Heart note · Floral

Geranium

Pelargonium graveolens

Geranium is rosy, minty and green, with a fresh citrus edge. Discover the leaf that gives fougères and rose accords their bright lift.

What does geranium smell like in perfume?

Geranium smells rosy, green and slightly minty, like rubbing a scented geranium leaf between your fingers. It is brighter and greener than rose, and often used alongside it.

What Is Geranium?

Perfumery geranium is distilled from the leaves of Pelargonium graveolens, the rose-scented geranium, not the garden bedding plant. It is the leaves, not the flowers, that carry the scent.

Geranium Scent Profile

Here is how strongly each facet of geranium comes through, from our own smelling-strip notes.

How Perfumers Use Geranium

Perfumers use geranium to freshen and extend rose, to add a floral heart to fougères and to give a green lift to florals. It shares molecules with rose, so the two blend easily.

Growing and harvesting geranium

Perfumery geranium is a scented-leaf pelargonium, Pelargonium graveolens, grown in Egypt, Réunion and China. The leaves and stems are cut, often several times a year, and steam-distilled. Geranium from Réunion is known as Bourbon geranium, after the island’s old name, and has a slightly different, greener scent.

The molecules behind geranium’s scent

Citronellol and geraniol give geranium its rosy character, and they are the same molecules found in rose oil. Isomenthone adds a fresh, minty note, and linalool a soft floral one. Citronellyl formate gives a green, fruity edge.

Natural or synthetic geranium?

Because geranium shares its key molecules with rose, perfumers often use it to support or stretch a rose accord. Synthetic geranium notes are built from citronellol, geraniol and rose oxide. The natural oil is greener and mintier, with more of the leaf in it.

Geranium in history and tradition

Scented pelargoniums come from South Africa and reached European gardens in the 17th century. The Victorians kept scented-leaf pelargoniums on their windowsills and in conservatories, and brushed past them to release the scent. In the 19th century, Grasse grew geranium for perfume before Réunion became famous for it.

How to smell geranium yourself

Garden centres sell scented-leaf pelargoniums, often labelled rose geranium. Rub a leaf between your fingers and you will smell rose, mint and lemon all at once. Ordinary bedding geraniums have much less scent, which shows that the perfume is in the leaf, not the flower.

Smell Geranium in Prosody London Perfumes

For geranium at its most expressive, try Rose Rondeaux. Geranium brightens the heart beside rose, giving the composition a fresh, green lift. You will also find geranium in Mocha Muscari.

What Blends Well With Geranium?

Questions About Geranium

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