Fragrance Guru Luca Turin says in his book:
"Smelling solid, especially crystalline, perfumery materials is often misleading. As Charles Sell of Quest International explained to me, crystal growth pushes impurities that do not fit into the crystal out of the way, i.e. towards the surface of the crystal. This means that when you open the can you are smelling the stuff far less pure than it actually is.".
This is well worth remembering for those of us making crystalline compounds and then smelling them.
"Smelling solid, especially crystalline, perfumery materials is often misleading. As Charles Sell of Quest International explained to me, crystal growth pushes impurities that do not fit into the crystal out of the way, i.e. towards the surface of the crystal. This means that when you open the can you are smelling the stuff far less pure than it actually is.".
This is well worth remembering for those of us making crystalline compounds and then smelling them.