Discovering the fragrance of the Carnation flower, through various USA suppliers. (Product Reviews)

 In a sense, it’s a strange notion, for aspiring botanists, with some experience in having visited botanical gardens, for example - the thought of that carnation flowers could have a fragrance made, of them. 

People who have been around carnations in bloom - and at that, if you happen to be reading this article timely enough, you’d be able to visit a local botanical garden to discover this for yourself: carnations do not particularly seem to have a smell to them - they would seem to be a simply ornamental flowering plant, yet they bloom in May. It’s a perfect time to get in to having the experience of visiting a botanical garden. The carnations flower’s attractiveness and similarity to the rose, visually, would invoke the thought of that they smell strongly, such as the rose flower does.

From Wikipedia:

Dianthus caryophyllus
Red carnations
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Order:	Caryophyllales
Family:	Caryophyllaceae
Genus:	Dianthus
Species:	D. caryophyllus
Binomial name
Dianthus caryophyllus L.

Dianthus caryophyllus, commonly known as the carnation or clove pink, is a species of Dianthus. It is probably native to the Mediterranean region but its exact range is unknown due to extensive cultivation for the last 2,000 years.^[1][2][3][4]

Upon encountering the flower, it would be a common thing to do, to try to see if it smells, and, on one hand, it has the faintest scent of freshness and floral petals, yet it wouldn’t quite have a “flower” smell to it, as would commonly be expected, perhaps - yet the fragrance industry does an unexpectedly delightful thing, in their extractions and renditions of the fragrance of the carnation flower - for that it’s such a slight fragrance, we get a delightfully bold concentration of the flower’s scent, in various suppliers’ product offerings. 

At some point, several weeks ago, or so, I had the thought come about in my mind, that I’d like the fragrance of carnation, somehow, even though I had had these experiences of visiting botanical gardens, and, obviously, I had tried to smell the flowers, finding that I couldn’t smell much, although I had the notion that they do smell, and that it’s a delightful fragrance, somehow; just in my mind, I imagined this. So I set about in trying to discover extractions of carnation flower on the web, and it’s a somewhat scarcely advertised product, and there’s not a whole lot of suppliers offering the product. I visited two of my favorite fragrance ingredients and extracts suppliers, from then until now, and I have two different products of carnation fragrance manufacture. 

My first venture in to discovering the fragrance of carnation was with PerfumersApprentice.com, a supplier I’ve purchased many different fragrance extracts, chemicals, and isolates from, since I’ve set out on this fragrance hobby of mine. They offer three different carnation fragrance products. 

I decided to try out their Carnation Essence product, which I figured would have been a professional rendition of the carnation flower, based on studies and analysis of the fractionated or gas chromatography readings, gained from a scientific and academic study of the flower’s fragrant compounds, based on the SDS paper included on the product’s page:

People who have become familiarized with some of these components, such as I had, in previously having purchased and experienced some of these isolated and analyzed chemicals, such as Eugenol, Coumarin, Linalool (although I tried out a Tetrahydrolinalool, personally), and vanillin (I tried out Ethyl Vanillin); both of the last two, and 6-Methyl Coumarin, from Consolidated-chemicals.com, a good supplier of some of these fundamental fragrance ingredients components. I purchased Eugenol from PerfumersWorld.com. It’s a strongly clove-smelling fragrance ingredient; singularly a clove scent evocation, and it’s a quite powerful scent to encounter and implement in to a fragrance composition. 

It appears, initially, in the container I got, from Perfumer’s Apprentice to be a brown oil. I bought 80 mL, because I imagined that it would be a great scent to put in to a loaf of soap, someday, and I wanted a good enough supply of it, although their smaller container options are sufficient, for simple experiencing and for scent investigations - they offer 4 mL, 15 mL, and 30 mL, as well as larger options. In a clear container, though, it is a yellowish color, more suggestive of a delicate floral oil, in some sense.

The smell of this product, the Carnation Essence, smells strongly of clove, curiously enough, yet it has a definite odor of what would imaginably be carnation. Being that I can’t recall that the carnation flower, in its natural form, in encountering, has much of a scent, at all, I’d say that this fragrance is potentially a fairly accurate rendition of the fragrance of carnation, yet it’s very concentrated, and apparently, the carnation smells strongly of clove, in its quite slight fragrance. 

Being that the product did smell so strongly of clove, I decided to investigate further, and I checked out LibertyNatural.com, since they are one of the other few or several reputable suppliers of carnation fragrance. They offer two different carnation extraction products: an absolute, and a concrete. I have experience in encountering fragrance absolutes, but not concretes, so far, in my fragrance ingredients explorations, so I decided to go with trying out 4 mL of their Carnation Absolute, since their Certificate of Authenticity on the product lists various more discovered components of the flower, with rarer precious fractions of the mystique of flower compositions being revealed.

As the Certificate of Authenticity states, this fragrance absolute is a bit soapy and spicy, of a scent about it, and it’s slightly “strange,” perhaps, fragrance, yet it does have some relation to the Perfumer’s Apprentice Carnation Essence, although the two products are definitely distinctly different. 

All in all, so far, as far as my carnation flower investigation of its olfactory renditions and other products produced from it, I’d say that the Perfumers Apprentice product is probably more appealing, when put in to consideration of how it would be used, in practical terms - such as personal fragrancing of one’s own self - it’s perhaps not really a “feminine,” per se, floral scent - I wore it; a male, that I am, while I was out and about, for a bit, and I feel that it was generally well-received, not particularly strange, being that flowers are generally considered feminine fragrances. The Liberty Natural Carnation Absolute product is, most likely, a truer portrayal of what natural components of the flower’s extraction would produce - it’s somewhat a curious fragrance, yet the flower absolute investigation, and its Certificate of Authentocity documentation reveal some insight in to what comprises the flower, and from here, I learn some things about rarer fractions of the flower, thus furthering my knowledge of cosmetics production (I found squalene to pique my interests, and I discovered some other great sites that offer squalene, such as simply-ingredients.com).

On the other hand, though, I’d find that having the Liberty Natural-supplied product is somewhat indispensable, for that matter, since it’s quite apparently a much more truer representation of a carnation. Being that either product is relatively cheap to procure, I’d say that carnation, as a botanical specimen of inquiry, for individuals who are interested in studying fragrances, of their various modes of representability, ought to experience both different products, for various considerations. Please keep in mind that I hadn’t tried out the Carnation Absolute product in diffusion, since my goal is to simply have the products on hand as their singular and pure form would allow. In previous phases of my mindset about collecting fragrance ingredient products, I’d had a slight aspiration to compose and create novel fragrances through mixing oils together, and such other things that would come about, for trying out products in perfume creation, which I know significantly little about, compared to how vast and detailed a sufficient knowledge base upon the science and chemistry of perfumery, as it stands, as a scientific endeavor, whereas a good enough number of people and operations fulfill that place, in life, sufficiently, as it is. As a fragrance ingredients enthusiast, on one hand, there are simple and ethical considerations in simply accepting “not being the best” at something, and, for that matter, it’s prudent to appreciate other creations from skilled other makers, when it comes to perfume creation.