Yellow to amber-brown, semi-solid wax (solidifies at room temperature; requires warming or pre-dissolution for use)
Odor Strength
Medium
Producing Countries
France (Grasse, Tanneron massif — IG certified), Morocco (primary volume source), India, Australia (origin, minor production)
Pyramid
Heart
Golden, powdery, faintly green. Mimosa smells like almond-dusted face powder left open in a sunlit greenhouse — a dry, polleny sweetness softened by a watery cucumber freshness that no other flower material quite replicates.
Softer and drier than violet, less indolic than jasmine, more powdery than ylang-ylang. Mimosa opens with a watery, cucumber-green brightness — nonadienal and a herbaceous snap — that dissolves within minutes into a warm, golden, almond-face-powder heart. Para-anisaldehyde and beta-ionone overlap here, creating a texture halfway between heliotrope and orris. Underneath, a faint wintergreen sharpness from methyl salicylate and a waxy, lipid heaviness from the long-chain hydrocarbons give the absolute a physical density that distinguishes it from synthetic mimosa accords. The dry-down is honeyed, quietly gourmand, and persistent on fabric.
Evolution over time
Immediately
Immediately
Watery, cucumber-green brightness over a powdery-almond foundation. Nonadienal dominates the opening alongside a crisp herbaceous snap from benzaldehyde
After a few hours
After a few hours
The green fades. Golden, warm, face-powder softness — anisaldehyde and beta-ionone merging into a texture between heliotrope and orris. Faint wintergreen (methyl salicylate) adds a quiet sharpness underneath
After a few days
After a few days
Honeyed, waxy, quietly persistent. Long-chain hydrocarbons and triterpenoids anchor a dry, gourmand-adjacent sweetness on fabric — more powder than sugar, more pollen than candy
Terroir & Origins
Indicative 2025 wholesale prices.
The Full Story
The mimosa of perfumery is Acacia dealbata — the silver wattle, native to southeastern Australia and introduced to southern France around 1816 via the gardens of Malmaison. It is not the sensitive plant Mimosa pudica, which has no fragrance application. A second acacia, A. farnesiana, produces cassie absolute — a related but darker, spicier, more animalic material. The two are sometimes confused. In perfumery, 'mimosa' means dealbata: the golden pom-pom clusters harvested between January and March along the hills between Tanneron and the coast.
The absolute is obtained by solvent extraction (hexane) of flowering branches — flowers plus twig-ends — yielding roughly 0.5% concrete. Alcohol washing of this concrete produces an absolute at 20-25% conversion. Global output is small: 200-1,500 kg of concrete and 100-300 kg of absolute per year, principally from the Grasse region and Morocco. Since November 2020, mimosa absolute from the Pays de Grasse has been eligible for the Indication Géographique certification administered by INPI, alongside rose and jasmine.
Chemically, mimosa absolute is dominated by long-chain hydrocarbons — heptadecane, (Z)-heptadec-8-ene, nonadecane — and triterpenoids such as lupenone and lupeol, which form the waxy backbone. The olfactively important trace compounds are what matter to a perfumer: para-anisaldehyde (sweet, almond-anise), methyl salicylate (wintergreen), benzyl alcohol, beta-ionone (violet-woody), nonadienal (cucumber-green), and farnesol. This trace-driven character means the absolute smells nothing like a GC printout would suggest: it is the minority constituents that create mimosa's paradox of powdery warmth and green freshness. Perriot and Breme documented this composition in detail (J. Agric. Food Chem., 2010, 58, 1844-1849).
This note in Première Peau. Doppel Dänçers · Nuit Elastique · Rose Monotone. Sample all seven extraits in the Discovery Set.
Acacia dealbata is not a mimosa at all. The botanical genus Mimosa (the 'sensitive plants' whose leaves fold when touched) belongs to the same family (Fabaceae) but a different sub-group. The name stuck in Europe because eighteenth-century botanists initially classified the Australian acacias under Mimosa before reclassifying them. This means every 'mimosa festival' on the Côte d'Azur — and every 'mimosa' perfume — is technically celebrating an acacia.
Extraction & Chemistry
Extraction method: Solvent extraction (hexane) of Acacia dealbata flowering branches — flowers and twig-ends are extracted together, which is unusual for floral absolutes. Concrete yield: approximately 0.5% (roughly 150-200 kg of plant material per 1 kg of concrete). Absolute conversion from concrete via alcohol washing: 20-25%. Annual global production: 200-1,500 kg concrete, 100-300 kg absolute, depending on harvest. Principal production: Grasse region and Tanneron massif (France), with Morocco as the primary volume source. Harvest season: January to March. Payan Bertrand, a Grasse house operating since 1854, processes over 5 tonnes of mimosa annually. The Indication Géographique Absolue Pays de Grasse certification (INPI, November 2020) now covers mimosa alongside rose de mai and jasmine.
Permitted. Contains coumarin, a restricted allergen under IFRA (max 1.6% in fine fragrance, Category 4) and EU Cosmetic Regulation (mandatory labelling above 0.001% in leave-on products). Batch-level monitoring required.
High tenacity (semi-solid waxy absolute; exact hour count varies by source and dilution)
Appearance
Yellow to amber-brown, semi-solid wax (solidifies at room temperature; requires warming or pre-dissolution for use)
Flash Point
> 200.00 °F. TCC ( > 93.33 °C. )
Specific Gravity
0.98900 to 1.22000 @ 25.00 °C.
Refractive Index
1.49000 to 1.55000 @ 20.00 °C.
In Perfumery
Mimosa functions as a heart note with a soft, enveloping character that sits between powdery-floral and green-floral. Its anisaldehyde content connects it structurally to heliotrope and almond notes; its beta-ionone links it to violet and iris; its nonadienal bridges it toward green-aquatic qualities. This molecular versatility makes it useful far beyond soliflore mimosa compositions. In practice, mimosa absolute rounds out rose accords (softening their sharpness), adds a golden warmth to iris-based compositions, and provides a powdery foundation in spring-floral bouquets. It pairs functionally with violet, iris, sandalwood, ylang-ylang, and tonka. In the Grasse tradition, the brief January-March harvest window gives it a seasonal rarity that few other flower absolutes share. The waxy, semi-solid consistency of the absolute (it solidifies at room temperature) makes it technically demanding to work with — most formulations use it pre-dissolved or in dilution.
