About Captives
February 4, 2024.
Starting today, we will update our perfume formulas to include captive ingredients whenever they are found in their GCMS analyses. Until now, we used to replace these captives, often adding multiple unnecessary ingredients.
We believe this change will be important for everyone, not only to find out the exact amount of captives, but also to understand how they affect the fragrance smell. Some of our buyers are students/employees from big houses and companies with access to these captives, and they will benefit significantly from this change as our formulas will become even more accurate.
You can now exercise your creativity by making your own replacements or simply following our suggestions below. We will also provide our own replacement formulas for some captives.
| Captive | Possible Replacement(s) |
|---|---|
| Paradisone® (Firmenich) | Hedione® HC (Firmenich), Paradise Molecule (Fraterworks) |
| Mahonial® (Givaudan) | Mahonia (Creative Formulas), Bourgeonal (Givaudan), Lyral® (IFF), Lyral Replacers |
| Petalia® (Givaudan) | Peonile® (Givaudan) |
| Nirvanolide® (Givaudan) | Musk Ketone |
| Serenolide® (Givaudan) | Helvetolide® (Firmenich) |
| Sylkolide® (Givaudan) | Velvione® (Givaudan), Cosmone® (Givaudan) |
| Akigalawood® (Givaudan) | Rotunwood (Creative Formulas), Akigala Extreme (Fraterworks) |
| Rosyfolia® (Givaudan) | Geraniol |
| Pomarose® (Givaudan) | Pommescone (Creative Formulas), Alpha Damascone |
| Calypsone® (Givaudan) | Aquaflor® (Bedoukian) |
| Mysoral® (Firmenich) | Firsantol® (Firmenich) |
| Mugane™ (MANE) | Florol® (Firmenich), Mayol® (Firmenich) |
| Georgywood® (Givaudan) | Sylvamber™ (Firmenich), Timbersilk® (IFF), Orbitone® T (Takasago) |
Last update: April 7, 2025
IMPORTANT INFO: some captives are unique and can’t be replaced. Keep in mind that these replacements are not perfect and sometimes their amounts need to be adjusted. The purpose of this table is to suggest alternatives that “fill the gap” with similar olfactory profile, just like we did in our previous formulas. We will update this list whenever we discover new options; feel free to send us your suggestions.
18 Comments
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arandes62
February 10, 2024 at 12:37Helvetolide and Romandolide are two completely different musks. Helvetolide is one of the very few musks that can be distinctly felt in the top notes, it has a fruity pear profile and is very diffusive even at low percentages, Romandolide is the musk closest to Galaxolide.
Filipe
February 14, 2024 at 10:45You’re right; Serenolide is closer to Helvetolide. I removed Romandolide from the list!
bkkornaker
February 13, 2024 at 18:30Personally, I think the captives “should be” included in the formulas, and let the end users decide how to replace it.
Filipe
February 14, 2024 at 10:48I completely agree! I’m glad I finally found a lab capable of identifying most of the captives.
arandes62
March 31, 2024 at 09:50I don’t really agree. I don’t see why you should buy a formula with captive materials and try to replace them in some way, not knowing at all what they smell like. I’ll give you an example: Magnolan is described as “floral-green, reminiscent of magnolia, peony, geranium, grapefruit and lychee”… we know well that this material is in no way replaceable, if you do you will get a perfume with an olfactory profile absolutely divergent from the original.
This is obviously just my opinion.
ahmedattarwala
October 13, 2024 at 18:06Yes true
ahmedattarwala
October 13, 2024 at 18:10Even I agree , captive should be mentioned in formula , if analysis is aware of it
alexvetangle
February 21, 2024 at 23:22What is the replacement for Cachalox?
ahmedattarwala
October 13, 2024 at 18:07I would advice ambroxan
Taxy
March 22, 2024 at 06:06This is indeed a great improvement.
Nympheal has been released in the recent weeks, so perhaps it can be taken from this list.
Also, is it possible to give an indication as to the replacement ratio? Nympheal, for example, is a number of times stronger than silvial.
LordWonton
August 3, 2024 at 17:16Any ideas what I can replace for Ambertonic?
ahmedattarwala
October 13, 2024 at 18:09I guess ambertonic should be replace by cashmeran
Sinfonide and ambertonic has similar ionization , only difference is
Ambertonic is m/z 133 173
Sinfonide is m/z 227 242
alfredocreative
September 4, 2024 at 13:30I find myself agreeing with several opposing views here, so I guess my conclusion is that the sale of a formula that has captives will go either way, especially if the individual is not as familiar with the perfume as to replace captive materials. Arandes62, above, makes a great point. Personally, I prefer older formulas, which are also less likely to have captives as many older captives were released since those perfumes were created. I generally do not go for perfumes that were released within the last 5 years (or last week!), and prefer many from the last 20-40 years — or even more vintage, when available here. Recreating a perfume I can go buy at the store counter because it was released last month is nothing compared to the beauty of recreating a perfume that was loved but has been discontinued. Someone reviewed the Tsar formula on this site and praised the historical reference, and its availability here, and I agreed 100%. I would definitely love to see more older perfumes such as Detchema, Safari, Diorissimo, Crabteee and Evelyn’s spectacular Sienna, Classic Lavender and Classic Wisteria, and more Penhaligon’s (offering ‘Halfeti Cedar’ here was an amazing start!), while also some more modern but not from this decade (like Un Jardin en Méditerranée). The upside would also be less chances of captives!
المجدي
November 7, 2024 at 19:55Hello .. Greetings to all of you .. I would like to point out that the modern formulas that mention the captive materials are the best .. and the greatest benefit of buying the formula is knowing the specific aromas that go into the perfume and how to create this scent with the original materials of the producing company !! And in order for the formula to be useful to me, the site must show me alternatives to the captive as it is doing now
idfindlay
November 16, 2024 at 23:44Going off descriptions would cascalone or maybe even calone be a substitute for calypsone? Though they seem to be completely different chemical groups, the descriptions are extremely similar.
wcaomq
December 3, 2024 at 21:54Hi Felipe , what is the replacement for Ambramone™ (MANE) ? You have this captive listed in one of you Formulas but no replacement was provided.
Valetino
February 2, 2025 at 14:42There is a reason why they have used captives in the formula. Now having the information available in the formula allows one to reproduce original like Perfume. Having a replacer or second best choice alters the scent profile slightly. Nice job, Flippe.
jalcachof
March 14, 2025 at 15:51Is there any recommendation for replacing Sinfonide?