Two per cent. That is roughly how much cashmeran a perfumer needs in a formula, and it is often the thing you are actually smelling.
Cashmeran is a single synthetic molecule, chemical shorthand DPMI, formula C14H22O. It was discovered at International Flavors & Fragrances in the 1970s by John Hall, who was working through inexpensive chemical routes off the pentamethyl indane and tetramethyl naphthalene structures. The patent, US 3,773,836, issued on 20 November 1973. At room temperature it is a white solid, because it melts at 27 degrees.
People call it a musk. It is not one, at least not by IFRA's definition, which requires a molecule used primarily and uniquely for musk odour, with a central aromatic benzene ring and a formula of C17H24O or C18H26O. Cashmeran has no benzene ring and fails every part of that test.
What it smells of is harder to pin down: spicy, fruity, balsamic, a touch of vanilla, and a dry woody-mossy edge running through it. IFF named it after cashmere because the effect on skin is soft and warm rather than sharp. The texture is the whole point of the molecule.
Dosage tells you how loud it is. Cashmeran typically goes in at around 2 per cent. Galaxolide, a genuine polycyclic musk, can be used at up to 30 per cent. One is a seasoning. The other is a bulk ingredient.
You have almost certainly worn it. Cashmeran sits in Yves Saint Laurent Black Opium, in Carolina Herrera Good Girl, and in Byredo Blanche, among plenty of others.
Fragrance note lists usually print it as cashmere wood, which is worth flagging. There is no cashmere tree. Nothing was harvested. It is a laboratory ketone patented in 1973, and if you have ever called a fragrance cosy without being able to say why, this is normally the answer.
Two of our best sellers are built on originals that use it. Eclipse is our take on YSL Black Opium and Baddie our take on Carolina Herrera Good Girl, both UK-made sprays at 35% concentration. Browse the Yves Saint Laurent collection or the best perfume dupes in the UK for 2026.
