SPEARMINT

Spearmint smells sweetly minty, with a green, herbal freshness and a rounded character beside peppermint’s sharper menthol impression. Softer does not mean faint: its aroma can be quite pronounced. It can give an herbal fragrance a crisp leafy accent or introduce a fresh contrast within floral compositions, including lavender and jasmine effects.

The plant is Mentha spicata. Its leaves yield an essential oil by steam distillation, and carvone is a major contributor to the characteristic sweet mint aroma. This distinguishes it from peppermint, whose scent places more emphasis on menthol and menthone. A spearmint note may describe the effect of the plant or its oil without establishing the exact ingredients of a finished perfume. Its prominence and persistence depend on the composition; the fresh impression is not a promise of calming or therapeutic effects.