almost always synthetic |
The two words most often confused here are amber and ambergris. Amber in perfumery is a warm, sweet accord, usually built from labdanum, vanilla and benzoin, and has nothing to do with fossil amber. Ambergris is a waxy substance formed in the gut of sperm whales. Most ambergris notes today come from ambroxide, which is semi-synthesised from the sclareol of clary sage.
Musk is similar. Real musk from the musk deer is hardly used any more; “musk” on a perfume box today is almost always a synthetic musk.
Fresh, spicy and herbal notes
| Name on the box | In Vietnamese | Natural material |
|---|---|---|
| Bergamot | Bergamot | Yes, cold-pressed from the peel |
| Petitgrain | Bitter orange leaf | Yes |
| Lemongrass | Lemongrass | Yes |
| Pink pepper | Pink pepper | Yes; not true pepper |
| Cardamom | Cardamom | Yes |
| Clary sage | Clary sage | Yes |
| Aldehydes | Long-chain aldehydes | Not a plant; synthetic or isolated compounds |
“Aldehydes” is a special case: it is the name of a chemical group, such as decanal or dodecanal, giving a clean, bright, slightly soapy smell. It appears on boxes as a note, but it is not the name of any raw material.
How to read a list of notes
A list of notes is a description of the smell, not a list of ingredients. It tells you what the perfume evokes, not what the bottle contains. To know the composition, look at the INCI list on the packaging, where allergens such as linalool, citronellol or coumarin must be named under EU rules above a set threshold.
So when you see “jasmine” on a box, the answer to “what flower is jasmine” is jasmine, hoa nhài. But the answer to “is there jasmine in the bottle” is known only to the manufacturer. With essential oils it is the other way round: a bottle labelled “jasmine absolute” must be real jasmine, and the analysis is how to check.
Sources
- Regulation (EU) 2021/1902 amending the Annexes to Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 on cosmetic products, including the ban on butylphenyl methylpropional (lilial).
- Chalvin C., Drevensek S., Gilard F. et al. (2021). Sclareol and linalyl acetate are produced by glandular trichomes through the MEP pathway. Horticulture Research 8, 206. doi:10.1038/s41438-021-00640-w
- FAO/JECFA (2011). Benzoe tonkinensis: Chemical and Technical Assessment.