Green Leaves
The crisp, watery, slightly bitter smell of crushed leaves and snapped green stems.
You may know it from freshly cut grass
Where it comes from
Usually built from aroma chemicals rather than extracted from leaves.
Worth knowing
It is an accord, not usually an extract of a particular leaf.
About green leaves
A leaf does not smell green until something damages it. Green leaf volatiles are produced within minutes of tissue damage. The family includes C6 aldehydes such as (Z)-3-hexenal and hexanal, and derivatives like (Z)-3-hexen-1-yl acetate.
In perfumery the usual starting point is cis-3-hexenol, also called leaf alcohol (CAS 928-96-1, formula C6H12O), a colourless oily liquid with an intense grassy-green odour of freshly cut grass and leaves. ScenTree puts its detection threshold at about 70 ppb, so a trace is enough to register and dosing needs care. Scentspiracy gives typical use as starting around 0.15% in fine fragrance compounds. It is a head note with high initial impact, and the IFRA 51st Amendment places no restriction on it for Category 4 applications.
Bois de Jasmin says green accords are infamous for being hard to create and hard to enjoy, and freshly cut grass, so appealing on a warm day, can turn metallic on skin. Seen from the bottle, a green leaves note is an accord assembled from aroma chemicals and sometimes galbanum or violet leaf.
Galbanum is where the green family is generally thought to begin, with its debut in modern perfumery exemplified by Balmain's Vent Vert. Olfastory reports that Germaine Cellier dosed galbanum in it at 8% and calls that a record never equaled. Cis-3-hexenol itself is cited as appearing in Chanel No. 19 and in Cristalle.
Accords it shows up in
How many of the fragrances listing Green Leaves in our catalogue also carry each accord. We counted this ourselves.
Often paired with
The notes that appear next to Green Leaves most often in our catalogue.
Well-known fragrances with Green Leaves
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 Green Leaves.