Understanding Perfume Composition
With an available range of thousands of natural and synthetic scents, perfumes can be quite complex. A single perfume can contain hundreds of individual scents. Others consist of only a few. Fragrances are notoriously hard to describe in words, but perfumers have developed a language of scent to make communication easier.
Many of the terms are analogous to music; designers compose scents as musicians compose a symphony, and they also use notes. Perfumers also bring in descriptive adjectives from other senses to communicate more about a fragrance note, which is why some perfumes are described as having green notes or a milky middle note.
Perfume Notes
A scent from a single source such as rose, lavender, or oakmoss is termed a note. Like musical notes, these fragrance notes can be high, mid-range, or low depending on how long they last. Notes can come from natural sources, but they can also be synthesized. Most perfumes contain a blend of natural and synthetic notes. Top, middle, and base notes are comparative, not absolute; a light, ephemeral fragrance may have base notes that would be middle notes in a more intense perfume.
Top Notes
Top notes are the scents that first greet the wearer's nose when the perfume is applied. They dissipate quickly and may last only a few minutes. Sharper, brighter scents such as lemon and ginger are common top notes. Some perfume designers also term these the head notes of the scent.
Middle Notes
Also called the heart or body of the fragrance, middle notes consist of all the scents that linger. They form the lasting impression of the perfume. Someone who recalls the scent of a perfume is probably remembering the middle notes that give it its character. Most floral and gourmand notes emerge as middle notes.
Base Notes
Base notes can last for hours. Like bass notes in music, base notes in perfume give it its underlying structure. They may be imperceptible when the perfume is first applied, but as the scent evaporates, these deep, lasting notes appear. Woody, spicy, and musky scents predominate as base notes.
Fragrance Accords
Musicians build music from chords, groupings of notes that form harmonious sounds. Perfumers use similar groupings of notes to create scent accords. In an accord, the individual scents lose their distinct characters to create a new note. One classic example of an accord is chypre, a trio of notes consisting of a citrus top note, a floral heart, and a musk base.
Perfumes may contain more than one accord, each of which is carefully balanced to smell like a single note. When buying perfume, look for the common elements in favorite fragrances and become familiar with these accords to find new scents that share them. Liking one chypre perfume with bergamot, rose, and patchouli probably means that an untraditional chypre built on lemon, gardenias, and oakmoss will also smell appealing.
Perfume Concentrations
Perfumes are made by mixing pure fragrance oils with water, alcohol, or other bases to dilute them. Many commercial perfumes also contain fixatives, ingredients to make the scents last longer, although some perfume ingredients are naturally long-lived. Fragrances take on different characteristics at varying concentrations, so a perfume that is light and fresh as an eau de toilette could be powerful as a perfume.
While legal definitions in some countries require a certain minimum concentration of fragrance oils, no maximum concentration is set. Some perfumers can therefore call a potent extrait an eau de parfum or just perfume.
Extrait |
Extraits contain at least 30 percent fragrance oil, and some are as concentrated as 40 percent oils. |
|---|---|
Eau de Parfum, Perfume |
Also called perfume, this product contains 20 to 30 percent perfume oils in perfumer's alcohol. |
Eau de Toilette |
Between 10 and 20 percent of eau de toilette is composed of fragrance oils. |
Eau de Cologne |
Sometimes simply called cologne, this fragrance product contains between 3 and 8 percent oil. |
Perfume Mist, Body Mist |
Light mists and all-over sprays contain about 2 to 3 percent fragrance oil in a base of alcohol and water. |
Body Splash, Body Lotion |
Perfumed body splashes and lotions typically contain less than 1 percent fragrance oil in a moisturizing base. |
Fragrance Families and Women's Perfumes
Perfume manufacturers group perfumes by their primary notes and accords. These categories are also helpful for shoppers looking for a scent.
Oriental
Also called animalic or amber scents, perfumes in this category have a warm, radiant quality that evokes spices or incense. They may contain accords of vanilla and amber with deep, prominent base notes such as patchouli, musk, or sandalwood. At the lighter end of the spectrum, these intense perfumes are blended with fruit or flowers to create floral orientals.
Floral
Any perfume that relies primarily on natural or synthetic flower-derived scents is considered a floral fragrance. Floral perfumes range from light and sweet to potent and complex. They are traditionally considered feminine fragrances. This broad and well-populated perfume category overlaps with fruity fragrances.
Fruity
Fragrances that mimic the crispness of an apple or the tart scent of fresh berries are considered fruity perfumes. Although some perfumers have true fruity scents, most of the fragrances in this category also contain elements from other categories, particularly the floral scent family. Combined with gourmand notes, fruity perfumes have an almost edible appeal.
Gourmand
One of the newer fragrance categories, gourmand fragrances incorporate scents more traditionally associated with pastry chefs than with perfume designers. Familiar scents such as chocolate, cotton candy, and coffee take on a different personality when combined with floral or woody notes. Gourmand perfumes tend to be potent and full-bodied.
Chypres and Green Scents
The chypre accord is one of the oldest in modern fragrance design. Many perfumers now class it with other aromatic fragrances as a green scent. Green fragrances often build on the chypre base of citrus, floral, and musk notes with herbaceous scents such as basil and rosemary. Freshly mown grass and cucumber notes bring some green scents close to a neighboring class, the aquatic fragrances.
Aquatic and Sporty Fragrances
Also called oceanic scents, aquatic fragrances have a cool, watery character composed of synthetic scents that evoke sea air or the atmosphere after a rainstorm. Some manufacturers combine cool aquatic scents with fruity notes that complement them such as cucumber and melon. The fruit notes soften the perfume and make it more traditionally feminine.
Choosing a Women's Fragrance
Scent is almost entirely a matter of personal preference. What appeals to one nose may be off-putting to another. When choosing a new fragrance, start by picking other scents in the same scent family as existing favorites. To avoid duplicating a scent too closely, look for perfumes that come from a different neighborhood within a scent category. For example, if a woman likes a soft lilac-based floral, she may also appreciate a gardenia-based scent with rich gourmand overtones. By choosing a perfume that already has something in common with personal favorites, it is easier to find a good match.
Few choices are as personal as a woman's fragrance, yet perfumes are also public. Scents disperse through the air and leave an impression as the wearer walks past. The perfumer's term for this trail of scent is sillage, a French term for the wake of a boat. Scents with a potent sillage and a strong concentration are best reserved for evening. Choose softer scents in lighter concentrations for day wear and travel.
Tips for Wearing Women's Fragrances
Layer perfumes by using the same fragrance in multiple products for the longest-lasting scent. Soap, body spray, and eau de cologne in the same fragrance will last longer than any single product.
Many women enjoy creating their own signature scent by layering a favorite scented body lotion or all-over spray with dabs of a coordinating perfume at her pulse points. Perfumes become more potent but less lasting in warm environments. Many women change their signature scents to suit the seasons because of this, saving rich oriental perfumes for cooler months and choosing fruity florals for summer.
Over time, a person's nose becomes less sensitive to a perfume. This phenomenon can lead to over-application as the wearer applies more fragrance, believing that she is wearing too little. Many perfumers recommend switching perfumes occasionally to keep the nose from becoming fatigued.
Unless the product is designed as a fabric spray, wear perfumes on the skin, not on clothing. Perfumes contain oils that may stain fabrics.