Damascenone

TL;DR. This ingredient is used as a fragrance component, adding a powerful warm floral, fruity, and woody odor note at very low concentrations. It is not used for preservation, cleansing, or skin conditioning.

What does Damascenone do in a cosmetic formula?

This ingredient is used as a fragrance component, adding a powerful warm floral, fruity, and woody odor note at very low concentrations. It is not used for preservation, cleansing, or skin conditioning.

Is Damascenone clean?

From a clean-beauty perspective, it sits in the fragrance category, so scrutiny is usually about sensitization potential, disclosure, and IFRA category limits rather than core skin benefit. It is used at trace levels, but fragrance-sensitive users may still react to it depending on the full scent blend.

Is Damascenone sustainable?

This material occurs naturally in some botanicals, but commercial supply may come from isolation, synthesis, or biotechnology depending on the supplier. Its very low use level reduces material demand, and it is not known as a major persistence concern in the way some long-lived fragrance materials are.

Is Damascenone COSMOS-approved?

It can align with COSMOS only when supplied as part of a compliant natural fragrance or derived through permitted natural processes. Nature-identical or fully synthetic grades would not fit COSMOS-natural or COSMOS-organic fragrance rules, so documentation from the fragrance house matters.

How does Damascenone work chemically?

The molecule is a C13 norisoprenoid unsaturated ketone with an extremely low odor threshold, so finished products typically use it at trace to low-ppm levels within a fragrance concentrate. Its conjugated structure can be sensitive to oxygen, light, and heat, so formulators rely on controlled storage, antioxidants in the fragrance base, and IFRA category limits for final use.

Last updated 2026-08-16