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Peach Blossom

FLOWERS  /  floral · fruity · sweet
Peach Blossom
Peach Blossom perfume ingredient
CategoryFLOWERS
Subcategoryfloral · fruity · sweet
Origin
VolatilityHeart Note
BotanicalPrunus persica
AppearancePale yellow liquid with a sweet fruity scent
Odor StrengthMedium
Producing CountriesChina, Japan, United States
PyramidHeart

Delicate almond-rose floral with a hint of coumarin. The actual blossom smells nothing like peach fruit -- it is a soft, bitter-almond flower closer to cherry blossom.

  1. Scent
  2. The Full Story
  3. Fun Fact
  4. Extraction & Chemistry
  5. In Perfumery

Scent

Almond-rose, delicate, and faintly powdery. Not peachy at all. Like pressing your face into a branch of just-opened Prunus blossoms -- bitter almond, a soft rose-like sweetness, a whisper of coumarin, and the cold green of the stem. Ephemeral and spring-like.

Evolution over time

Immediately

Immediately

Bright, bitter-almond freshness with a rose-honeyed edge. Spring-like and ephemeral.
After a few hours

After a few hours

The almond fades. A soft, powdery-floral warmth remains -- coumarin and heliotrope.
After a few days

After a few days

Nearly gone. A faint, powdery trace.

The Full Story

Peach blossom (Prunus persica) belongs to the Rosaceae family, making it a botanical cousin of cherry, plum, and almond blossoms. The flowers appear before the fruit and have a delicate, almond-rose character driven by benzaldehyde (the bitter almond molecule) and traces of coumarin.

This is a crucial distinction: peach blossom smells nothing like peach fruit. There is no gamma-decalactone peachiness, no lactonic creaminess, no fuzzy skin sweetness. The flower is closer to cherry blossom or bitter almond -- ethereal, slightly powdery, and tinged with marzipan.

Peach blossoms are not commercially extracted for perfumery. The note is a fantasy accord, reconstructed using benzaldehyde (almond), heliotropin (powdery sweetness), traces of phenylacetaldehyde (rose-like, honeyed), and light coumarin notes. Some perfumers add a barely perceptible lactonic thread to bridge toward the fruit association.

In a composition, peach blossom sits in the top-to-heart transition. It provides a fleeting, spring-like floral freshness -- the smell of an orchard in early April, before any fruit appears.

This note in Première Peau. Nuit Elastique · Rose Monotone. Sample all seven extraits in the Discovery Set.

Related: Accord Eudora · African Marigold · Alpha Amylcinnamaldehyde · Alyssum · Angels Trumpet · Aquaflora · Ashoka Flower · Aurantiol

Did You Know?

Did you know?
In classical Chinese painting, the peach blossom (taohua) symbolizes spring, romance, and the fleeting nature of beauty. The Tao Hua Yuan Ji (Peach Blossom Spring), a 5th-century Chinese fable by Tao Yuanming, describes a hidden utopia found through a grove of peach trees -- a enduring images in East Asian literature.

Extraction & Chemistry

Extraction method: Not commercially extracted. Peach blossoms yield no viable essential oil or absolute. The note is a fantasy accord built from benzaldehyde, heliotropin, and coumarin-adjacent materials.

Molecular FormulaKey aroma compound: gamma-decalactone C₁₀H₁₈O₂
CAS Number84012-34-0
Botanical NamePrunus persica
IFRA StatusNo known restrictions
SynonymsPEACH FLOWER · PRUNUS BLOSSOM
Physical Properties
Odor StrengthMedium
AppearancePale yellow liquid with a sweet fruity scent

In Perfumery

Top-to-heart note in spring-floral, almond-blossom, and orchard-inspired compositions. Functions as a delicate, bitter-almond floral -- very different from peach-fruit lactonic notes. Built from benzaldehyde, heliotropin, phenylacetaldehyde, and light coumarin. Bridges spring-green openings into warmer hearts.

From the raw to the worn

This is what it becomes.