Heart note · Floral

Violet Leaf

Viola odorata

Violet leaf is green, watery and cucumber-crisp, with an earthy, leafy depth. Discover the fresh green note behind modern florals.

What does violet leaf smell like in perfume?

Violet leaf smells green, watery and crisp, like freshly cut cucumber and crushed leaves. Surprisingly, it smells nothing like violet flowers, but adds a cool, verdant freshness to a fragrance.

What Is Violet Leaf?

Violet leaf absolute is extracted from the heart-shaped leaves of the sweet violet, Viola odorata. It is dark green and intensely powerful, so it is used in tiny amounts. The flowers themselves yield almost no oil, which is why violet flower notes are usually recreated.

Violet Leaf Scent Profile

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

How Perfumers Use Violet Leaf

Perfumers use violet leaf to add a cool, green freshness to florals and woods. A small amount brings modernity and a dewy, garden-like realism.

Growing and harvesting violet leaf

The sweet violet, Viola odorata, is grown for its leaves in Egypt and France. The leaves are cut in spring and again later in the year, then extracted, first into a waxy concrete and then into the absolute. The leaves yield very little absolute, which is why it is one of the more precious green materials.

The molecules behind violet leaf’s scent

The signature molecule is 2,6-nonadienal, often called violet leaf aldehyde, which smells strongly of cucumber and green leaves. Related alcohols add a watery, melon-like note, and earthy, waxy compounds give the absolute its depth.

Natural or synthetic violet leaf?

Most “violet” notes in perfume are ionones, molecules first made in 1893 that smell of powdery violet flowers. A “violet leaf” note is often built from synthetic nonadienal. Natural violet leaf absolute smells greener, earthier and more watery, with the texture of real crushed leaves.

Violet leaf in history and tradition

Violets were the emblem of Napoleon and Joséphine, and the Victorians adored them: posies of violets were sold on London streets, and Toulouse in France still makes crystallised violets. Violet flowers yield almost no oil, so perfumers have long used the leaf instead, giving the green side of the plant, while the powdery scent of the flower is usually recreated with ionones, molecules first made in 1893. Violet leaf absolute is produced mainly in Egypt and France.

How to smell violet leaf yourself

Crush a violet leaf from the garden or a hedgerow: it smells green, watery and cucumber-like, with nothing of the flower’s sweetness. Then smell a Parma violet sweet, which is flavoured with ionone-type notes, and you will smell the difference between leaf and flower.

Smell Violet Leaf in Prosody London Perfumes

For violet leaf at its most expressive, try Carissis. Violet leaf adds a cool, green freshness beside rose in this soft skin scent.

What Blends Well With Violet Leaf?

Questions About Violet Leaf

Explore all of our natural perfume ingredients.