Fragrance Vocabulary

Fragrances like so many other things have their own set of vocabulary. Once you know a few key terms talking about, and even evaluating a fragrance gets so much easier.  Unfortunately, some of the terminologies can be a bit complex and quite intimidating when looking for a place to start when describing a fragrance. Lucky for you, we are here to help!   Whether you are a fragrance aficionado looking to review fragrance vocabulary or you are someone who is just starting to take how you smell seriously, we have got you covered. These are the fundamental words you should know when it comes to fragrance. 

Let’s start with the big three.

There are three different categories of notes in a fragrance, all of which contribute to the overall scent and can be smelled best at different times while wearing the fragrance. 

Top Notes are the first scent you catch when you use a fragrance.  Whenever you smell a fragrance at a store or first apply it to yourself, this is what you and the people around you will first notice

Heart Notes are the notes you experience when the top note evaporates or wears off.  Also known as “middle notes,” these elements of a fragrance tend to be the most dominant parts of the fragrance. 

Base Notes are the final notes you smell when the heart note fades away, and those that linger on your skin and can be smelled after hours of wear. Interestingly, base notes 

That makes scents!

Sillage (pronounced “see-yahz”) while the term may sound a bit pretentious, this is an important concept when it comes to fragrance. Translated from  French, it simply means to “trail.” When describing a fragrance’s sillage, you are describing the scent that trails around the wearer. The best way to think of it is when you smell cologne or perfume after a person walks by.  That is the sillage. If this trailing scent is really strong or lingering, it has a high sillage, whereas if there is a more subtle scent or you can only smell a fragrance when close to someone, the sillage is low. While everyone is entitled to their own style, at F&R, we prefer to create fragrances with subtle sillage, meaning only those within an arm’s length should be able to smell you. 

Oriental is a fragrance characterized by having warmer notes that are rich which can include frankincense and spicy notes. These fragrances are more base-note focused and can be more intense and longer-lasting than other scents.  When thinking about oriental fragrances, two great examples are our fragrances, Sterling and Shackleford.  

Dry Down is what people call when the top and middle notes give way to the base note.  Just like everyone’s personality is different, how the dry down smells and how long it lasts is different for each person.  This is why sometimes a fragrance can smell different depending on who is wearing it.

Profile is a combination of high, heart, and base notes to formulate what you would expect a scent to smell like. A product of this is a profile wheel, which assists in understanding what a profile smells like by triggering a feeling, memory, or place.  For example, a profile on the wheel would be woody oriental and in finding an example we can again refer back to our fragrance, Shackleford.

Not all fragrances are made the same.

When buying a cologne, it is important to understand that many of them have a different percentage of the actual fragrance or scent in it.  While there are more than these three, these are the three you should know about when picking out a fragrance.

Eau de Cologne (EDC) - Has a lower concentration of actual fragrance compared to EDT and EDP which we will also discuss.  There is usually around 2% to 4% of fragrance concentration in Eau de Cologne and it will last you for around two hours.  This term was used originally to refer to a traditional fragrance recipe that had herb and citrus notes with little base notes. 

Eau de Toilette (EDT) - Has a fragrance concentration of between 5% and 15% and can usually last for two to three hours.  This is one of the most popular fragrances as many experts believe it is best to wear during the day.  Part of this is because of the origin of the term Eau de Toilette which comes from “faire sa toilette” which translates to getting ready.  Think of putting on a fresh fragrance while heading out the door to take on the world.

Eau de Parfum (EDP) - Has a fragrance concentration of between 15% and 20% and can last for four to five hours.  Eau de Parfum is actually one of the most common fragrances and while it is fine to wear during the day, scent experts may say it is meant for nightwear.  This is primarily because of the strength of the fragrance but if you want to wear it during the day and feel your coworkers won’t be bothered, go for it!

We’ve struck oil!

When making a fragrance, there is a lot that goes into and when looking at the list of ingredients, there are oils you may recognize as coming from nature and some may seem out of a science lab.  There is no need to panic, as both are safe but it is worth taking a look at how these oils are differentiated.

Essential Oils are oils that come from naturally occurring substances found in different parts of plants.  People can collect essential oils from all different parts of the plants including the blossom, fruit, leaves, stems, bark, wood, or resin.  There is a lot of talk about how important essential oils are for you and while that can be the case, certain essential oils can be irritating to the skin which is why they aren’t used.

Fragrance Oils are manufactured scents and meant to smell the same as a natural product.  So this pretty much means these are the ingredients that come from a scientist instead of nature.  You shouldn’t think that these are bad for you as they have a purpose but it is important to know the distinction between fragrance oil and essential oil.

Next step, try it out.