Helichrysum Oil

What Helichrysum Oil smells like

Helichrysum (immortelle) oil is honeyed and hay-like with a spicy, curry-like note — the plant is called the curry plant for its leaves. The Good Scents Company lists one flower oil as sweet, warm, herbal, woody, floral, coumarinic and dried fruit; a Corsican oil as tobacco, spicy, fenugreek, curry, thyme and honey; another sweet, rich and honey-like with a delicate tea-like undertone. A glossary finds its sweetness closer to burnt sugar and maple syrup than honey.

Leading note

Honey-hay

Clear facets

Curry, fenugreek

Supporting facets

Dried fruit, tobacco

Faint facets

Tea

Character

Warm, sweet, dry, savoury

• honey
• hay
• curry
• fruity

What makes Helichrysum Oil distinctive

Sweetness with a savoury spice: honey, maple and hay over a curry-leaf note no other floral material has.

Where the descriptions disagree: Most describe a honey sweetness; one glossary finds it closer to burnt sugar and maple.

How Helichrysum Oil is used

Used in small amounts in tobacco, leather, oriental, chypre and gourmand compositions.

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

How Helichrysum Oil differs from similar materials

Fenugreek Absolute

Fenugreek is maple-curry with celery and nut; helichrysum adds honey, hay, dried fruit and tea.

Hay Absolute

Hay absolute is a sweet coumarin-hay with fig and honey; helichrysum is spicier, with a curry note.

Immortelle Absolute

The absolute from the same flowers is honey and caramel with hay and tobacco.

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

Expensive and often adulterated; buy from a trusted source.

Identity and classification

Type

Essential oil

Origin

Natural

Odour family

Aromatic / Gourmand

Note position

Heart to base note

Physical form at room temperature

Liquid

Also known as

Immortelle oil, Everlasting oil

Botanical source

Helichrysum italicum

CAS number

8023-95-8

The CAS number was checked on 19 October 2026 against a PubChem substance record that gives it for this material. A natural material is a mixture, so it has no single formula; its composition varies with origin and processing.

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

• Sotolone

  Aroma chemical · Gourmand / Spicy — fenugreek, maple, curry, caramel

• Fenugreek Absolute

  Absolute · Gourmand / Spicy — maple, curry, celery, hay

• Neryl Acetate

  Aroma chemical · Floral / Fruity — sweet, fruity, floral, orange blossom

• Labdanum Absolute

  Absolute · Amber / Leather — amber, balsamic, leathery, animalic

Helichrysum Oil is also suggested as a partner on the pages for Celery Seed Oil, Immortelle Absolute and Lovage Root Oil.

Used in formulas and accords

Not currently used in any published formula.

The Formula & Accord Library lists Helichrysum Oil here as soon as a published formula, accord or base uses it.

Further reading

• How to Build a Honey Accord

  A honey accord from phenylacetic acid and its esters: the building blocks, beeswax and honey absolutes, an illustrative vegan version, handling and records.

• Essential Oil Adulteration: How It Is Done and How to Catch It

  How essential oils are adulterated — dilution, substitution, added synthetics — how GC, chiral GC and physical checks catch it, and what a small lab can do.

• Aromatic Notes in Perfumery: Lavender, Sage, Rosemary and Mint

  The aromatic family for formulators: lavender, lavandin and spike, clary sage, rosemary, mint and basil — chemistry, chemotypes and EU allergen status.

Questions about Helichrysum Oil

Sources

• PubChem — substance 135340343, checked 19 October 2026.
• The Good Scents Company — helichrysum italicum oil — odour database.
• The Good Scents Company — immortelle odour category — odour database.
• Premiere Peau — Immortelle — published perfumery reference.
• Olfactory profile: the RUŌOD Lab team's synthesis of the published descriptions above, reviewed 24 October 2026. Evidence: more than one published description. Classification and the short description: revision 1. Descriptions of odour are judgement, not measurement.