Material guide · 6
Material guide: geraniol — an affordable rose structure from 198 suppliers
· 13 min read
Measured rose oils contain about 15.63–27.76% geraniol. It is one of rose odour's main structures and the widest-stocked material in the database, a practical start for a first rose accord.
Natural rose oil is priced out of a beginner's reach. One of the main pillars of the rose smell, though, costs next to nothing and is everywhere.
What matters
- Geraniol is one of the main constituents of rose, measured at roughly 16–28% of damask rose oil. To learn rose, start with it and its family.
- It sits in the same lesson as linalool: a weak sensitiser when pure, markedly stronger once oxidised. Seal it, keep it dark, date the opening.
- With 198 suppliers it is the most widely stocked material in our entire database. Cheap, and available everywhere.
The record
| CAS | 106-24-1 |
| Formula | C₁₀H₁₈O (same formula as linalool — the same atoms, wired differently) |
| MW | 154.25 |
| Odour | sweet, floral, fruity, rose, waxy, citrus, citronella |
| Strength | medium |
| Substantivity | 60 h (neat, on a strip) |
| Specific gravity | 0.870–0.885 (25 °C) |
| Shelf life | 24 months or longer (cool, dark, sealed) |
| Registers | GRAS, JECFA, CoE, FEMA GRAS, IFRA |
Plain reading: CAS is the material's ID number. "Same formula, different wiring" is called isomerism: geraniol (C₁₀H₁₈O) and linalool (C₁₀H₁₈O) share an atom list but not a layout, so one smells of rose and the other floral-woody. It is the most common kind of kinship molecules have. Sixty hours of substantivity puts it late-heart, far longer than linalool's 12.
How much of the rose is it?
"Geraniol smells of rose" comes with measurements attached. In 2023 Kumar and colleagues profiled the essential oil of six damask rose genotypes (four new clonal selections plus two check varieties) in Scientific Reports:
Acyclic monoterpene alcohols citronellol (20.35–44.75%) and geraniol (15.63–27.76%) were highest, followed by long-chain hydrocarbons, i.e. nonadecane (13.02–28.78%).
Two readings:
- Geraniol plus citronellol together account for roughly 40–70% of rose oil (our arithmetic from adding the two measured ranges, not a sentence from the paper). Buy those two plus phenethyl alcohol and you own the skeleton of the rose smell. (Our database: geraniol 198 suppliers, citronellol 119, phenethyl alcohol 110.)
- Same rose, different cultivars, wildly different numbers: citronellol runs anywhere from 20% to 45%. This is the batch variation article in cultivar form. The words "rose oil" leave the actual recipe wide open.
The full rose also leans on trace constituents (the damascenones above all), so the skeleton leaves plenty of the flower out. For a beginner, though, the skeleton is the right place to start.
Why an old bottle develops lemon
Geraniol oxidation forms products including citral, changing both odour and sensitisation potential. Reaction detail, storage and decanting now sit in An opened bottle is no longer the same material; this guide returns to its role as an affordable rose structure.
Smelling it
Our record gives it 7 descriptors: sweet, floral, fruity, rose, waxy, citrus, citronella.
- Evaluate at 10%. Neat it goes waxy and cloying; strength is medium.
- It is the "sweet" half of rose. Citronellol leans waxy-leathery and phenethyl alcohol leans dried-petal-and-honey, which leaves geraniol the sweetest and brightest of the trio. The first time I lined the three up on strips, the rose finally came apart for me.
- Starter experiment: geraniol 5 + citronellol 3 + phenethyl alcohol 2 (by weight), diluted to 10%. The cheapest first lesson in a rose accord I know of.
The family: one alcohol, a row of esters
Attach different acids to geraniol and you get the geranyl esters, each a different shade of sweet and fruity:
| Item | What it is |
|---|---|
| geraniol (198 suppliers) | the material itself — sweet rose |
| geranyl acetate (130) | the acetate — brighter, fruitier, a lavender edge; often used alongside |
| geranyl butyrate / propionate / formate (61/49/48) | fruit-toned variants |
| citral (135) | one of its oxidation products (the aldehyde half) — buy one fresh as a reference and you will know what "gone-off geraniol" is drifting towards |
Regulatory
Listed on GRAS, JECFA, CoE, FEMA GRAS, IFRA. As always, registers carry no limit values. Geraniol itself is one of the standard compounds used in fragrance allergy screening (Hagvall's words). For skin formulae consult the current IFRA Standards and the supplier's specification, and care about batch freshness — as above, the main sensitisers are the oxidation products.
Buying it
- 198 suppliers means the widest price-comparison field in our database. The cost article's homework pays best on this one.
- Check the manufacture date, same reason as linalool: you are buying time-until-oxidised.
- Pick up citronellol and phenethyl alcohol in the same order and the rose trio arrives in one shipment.
→ Geraniol in the database: full properties, supplier list, suggested pairings. → Citronellol | Phenethyl alcohol | Citral | Search by odour: try "rose sweet" for its neighbours.
References
L. Hagvall et al., Fragrance compound geraniol forms contact allergens on air exposure, Chemical Research in Toxicology, 20(5), 807–814 (2007). PMID 17428070
A. Kumar et al., Phenotyping floral traits and essential oil profiling revealed considerable variations in clonal selections of damask rose (Rosa damascena Mill.), Scientific Reports, 13, 8101 (2023). PMID 37208367