Raw Materials Used in Perfumery Part 6 - Diluents

I don’t think anyone gets into perfumery for the solvents. No one falls in love with fragrance because of dipropylene glycol or triethyl citrate. But if you want to actually build a fragrance that works. If you want something that doesn’t separate, crystallize, or feel like you’ve rubbed a sticky resin all over your neck. Then you’re going to have to care about them a little bit.

We’re talking about diluents. Not alcohol. The other stuff. The quiet carriers that keep the whole thing together.

Most of the ingredients we use as perfumers aren’t nice little ready-made liquids. Some are thicker than syrup like Vetiver or Galaxolide. Some are sticky resins like Labdanum. Others are actual powders or crystals — toneolide, vanillin, ambroxan, and coumarin. They don’t always blend nicely with other oils and if they make up a big chunk of your formula — you need something to help them dissolve, hold, and diffuse right in the compound. That’s where these non-alcohol diluents come in.

I use them constantly, and I’m especially a fan of TEC (triethyl citrate). It’s nearly odorless, naturally derived from citrus, food-grade, and biodegradable. It dissolves a wide range of materials, and it has a beautiful way of extending the longevity of a scent without interfering. Think of TEC as the neutral canvas: it anchors without coloring. It’s particularly good with naturals and crystalline solids that need a little extra coaxing into solution. I use it in many of my pre-diluted ingredients as it makes everything behave.

Then there’s benzyl benzoate. Heavier, thicker, and with just a trace of that sweet balsamic tone that works especially well with florals and orientals. It’s powerful at dissolving tough naturals as tolu balsam, or Phenylacetic acid, and it adds tenacity. It’s not without its issues: it’s on the EU allergen list, so you have to disclose it at certain levels. But used correctly, it’s an elegant tool. A quiet fixative that extends the drydown and smooths the edges.

DPG (dipropylene glycol) is the jack-of-all-trades. It doesn’t smell like anything, it mixes with almost everything, and it’s gentle on skin. You’ll see it a lot in oil-based perfumes, attars, and room sprays, especially in indie perfumery. It helps keep materials suspended and slows down the evaporation curve just enough to give your composition some shape. It’s not a strong fixative, but it’s reliable.

IPM, or isopropyl myristate, is another one and it absorbs into the skin almost immediately, which makes it great for roll-ons, perfume oils, and alcohol-free formats. It doesn’t carry heavier solids on its own, but pair it with TEC or BB and it completes the circle. IPM gives a nice silky feel without adding weight or interfering with the scent.

And then there’s myristyl myristate and other long-chain esters. Waxy solids that are best in balms or solid perfumes, where you want serious hold and longevity. These don’t lift—they cling. They lock a scent to skin or fabric for hours, even days, and give you that slow-bloom effect that’s hard to get with alcohol alone.

None of these diluents are “fillers.” They’re functional. They’re how you dissolve the undissolvable, how you extend the scent without shouting, how you take raw materials and make them wearable. Used right, they won’t add any detectable odor of their own, but they will absolutely change the performance of your fragrance.

And yes — they’re safe. TEC is food-grade. IPM is used in skincare. DPG is a staple in cosmetic formulations. Even BB, while it does need to be labeled at higher doses, is used all over the world in fine fragrance with no problem. This isn’t the wild west of solvents from the 1950s. These are clean, modern, biodegradable materials that let us work with a broader palette and keep our formulas stable and elegant.

So no, diluents don’t get the spotlight, but they make the scent possible.

Part 5 - Veramoss

Part 7 - Clearwood

28 comments