Vanilla

On record here, the word is carried by vanillin. Each carrier says who uses the word and on what evidence: a source, the trade’s convention or the house’s own reading.

Read the essay · Everyday words to scent concepts: the Scent Translator

The record

Each field carries its evidence: open a chip for the source, the quoted words and the confidence. A field with nothing behind it says so and stays empty.

Term

vanilla

perfumery convention

the trade’s shared vocabulary; no single source

the trade’s shared vocabulary; the word as the records and sources use it

confidence B

Family

balsamic

perfumery convention

Classification of 1. top notes: a) citrus, b) aldehydic, c) fruity, d) green and e) herbaceous/herbal, 2. heart notes: a) floral light, b) floral green, c) floral fresh, d), floral fruity, e) floral heavy and f) floral woody and 3. bottom notes: a) aromatic, b) balsamic, c) moss/leather/animalic, d) musk, e) amber and f) wood.

ISO-2 · Stepanyuk A, Kirschning A · read 2026-09-30

the family name as the published classification the review gives (top, heart and bottom notes) spells it

confidence B

Definition

The smell of cured vanilla pods: sweet, creamy and warm.

house interpretation

the house’s own reading, labelled as such

the house’s own definition, written for this vocabulary

confidence C

Also written

vanilla-like

as used

the house’s own reading, labelled as such

the words the carriers below use for this term; each carrier names its own source

confidence B

Carried by

• vanillin (as used: “vanilla-like”)
  documented

  4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde (vanillin) | CAS 121-33-5 | Odor quality: vanilla-like, sweet

  OT-1 · Kreissl J, Mall V, Steinhaus P, Steinhaus M · read 2026-09-30

  confidence A

Related terms

• sweet
• hay

In teaching accords

• An amber (the perfumer’s, not the resin)

Sources

1. ISO-2 · Stepanyuk A, Kirschning A. Synthetic terpenoids in the world of fragrances: Iso E Super® is the showcase. Beilstein J Org Chem. 2019;15:2590–2602. doi.org/10.3762/bjoc.15.252 · read 2026-09-30 · CC BY 4.0
2. OT-1 · Kreissl J, Mall V, Steinhaus P, Steinhaus M. Leibniz-LSB@TUM Odorant Database, Version 1.2. Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich: Freising, Germany, 2022. www.leibniz-lsb.de/en/databases/leibniz-lsbtum-o… · read 2026-09-30 · free of charge; scientific use encouraged with full acknowledgement; systematic download or reproduction needs written permission (its copyright page, read 2026-09-30): single values are cited with their references, the responses are not filed

These records are published under CC BY 4.0.

this record as data: /data/descriptor/vanilla.json · version 1 · updated 2026-09-30 · confidence B