The drawing: pencil shavings on velvet, curls on folded velvetThe drawing: pencil shavings on velvet, pencil on velvet strip
Pencil shavings on velvetDrawn as what it smells like: pencil shavings on velvet.

Ingredients · Woods · dry-down

Iso E Super

Say itEYE-soh EE Super

Soft, dry cedar, like a freshly sharpened pencil, and warm, clean skin.

Perfumers call it velvety: it smooths the notes around it and gives them a soft glow.

What it is
A molecule made in a lab, first made by IFF in 1973.
Where it comes from
Made from myrcene, a molecule found in many plants.
When you smell it
Dry-down: what stays.
What perfumers do with it
It works on the rest of the perfume more than it speaks for itself. A little rounds off sharp edges and makes flowers and woods feel fuller. A lot gives a perfume its glow and helps it carry in the air. One perfumer likens it to a layer laid over a picture, softening everything beneath it.
Worth knowing
About a twentieth of it does nearly all the smelling; the rest has almost no smell of its own. Many people catch it only on and off: the nose loses it for minutes, then finds it again. If it seems to come and go on you, that is the molecule, not the bottle.
Known in
Molecule 01 (Escentric Molecules, 2006), which is nothing but this; Terre d'Hermès (Hermès, 2006), where it is over half of the perfume oil; Féminité du Bois (Shiseido, 1992), over two fifths; Fahrenheit (Dior, 1988), a quarter
Rules
Limited. IFRA 49th Amendment limits; up to 20% in fine fragrance.
Also called
OTNE; tetramethyl acetyloctahydronaphthalenes; Orbitone (Takasago); patchouli ethanone; Isocyclemone E

On the label of 272 of the 1080 perfumes read so far

SauvageDior · printed “Tetramethyl acetyloctahydronaphthalenes”Good GirlCarolina Herrera · printed “Tetramethyl acetyloctahydronaphthalenes”Bleu de ChanelChanel · printed “Tetramethyl acetyloctahydronaphthalenes”Coco MademoiselleChanel · printed “Tetramethyl acetyloctahydronaphthalenes”Tobacco VanilleTom Ford · printed “Tetramethyl acetyloctahydronaphthalenes”Santal 33Le Labo · printed “Tetramethyl acetyloctahydronaphthalenes”

Named by the house, not on the label, in 4

Molecule 01Escentric Molecules · “Iso E Super”Dylan PurpleVersace · “iso e super”Escentric 01Escentric Molecules · “Iso E Super”Molecule 01 + MandarinEscentric Molecules · “Iso E Super”

Sources