When is a damascone not a damascone? When it's Givescone! To the untrained nose it would be easy to presume that this sticky and fruity chemical is part of the rose ketone family, but it isn't. As a consequence it can be thrown in your scents with gay abandon. It has no IFRA restriction at all. The author of Perfumery: Techniques in evolution describes it as “a well known chemical that is difficult to describe. It has many nuances of the damascones and damascenone, but is less sharp-metallic and has more of a sweet-apple note. It combines very well with undecavertol[.]” Givescone is used at 0.2% in My Way (2020) by Armani where it enhances the fruitiness of a blend of damascones and raspberry ketone. A larger 0.8% is found in Kurkdjian's Gentle Fluidity Gold (2019) backed up by a massive 38% of sweet musks Helvetolide and Tonalide. “The tall striped tulips stood straight up upon their stalks, like long rows of soldiers, and looked defiantly across the grass at the roses, and said: We are quite as splendid as you are now. The purple butterflies fluttered about with gold dust on their wings, visiting each flower in turn; the little lizards crept out of the crevices of the wall, and lay basking in the white glare; and the pomegranates split and cracked with the heat, and showed their bleeding red hearts.” — Oscar Wilde, The Birthday of the Infanta.
