Guide on Perfume
Do you know your fruity perfumes from your floral? Or your citrus aftershaves from your woody? Whatever your fragrance know-how, the key to understanding why one scent may differ from the other is by recognising the fragrance families that they fall into. While our experts are pro at identifying the families at first spritz, anyone can be a fragrance connoisseur with a little bit of training…
What's a fragrance family?
Let’s go back to basics. A fragrance family is a classification system that the industry uses to place scents into olfactory groups. Each family has a set of identifying factors which helps us distinguish scents.
OK, so what are fragrance notes?
If you’ve noticed that your signature scent changes after a period of time on the skin, then what you're identifying are the different 'notes' of a fragrance.
Every perfume is made up of different notes. The top notes are what you can smell at first spray and are typically light and refreshing. The opening notes of a fragrance are the first to evaporate. The middle notes (or heart notes) are usually floral and sweet and can generally last up to an hour on the skin. And the base notes are usually rich and woody and are the longest-lasting notes of any scent.