Cinnamomum verum (Ceylon) · Cinnamomum cassia (Cassia)
Appearance
pale yellow to yellow liquid
Odor Strength
Medium
Producing Countries
China, Indonesia, Madagascar, Sri Lanka
Pyramid
Heart
Dry heat on the tongue, sweet dust in the throat. Cinnamon is the one spice note that needs no context — the brain names it before it names the source. In perfumery, everything depends on whether the bark comes from Sri Lanka or Southeast Asia, and how much cinnamaldehyde the formula can tolerate before IFRA intervenes.
Immediate dry heat — not the wet warmth of clove or the slow burn of pepper, but a sharp, sweet, almost abrasive spice that registers in the sinuses before the brain names it. Ceylon bark carries a second layer: eugenol-driven warmth with a faint floral-fruity lift, like biting into a cinnamon stick and catching a ghost of dried fruit. Cassia is simpler — a monochrome blast of cinnamaldehyde, candy-store direct, almost chemical in its insistence. Both are warmer and sweeter than black pepper, less green than cardamom, less numbing than Sichuan pepper. The physical tingle — a warmth that borders on irritation — comes from cinnamaldehyde's activation of TRPA1 receptors on sensory neurons.
Evolution over time
Immediately
Immediately
Sharp, sweet, unmistakable cinnamaldehyde bite. The heat arrives before the sweetness — a dry, almost metallic spice that fills the sinuses. Ceylon bark oil shows a brief eugenol-clove flash underneath.
After a few hours
After a few hours
The aldehyde sharpness softens. What remains is a warm, powdery-sweet spice with balsamic depth. The eugenol and beta-caryophyllene facets of Ceylon oil become more apparent — drier, woodier, less aggressive. Cassia fades faster and flatter.
After a few days
After a few days
Moderate tenacity. TGSC substantivity for the bark oil: 372 hours at 100%; for pure cinnamaldehyde: 212 hours. After 8-12 hours on skin, a faint warm-sweet, slightly resinous ghost persists. The lighter aldehydes have evaporated; the heavier phenolics and sesquiterpenes anchor the residue.
Terroir & Chemotypes
Indicative 2025 wholesale prices.
The Full Story
Cinnamon cassia carries the spice register in Première Peau's Insuline Safrine — woven between Greek saffron and a Saint-Honoré pastry accord.
Two trees, two oils, two entirely different materials. Ceylon cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum) — native to Sri Lanka — produces a bark oil with 65-80% cinnamaldehyde layered over eugenol (2-5%), linalool, and faint fruity esters. The result is warm, sweet, and dimensioned: spice with a clove-like undertow and fleeting citrus. Cassia (C. cassia, C. burmannii, C. loureiroi) pushes cinnamaldehyde to 85-98%, stripping away the supporting cast. Sharper, flatter, more aggressive. Fine perfumery uses Ceylon. Industrial fragrance uses cassia or synthetic cinnamaldehyde.
The critical confusion: bark oil versus leaf oil. From the same Cinnamomum verum tree, bark oil is cinnamaldehyde-dominant and smells like cinnamon. Leaf oil is eugenol-dominant (70-95%) with cinnamaldehyde at 1-5% — it smells like clove. Same species, different organ, completely different chemistry. This is not a subtle distinction. They are functionally unrelated materials in a formula.
Cinnamaldehyde (CAS 104-55-2, MW 132.16) is the molecule that makes cinnamon smell like cinnamon. It is also a potent skin sensitizer, activating TRPA1 nociceptors — the same ion channels triggered by mustard oil. IFRA restricts cinnamaldehyde to 0.05% in a finished fine fragrance (Category 4). For a Ceylon bark oil containing 75% cinnamaldehyde, this translates to roughly 0.07% of the oil in the total formula. Economy is mandatory: cinnamon in a perfumer's hands is a scalpel, not a brush. A fraction of a percent transforms an amber accord. Exceed the ceiling and the formula fails compliance.
Beyond the aldehyde, Ceylon bark oil contributes eugenol (spicy-clove warmth), beta-caryophyllene (dry wood), linalool (light floral lift), and trace coumarin (hay-like sweetness). These secondary molecules are what separate a natural cinnamon accord from a synthetic one — the synthetic is louder but thinner. CO2 extraction preserves more of these minor constituents than steam distillation, producing a rounder, more faithful representation of the raw bark.
This note in Première Peau. Albâtre Sépia · Gravitas Capitale · Insuline Safrine. Sample all seven extraits in the Discovery Set.
Cinnamaldehyde was first isolated from bark oil in 1834 by Dumas and Péligot, then synthesized in a laboratory by Luigi Chiozza in 1854 — making it one of the earliest aroma chemicals to be both identified and reproduced synthetically, two decades before vanillin.
Extraction & Chemistry
Extraction method: Steam distillation of dried inner bark yields 1.5-3.5% essential oil (Ceylon, Cinnamomum verum). Cassia bark (C. cassia, C. burmannii) yields similarly. Supercritical CO2 extraction produces a fuller, rounder profile — yields up to 6% — because the low processing temperature (~40-50°C) avoids thermal degradation of the aldehydes and preserves more of the secondary constituents (eugenol, linalool, beta-caryophyllene). Cinnamon leaf oil is a separate product entirely: distilled from leaves, it is eugenol-dominant (70-95%) and smells like clove, not cinnamon. Synthetic cinnamaldehyde (CAS 104-55-2) is produced industrially via crossed aldol condensation of benzaldehyde and acetaldehyde — first achieved by Luigi Chiozza in 1854, scaled commercially in the 1920s. The synthetic molecule is identical to the natural trans-cinnamaldehyde and dominates functional fragrance applications.
8015-91-6 (Ceylon bark oil, C. verum), 8007-80-5 (Cassia bark oil, C. cassia)
Botanical Name
Cinnamomum verum (Ceylon) · Cinnamomum cassia (Cassia)
IFRA Status
Restricted — cinnamaldehyde (CAS 104-55-2) limited to 0.05% in finished fine fragrance (IFRA Category 4, sensitization). Ceylon bark oil with 75% cinnamaldehyde is capped at approximately 0.07% in formula.
Cinnam on operates as a heart-note accelerant — it amplifies warmth in amber and gourm and structures without requiring high dosage. Cinnamaldehyde (CAS 104-55-2) is the molecule responsible, available both from natural distillati on and synthes is via crossed aldol condensati on of benzaldehyde and acetaldehyde. IFRA restricts cinnamaldehyde to 0.05% in a finished fine fragrance (Category 4, sensitizati on), which forces perfumers to dose at sub-threshold levels where cinnam on creates the illusi on of sweetness without sugar — a trick used in spicy-amber frameworks alongside benzo in, labdanum, and vanill a. Ceyl on bark oil supplies the layered; synthetic cinnamaldehyde supplies the punch and consistency. The material anchors Middle Eastern-inspired compositions and adds bite to gourm and accords that would otherwise cloy. Première Peau's INSULINE SAFRINE (/products/insuline-safrine-saffr on-perfume) deploys warm spice notes — saffr on and oud — in a similar amber register where cinnam on's heat is structurally at home.
