Printed from smellbook.com/smells/lavender. This printout keeps the entry for Lavender itself: its description, reference card, Connections, questions, evidence, related smells, record details, states, names and citation. It leaves out your own notes, the map, the lists of paths, routes, stories and fragrance directions, and the lists headed “Also linked to” (other entries that share its place or material) and “Linked from”; they are on the page online. The entries this one links to are still printed under Connections and Related smells.
Categories and types group entries for browsing; they are editorial, not evidence. How smells are grouped.
Spanish (pilot): Lavanda · pending native-speaker review · Leer en español (piloto)
An aromatic floral-herbal direction often described as fresh, dry and calming.
Its type, Source, means the smell is named after “a physical origin that can contribute a smell”; it is not an evidence source, such as a study or a book. The origin page for Lavender (the plant, not this smell entry) lists every smell recorded as coming from it.
Lavender smells fresh, herbal and floral at once, with a clean, dry and slightly sharp aromatic edge. EDITORIAL
Named in the VERIFIED claims about this smell: not a list of what it is made of, and not its cause.
This entry links to
Other entries that link to this one
Links SmellBook records for this entry: what it comes from, where you meet it, molecules, related smells and comparisons. EDITORIAL links are chosen by SmellBook editors and VERIFIED links come from VERIFIED claims. Nothing here is a ranking, and a molecule is not presented as the cause of the smell.
QUESTIONS ABOUT LAVENDER
Lavender smells fresh, herbal and floral at once, with a clean, dry and slightly sharp aromatic edge. Fresh flowers are softer and sweeter; dried bundles feel drier, dustier and more herb-like. The scent is calm and steady and lingers on fabric and in drawers. It is close to rosemary in its herbal side, though lavender is more floral and rounded.
People meet it in gardens in early summer, in dried bundles and sachets tucked into wardrobes, and in soaps, pillow sprays and home fragrance. Many people link it with rest, clean laundry and sleep.
Typical settings: garden, dried bundle, home fragrance.
SmellBook links it to one place page: see it in Connections.
2 VERIFIED scientific claims from 2 published sources are recorded for this entry: Linalool and linalyl acetate in lavender oil and Compounds that covaried with the aroma of lavender oils. Each claim says only what its source supports, in the scope shown with it.
4 molecules are named in these claims; see the evidence for the role each claim gives them. Each molecule these claims name has only the role its claim states; one molecule is not the whole smell.
Lavender can sit between floral, herbal and cultural ideas of cleanliness or rest.
SmellBook records one written comparison with other smells: see it in Connections.
Words that are easy to mix up: How do green and herbal differ? and Where do floral and powdery meet?
No historical source or heritage record is linked to this entry yet.
Answers marked EDITORIAL are written by SmellBook editors to describe the experience and add no scientific fact. Answers marked VERIFIED point to claims on published sources, checked against each source's own summary where one was available (each claim's page says how); what each claim supports is in its own text and scope.
Scientific evidence · 2 claims
How it is described or perceived
Compounds that covaried with the aroma of lavender oils
A study of lavender (Lavandula officinalis) essential oils from five cities, using descriptive sensory analysis with six attributes (sweet, floral, woody, fruit, camphor and herb) and gas chromatography–olfactometry, found that limonene, linalool, linalyl acetate and camphor covaried with the oils' characteristic aroma.
Essential oils, not fresh or dried flowers; the link is a statistical covariation across samples, not a recombination test.
Also covers: chemistry reported (the claim names compounds or kinds of compounds).
How this was found: Odour analysis with human assessors. People smelled the separated compounds or the material itself (for example gas chromatography–olfactometry, dilution analysis, recombination or a sensory panel). Source: primary study; sensory or perception work. Studied: lavender essential oils from five places, by a sensory panel and gas chromatography–olfactometry.
Zuobing Xiao et al.
DOI 10.1016/j.indcrop.2017.07.040Chemistry reported
Linalool and linalyl acetate in lavender oil
A review reports linalool and linalyl acetate as the most abundant compounds of lavender essential oil, whose composition depends on genotype, environment and flower development.
Lavender essential oils in general; abundance, not odour contribution, and composition varies with species, genotype, harvest stage and environment.
How this was found: Chemical composition. Compounds were identified or measured, without any assessment of their odour. Source: review of earlier studies; chemistry work.
Christos N. Hassiotis & Konstantinos E. Vlachonasios
DOI 10.3390/physiologia5010011Each molecule is named by the claim shown after it. Each molecule named here has only the role its claim states; one molecule is not the whole smell. About molecules in SmellBook
Links chosen by SmellBook editors, not a ranking.
Associations can vary strongly by person, place and culture.
PATHS FROM HERE
Each step is a relationship SmellBook editors recorded in the knowledge graph, named as it is published there. Paths are not ranked or personalised, and they do not mean the smells smell alike.
Each step is a molecule that a VERIFIED claim names for both smells, in whatever role the claims state. Sharing a molecule does not mean two smells smell alike.
MY SMELLBOOK · LOCAL ONLY
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MAP THIS SMELL
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WHERE THIS SMELL APPEARS
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IN FRAGRANCE & SPACES
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FOR RESEARCHERS AND EDITORS
Identity, revision history, corrections and how to cite Lavender.
CULTURAL: This entry's associations depend on context, language, memory or culture; its description and smell words are editorial. It says nothing about research or historical evidence; evidence for this entry is shown separately: VERIFIED.
A state says how an entry is met, such as wet, aged or roasted. It does not create a new smell, and it adds no scientific fact by itself: states marked EDITORIAL come from the entry's own records, and only those marked VERIFIED are reported by a VERIFIED claim.
How this entry is identified and named, for citing it or matching it with other records.
SmellBook SB-0017 — Lavendersmellbook:smell:lavenderhttps://smellbook.com/smells/lavenderSmellBook. (2026). Lavender (revision 4, 2026-10-14). SmellBook Public Atlas. smellbook:smell:lavender. https://smellbook.com/smells/lavender@misc{smellbook_lavender_r4,
author = {{SmellBook}},
title = {Lavender},
year = {2026},
note = {SmellBook Public Atlas, revision 4, 2026-10-14, smellbook:smell:lavender},
url = {https://smellbook.com/smells/lavender}
}TY - ENCYC ID - smellbook-lavender-r4 TI - Lavender AU - SmellBook T2 - SmellBook Public Atlas PY - 2026 DA - 2026/10/14 ET - revision 4 UR - https://smellbook.com/smells/lavender N1 - SB-0017; smellbook:smell:lavender; resolver https://smellbook.com/id/smell/lavender ER -
The citation names revision 4 of 2026-10-14, so a reader can tell exactly which version was cited. Citing records what was read; it does not grant a licence.
Lavender can sit between floral, herbal and cultural ideas of cleanliness or rest.
Other entries whose editors linked to Lavender:
Added VERIFIED evidence through source intake.
Created 2026-09-22 · Updated 2026-10-14Dataset history In the SmellBook dataset since the first of three dataset releases of 2026-09-30.
No correction notices published for this entry. Corrections policyEVIDENCE MATTERS
SmellBook separates cultural association, community perception, verified evidence, prediction and experimental relationships rather than presenting them as the same thing. Read the evidence guide ↗ See the evidence coverage report ↗