Fragrance notes and scent families explained

The fragrance pyramid

Perfumers often describe a fragrance as a pyramid with three layers. They come forward one after another, because light materials evaporate faster than heavy ones. The times below are rough estimates: skin, temperature and concentration all make a big difference.

Top notes: the first impression

What you smell in the first 5–30 minutes. Often citrus such as bergamot and lemon, fresh fruit or light herbs. They’re bright and fleeting.

Heart notes: the character

After fifteen minutes to half an hour the heart comes through, and it leads for roughly 2–4 hours. This is where you often find flowers (rose, jasmine, iris), spices or green notes.

Base notes: what stays

Woods, amber, musk, vanilla and resins evaporate slowly. You notice them from about an hour in, and often for another 4–8 hours or more; on clothes sometimes until the next day. How long a scent lasts overall also depends on the concentration: an eau de parfum usually contains more fragrance oil than an eau de toilette. More on that in how to make perfume last longer.

Common notes explained

You’ll see these names again and again:

• Bergamot: a citrus fruit from southern Italy. Fresh, a little bitter and floral.
• Citrus: lemon, orange, mandarin, grapefruit. Light and cheerful, but quickly gone.
• Lavender: fresh, herbal and clean. The heart of many classic men’s fragrances.
• Rose: from fresh and green to honeyed and full.
• Jasmine: a rich white flower, sweet and sometimes a bit heady.
• Iris: comes from the root of the iris, not the flower. Powdery, soft, slightly earthy.
• Vetiver: the root of a grass. Earthy, dry, sometimes smoky.
• Sandalwood: creamy, soft and warm wood.
• Cedar: dry, clean wood, a bit like pencil shavings.
• Patchouli: earthy, dark and slightly sweet.
• Vanilla: sweet and warm. In perfume usually (partly) as vanillin.
• Tonka bean: think hay, almond and vanilla.
• Amber and ambergris: in perfume, ‘amber’ is a warm accord of resins, vanilla and labdanum, not fossil resin. Ambergris originally comes from the sperm whale; today perfumers almost always use a recreated accord.
• Musk: soft, clean, skin-like. Almost always synthetic; animal musk is no longer used.
• Oud: resin from infected agarwood. Dark, woody and sometimes animalic. In many fragrances it’s an accord.
• Ambroxan: a synthetic material with an ambergris-like, mineral and woody effect. It features in Dior Sauvage Eau de Toilette, among others.

The six scent families

On Eaulie we place well-known fragrances in six families, but only when the family is widely agreed; if in doubt, we leave it out. On the scent families page you can see the fragrances in each family, for her, for him and unisex.

Fresh

Fresh smells of citrus, sea air and green leaves. A well-known example is Armani Acqua di Gio Eau de Toilette, with citrus and a watery, ‘salty’ character. Acqua di Parma Colonia belongs here too, a classic eau de cologne.

Floral

Floral is the largest family among women’s fragrances: rose, jasmine, iris or white flowers. Dior J’adore Eau de Parfum is a well-known example, as is Chanel N°5 Eau de Parfum, which pairs flowers with aldehydes for a soapy, sparkling feel.

Woody

Woody revolves around sandalwood, cedar, vetiver and oud. Dry or creamy, and often calm. Think of Terre d’Hermès Eau de Toilette with orange and vetiver, or Le Labo Santal 33 with sandalwood and cedar. Tom Ford Oud Wood shows a soft, approachable side of oud.

Amber

Amber is warm and rounded: resins, vanilla, spices, incense. Guerlain Shalimar Eau de Parfum from 1925 is a classic example. Maison Francis Kurkdjian Baccarat Rouge 540 is a modern, airy take.

Gourmand

Gourmand smells edible: vanilla, caramel, coffee, praline. Mugler Angel Eau de Parfum from 1992 is often seen as the first modern gourmand. YSL Black Opium pairs coffee and vanilla with white flowers. See also our gourmand selection.

Aromatic

Aromatic is about herbs: lavender, rosemary, sage, basil. Dior Sauvage Eau de Toilette is aromatic with a fresh, peppery side. Azzaro Pour Homme Eau de Toilette is a classic fougère.

• Freshcitrus · sea · green
• Floralrose · jasmine · iris
• Woodycedar · sandalwood · vetiver
• Amberoud · resin · spice
• Gourmandvanilla · caramel · coffee
• Aromaticlavender · sage · mint

Older names: oriental, fougère and chypre

In older texts you’ll sometimes see different names.

• Oriental: the old name for what is now usually called amber. The term is falling out of use; the style is the same warm, spicy, vanilla-like one.
• Fougère: French for ‘fern’. A classic structure of lavender, tonka (or coumarin) and oakmoss. On Eaulie, fougères usually sit under aromatic.
• Chypre: a structure of bergamot on top and oakmoss and labdanum in the base. Elegant and somewhat dry. Chanel Coco Mademoiselle is often called a modern chypre, with patchouli instead of much oakmoss.

Scent families side by side

These are habits, not rules. If you’re shopping by season, look at fragrances for summer or fragrances for winter.

How to read and use notes

A note list is marketing, not a recipe. ‘Sea salt’ or ‘rain’ is an impression, built with synthetic materials.

Practical tips:

• Start with what you already like. See which family that scent belongs to and look further there. Our guide how to choose a perfume takes you through it step by step.
• Test on your skin, not just on paper. Wait at least an hour before you judge, so you smell the heart and base too.
• Pay attention to the base notes. You smell them the longest. If you don’t like the base, a lovely opening won’t help much.
• Check the concentration. The same name can smell different as EDT and EDP. Read the difference between EDT and EDP.
• Try small. A sample or mini saves you a bad buy. See testers, minis and gift sets.

Synthetic and natural

Almost every perfume contains both natural and synthetic materials. That’s normal, and has been for over a century. Some notes don’t exist as a natural oil, such as lily of the valley or most musks. Others are expensive or scarce, such as iris or real oud.

‘Natural’ isn’t automatically gentler on your skin: essential oils can contain allergens too. And ‘synthetic’ isn’t less beautiful. If your skin is sensitive, test a small patch first.

Common mistakes

• Buying on the first impression. The top notes are gone after half an hour.
• Testing too many scents at once. After three or four you hardly notice differences any more.
• Thinking a family belongs to women or men. There are fresh women’s fragrances and floral men’s fragrances, and more and more unisex fragrances.
• Taking the note list literally. ‘Fig’ or ‘leather’ on the box doesn’t mean it smells strongly of it.
• Choosing by brand alone. One brand, such as Dior or Chanel, makes fragrances from completely different families.