Nuances of the Scent: How to Detect Notes in Fragrances

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Good Sunday, everyone! I hope everyone is having a fantastic day so far. Today I am going to attempt to talk about how to notice and dissect fragrance notes. This one was requested by David Poling in my fragrance group, but I am just getting around to it. Sometimes I run polls and let the people in the group decide what they would like me to cover. One of the reasons it took me so long is because this is a very hard topic. It's hard to tell people how to smells stuff if their noses can't detect it.

I will be covering two things in this article. How to detect it yourself and how to describe it to others. This will be an article that is useful to everyone, including reviewers. So, without further ado, let's get into it!


Identifying the Notes Yourself

The Basics

The first thing I will cover is pretty basic, which most of us know, but I am just making sure that people understand what these things mean before moving forward.

A critical understanding of top, mid(heart), and base notes are paramount in the discernment of notes. However, these rules are not set in stone, some base notes are very strong and can come through almost right after the heart notes. It depends on the fragrance's composition. So, these are just general guidelines and not actual rules.

Top Notes- These notes and accord are normally very light. Citruses and green/herbal notes normally appear here, even though a lot of herbal notes can also be heart notes. Spices like Cinnamon and cardamom are sometimes here as well. These notes are normally what you will smell right away. They usually fade within 10-30 minutes, but some last longer.

Heart Notes- These ones usually consist of lighter woods like birch, cedar, and sandalwood. Some spices can appear here as well, such as cinnamon and cloves. Rose and powdery florals are usually here as well. These notes can sometimes be strong enough to be detected in the opening, but most of them appear once the top notes start fading or taming themselves.

Base Notes- These are the heaviest notes that last the longest. Heavy woods and sweet notes are normally here. Oud, vanilla, vetiver, amber, incense, resins, and musk are examples of these. These are what you will smell for the longest time on your skin, oftentimes mixed with the heart notes.


Training your Nose

So, now that we know about the developments of fragrances, let's look at ways we can train our nose. Again, this is a general guideline and not something set in stone.

The best advice I can tell you is to practice. Train your nose to dissect these notes and their facets by smells many different fragrances with that note in it. You won't be able to pick up a fragrance and dissect its notes if you are not familiar with the scent profile of these accords.

You can also buy essential oils to help with this if you would like...or raw fragrance oils. I still think the best way is to just smell more stuff. When I was new to fragrances I couldn't detect the difference between lime and bergamot, but now I can tell you the difference. It came after smelling a lot of stuff. When I started reviewing I had around 40 fragrances, now I have over 200. Training your nose isn't cheap.

Now, not everyone can pick up every note. It's okay to be mistaken. I have said patchouli was chocolate before when it wasn't. We all perceive scents in a different way. Just like anything in life, it takes practice.

Dissecting Notes

Now that we know about how to train our noses and the note pyramids we can move on to actually differentiating the notes. I usually try to hone in on one smell in a fragrance, then I imagine why it is there and what it smells like. Is it a very tart lemon or grapefruit? Is the orange mandarin or blood orange? These things help you realize what the perfumer was doing when he/she created the fragrance.

Understanding what is going on in the fragrance is pivotal in understanding what the fragrance is aiming for. So, just take your time and take in the notes one by one and picture what the smell looks like in your mind. I will cover this more in a bit.


How to Describe it to Others

This is something I see a lot of people not doing. Especially reviewers. They will say things like "I detect orange, some saltiness, and apple", but that doesn't help very much. In order to truly review a fragrance properly, you need to aim to put a vivid image in your listener's or reader's mind. Now, I am guilty of this as well, especially when I just started reviewing fragrances. Let me explain why it's so important.

If you are reviewing a fragrance or telling people that something is good, then you should have a reason as to why. Telling someone that a fragrance has orange in it isn't very helpful. What kind of orange is it? Fresh? Juicy? Orange peels? Orange juice? These facets are pivotal to the reader imagining the scent profile and determining that it might be something worth checking out.

Anyone can read Fragrantica and list the highest voted notes, but not everyone can tell you the scent profile of those notes. Distinguishing yourself from others is important.

This part was mostly aimed at reviewers. I have seen a ton of reviews like this recently and it's unsettling. It is not aimed directly at anyone, but it's something we should all strive to improve on, myself included. We need to do better for our supporters and to give companies a fair review.

Here are a few standards examples of a few ways notes can be different:

Vetiver: Bright, green, dark, woody, and earthy

Haitian vetiver is normally brighter than Indian varieties.

Patchouli: Chocolatey, woody, dirty, earthy, and green

You don't want someone to smell like a hippie because you told them the wrong sort of patchouli.

Vanilla: Creamy, spiced, cake-like, powdery, and warm

Amber and vanilla are confused a lot because amber has a warm spiced vanillic accord typically

Cedar: Woody, spicy, smoky, and freshly-cut

Tobacco: Cherried, sweet, honeyed, cavendish, dry, earthy, and green


I hope that gives you an idea about it. Now, I get these wrong at times too. It's okay to be wrong. Sometimes we just perceive things differently because of scent memory. The key is to try your best to inform whoever you are talking to about the fragrance with as much information as possible.


Conclusion

Dissecting fragrance notes is difficult. It's a trained skill and takes a lot of practice. We need to all learn from each other. That is the point of this article. To inform people. If you have any other methods or opinions on this, feel free to tell me. I would be more than willing to write about this again and give you credit for your idea. This is just what works for me. It may or may not work for you.

I hope everyone has a marvelous day. Don't forget to say something positive to someone today. Feel free to hit the follow button if you like my content. Every little bit helps!


In memory of Chris Georgio, aka Mr. Sillage.

You will live in our hearts forever. We miss your enthusiasm and charisma. Rest in Valhalla, brother. Go frag yourself.


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