Material guide · 32
Material guide: galaxolide — the clean-laundry smell in detergent
· 13 min read
CAS 1222-05-5, a flagship polycyclic musk and a major source of clean-laundry odour in detergent and body wash. The neat material is viscous, substantivity reaches the top of the scale, and four 50% dilutions sit beside it.
Press your nose into laundry fresh out of the dryer and a good share of that "clean" smell is musk. The polycyclic generation's representative is this one. The ethylene brassylate guide told musk's three-generation history; this guide covers the third generation's star, and reads its environmental report card.
What matters
- Galaxolide is the flagship polycyclic musk: sweet, floral, clean, with a longevity record of 400 hours (and this one was measured neat). Medium strength, 34 suppliers, a backbone material of functional fragrance (detergent, softener, body wash).
- The neat material is a viscous liquid, and catalogs carry it plus four 50% dilutions: five entries, one CAS. Knowing which to buy is lesson one.
- The environmental line, both sides: wastewater studies confirmed households as the main source of polycyclic musks and treated wastewater discharges as the main route into surface waters, treatment plants remove roughly 50% to more than 95%, and a 2017 tiered risk assessment concluded minimal risk. Detection is a fact; the risk-assessment conclusion is also a fact. You should know both.
The basics
| CAS | 1222-05-5 |
| Formula | C₁₈H₂₆O |
| MW | 258.40 |
| Odor | sweet, floral, musk |
| Odor type | musk |
| Strength | medium |
| Longevity | 400 hours (measured neat at 100%, on a blotter) |
| Flash point | > 100 °C |
| Shelf life | 36 months or longer (cool, dark, sealed) |
| Listings | JECFA, CoE, IFRA |
Here, 400 hours is the ceiling of the source's scale (the vanillin guide covered this), though unlike ambroxan's 10%-dilution reading, this one was measured neat. The appearance is a colorless, clear, viscous liquid, and "viscous" is a word with a whole product family behind it.
Why the catalog lists it five times
| Entry | What it is |
|---|---|
| musk gx 100% (34 suppliers) | The neat material: colorless viscous liquid |
| musk gx 50% in IPM (30 suppliers) | Diluted in isopropyl myristate |
| musk gx 50% in DEP (27 suppliers) | Diluted in diethyl phthalate |
| musk gx 50% in BB (22 suppliers) | Diluted in benzyl benzoate |
| musk gx 50% in DPG (14 suppliers) | Diluted in dipropylene glycol |
One CAS, five entries. The neat material is thick and awkward to handle; we suspect that is why the dilutions became standard products, with the solvent choice sorted for you. When I started out I once spent ten minutes coaxing a few drops out of a neat bottle; after that I bought the 50% dilution. Pick the dilution to match your base: alcohol perfumery commonly uses the DPG or IPM versions, and remember to multiply by 0.5 in your formula math. Forgetting that is one of the most common beginner errors.
Why environmental research keeps watching it
Galaxolide enters wastewater through household products and can be detected in some receiving waters. Detection, persistence, hazard and realised risk are not one claim. The tiered risk assessment and comparison with other musks are in Synthetic musks are not one family.
When you smell it
- Neat on a blotter it is a quiet sweetness with powder and a touch of floral. Most people's first reaction is "clean laundry." It is used so widely in functional fragrance that your scent memory was trained long ago. It is not fussy about evaluation strength; at 10% or below it reads clearly.
- The musk family is known for specific anosmia (the ethylene brassylate guide covered the receptor study). If you can barely smell it, your nose is fine; verify with a few other people.
- Supplier catalog language describes it as approaching the tone of macrocyclic musks, and to our noses, diluted it reads softer than the typical polycyclic, drifting toward a skin-like scent.
Regulatory
Listed in JECFA, CoE, and IFRA. These listings do not provide use limits. The nitro musks in the same family (musk ketone is still on catalogs, 43 suppliers) sit in a very different regulatory position; the ethylene brassylate guide told the musk xylene REACH story. Check current IFRA Standards and national rules before anything skin-bound. AHTN (musk tetralin, 32 suppliers), its constant companion in the literature, needs its own regulatory check too.
Buying notes
- Beginners should buy a 50% dilution and skip the fight with the viscous neat material; multiply by 0.5 in formula math.
- It is a floor material: cheap, stable (36 months or longer), and forgiving in quantity. A good first choice for practicing musk bases.
- To compare polycyclic against macrocyclic, buy a bottle each of this and ethylene brassylate and smell them side by side. It is a cheap musk lesson.
→ Galaxolide in the database: full physical data, supplier list, suggested pairings. → Ethylene brassylate | Search by scent: try "musk clean" to find its neighbors.
References
M. Clara, O. Gans, G. Windhofer, U. Krenn, W. Hartl, K. Braun, S. Scharf & C. Scheffknecht, Occurrence of polycyclic musks in wastewater and receiving water bodies and fate during wastewater treatment, Chemosphere, 82(8), 1116–1123 (2011). PMID 21144551
M. Fan, Z. Liu, S. Dyer, P. Xia & X. Zhang, Environmental risk assessment of polycyclic musks HHCB and AHTN in consumer product chemicals in China, Science of the Total Environment, 599–600, 771–779 (2017). PMID 28499225