Cyclamen
Fresh, watery flowers with a clean, airy, slightly green sweetness.
Where it comes from
Made from synthetic aroma chemicals, usually as a reconstructed floral scent.
Worth knowing
Real cyclamen flowers do not yield a standard perfume extract; their scent is recreated.
About cyclamen
A cyclamen flower has only a subtle scent, reminiscent of lily of the valley and rose. The cyclamen of perfumery is a reconstructed floral accord, and its main building block is a synthetic aldehyde created to approximate the scent of the flowers.
That aldehyde is cyclamen aldehyde, 3-(4-isopropylphenyl)-2-methylpropanal, formula C13H18O, which chemical databases file under CAS number 103-95-7. It is made by a crossed-aldol condensation of cuminaldehyde with propionaldehyde, followed by catalytic hydrogenation. Soaps, detergents, lotions and perfumes have used it since the 1920s.
Industry data sheets list its odour as floral, cyclamen and fresh, with rhubarb, musty and green facets. The Good Scents Company calls it diffusive and powerful, and says it is useful for fresh floral-green top notes. A supplier-style glossary describes how it changes on the skin: sharp, clean and green at first application, then a smooth, muguet-like warmth later on. Muguet is the French word for lily of the valley, one of the two flowers the real plant is said to recall.
The name suggests a plant extract. That same glossary says the material was never found in nature despite its botanical name, and describes it as a purely synthetic molecule. A cyclamen note in a perfume is therefore built around the aldehyde, since the plant itself does not give a usable extract.
Accords it shows up in
How many of the fragrances listing Cyclamen in our catalogue also carry each accord. We counted this ourselves.
Often paired with
The notes that appear next to Cyclamen most often in our catalogue.
Well-known fragrances with Cyclamen
Fragrances that list it in their notes, most-rated first.
Houses that use it most
Ranked by how many of their well-known fragrances list Cyclamen.