Carnation Absolute

What Carnation Absolute smells like

The Good Scents Company lists carnation absolute as sweet, spicy, honey, herbal and heavy floral. Eden Botanicals describes the genuine material as very green and herbaceous with a warm honey note and warns that it is often adulterated with clove or cinnamon to supply the spice buyers expect; its customers disagree on how clove-like it is. A glossary attributes the spice to eugenol softened by floral and powdery qualities.

Leading note

Honeyed floral

Clear facets

Green

Supporting facets

Clove, herbaceous

Character

Heavy, warm

• honey
• clove
• spicy
• green
• floral

What makes Carnation Absolute distinctive

The real carnation is greener and more honeyed than the clove accords that imitate it.

Where the descriptions disagree: Suppliers describe a clove-like spice; buyers of the genuine material find it greener, even vanilla-like.

How Carnation Absolute is used

Used, at low levels, as the natural heart of carnation and spicy floral accords. Eden Botanicals notes that genuine carnation absolute is greener and more herbaceous than buyers expect, and that the clove-like spice is often supplied by adulteration, so it is commonly rounded out with eugenol or other spice notes rather than relied on alone for spice.

Typical role: modifier (used in small amounts to change the character of a blend).

How Carnation Absolute differs from similar materials

Cassie Absolute

Cassie absolute is powdery and violet-honeyed with a cinnamon-clove edge; carnation absolute is greener and more herbaceous, honeyed and spicy without the powder.

Each difference compares the published descriptions of the two materials. Smell varies with grade, supplier and dilution; compare them side by side on blotters before substituting one for another.

Formulation considerations

Often adulterated with clove or cinnamon to give the spice buyers expect, according to one supplier. No CAS number specific to it was confirmed.

Identity and classification

Type

Absolute

Origin

Natural

Odour family

Floral / Spicy

Note position

Heart note

Physical form at room temperature

Viscous liquid

Also known as

Oeillet absolute

Botanical source

Dianthus caryophyllus L.

No CAS number is shown: suppliers use different identifiers for this material, and none could be confirmed as its own.

Safety and compliance

This page is general information, not a safety assessment or a specification. Confirm identity, composition, IFRA status and allergen content from your supplier's documents for the lot you hold.

Materials it works with

• Eugenol

  Aroma chemical · Spicy / Floral — clove, spicy, warm

• Isoeugenol

  Aroma chemical · Spicy / Floral — carnation, spicy, floral, sweet

• Ylang Ylang Oil

  Essential oil · Floral / Spicy — floral, creamy, sweet, banana

Used in formulas and accords

Used in 3 published formulas

Carnation Absolute is an ingredient in 2 perfume formulas and 1 accord in the Formula & Accord Library.

Community formulas

• 1882 Naturals

  Community Formula

• Carnation Accord

  Community Formula · Accord

RUŌOD House Originals

Original compositions by RUŌOD House.

• Red Carnation Engine

  RUŌOD House Original · listed as “Carnation Absolute 10% DPG”, at 10% in DPG

Further reading

• Perfume Materials by Odor Family: A Formulator's Palette Map

  Which materials build each odor family — citrus, floral, woody, amber, musk and more — their usual roles, what to watch for, and links to each in depth.

Questions about Carnation Absolute

Sources

• The Good Scents Company — carnation absolute — odour database.
• Eden Botanicals — Carnation Absolute — distributor's description.
• Premiere Peau — Carnation absolute — published perfumery reference.
• Olfactory profile: the RUŌOD Lab team's synthesis of the published descriptions above, reviewed 26 October 2026. Evidence: more than one published description. Classification and the short description: revision 1. Descriptions of odour are judgement, not measurement.