Raw Materials Used in Perfumery Part 5- Veramoss

Renato already laid it out beautifully back in September: oakmoss is the soul of chypres, the spine of fougères, the breath of the forest caught in the collar of your coat. It’s earthy, bitter-green, slightly salty, and a bit haunting. But like many great naturals, oakmoss has become a victim of modern regulation. Due to potential allergenic components like atranol and chloroatranol, IFRA now heavily restricts its use.

That’s where Evernyl comes in.

Also known as Veramoss® (IFF’s version), Evernyl is one of the key molecules responsible for oakmoss’s soft, slightly powdery drydown. If oakmoss is the forest floor, damp and shaded, Evernyl is the quiet drift of air that follows you when you leave it behind. It doesn’t carry the whole complexity of the moss, but what it does bring is indispensable. It offers a dry-mossy, subtly sweet, slightly woody anchor that blends beautifully into bases, especially when you want to suggest oakmoss without inviting a regulatory nightmare.

Veramoss doesn’t shout. Smelled on its own, it’s gentle. But drop it into a formula and it lights up. Suddenly, your blend has depth, structure, and an elegant thread tying it together. It’s a background player with exceptional impact. You’ve smelled it in classics like Ralph Lauren’s Polo, where it grounds that piney leather with a mossy richness. And you’ve definitely smelled it in Baccarat Rouge 540. That entire scent is built around a base accord simply called “Rouge,” made up of Hedione, Ambroxan, Ethyl Vanillin, Coumarin, and, get this, Veramoss at a full 20% of that base. That Rouge accord makes up nearly 90% of the final Baccarat formula. Simple structure, massive impact.

And that’s the real magic of Veramoss. It captures the memory of oakmoss through the base of a fragrance. It brings that dry, forested calm into compositions where natural moss might overwhelm or destabilize. It’s also completely soluble and plays well with other chemicals to help build a mossy accord from scratch.

Part 4 - Linalool

Part 6-Diluents

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