Methyl salicylate

Say itMETH-il suh-LIS-uh-layt

Sharp, sweet minty-medicinal wintergreen: root beer, muscle rub and chewing gum.

What it is: A molecule made in a lab.
Where it comes from: main component of wintergreen and sweet birch oils
When you smell it: Top notes: when you spray it.
What perfumers do with it: Traces add a fruity, sunny lift to tuberose, ylang and orange blossom; more turns medicinal.
Worth knowing: It has exactly the same atoms as vanillin, arranged differently: one smells of wintergreen, the other of vanilla.
Rules: Limited. Reproductive toxicant category 2; SCCS (2021) set safe maximum levels
Also called: Methyl 2-hydroxybenzoate; main constituent of wintergreen oil