I have worn perfume for most of my life & there are a few fragrances that were I to catch a faint whiff of them because perfumes, like songs, create a lasting memory & emotion. Like the scent of Anais Anais by Cacharel that I wore on my wedding day 17 years ago, I’ll always recognise this because my mum also wore this perfume when I was growing up which is why I chose to wear it on my wedding day because she couldn’t be there. Perfumers have a very clever way of bringing those individual scents together & it takes years to become a master in this.
Smelling a fragrance is like listening to music. There are many individual notes that you will hear that all come in at different stages to make up a cohesive piece of music. There are top notes, middle notes (which are the heart of the music) & base notes. Some notes are loud, quick & fast & there are also notes that continue throughout. Music isn’t a one size fits all & neither is making our much loved fragrances & that’s what makes creating them such an art form.
Perfumers put a lot of effort into choosing the individual scent notes for a fragrance. Building each of the Accords by carefully choosing the individual scent note for where they will appear in the Fragrance Pyramid & using them as either the Top Notes, Heart Notes (also known as middle notes) or Base Notes.
Top Notes are the first initial smells that we get after first spritz & they only last for a short amount of time before the Heart Notes are introduced, around 10-15minutes. Top notes tend to be fresh & citrusy in fragrance, giving you that inviting scent burst as they set the tone for what’s to come. You can’t judge a fragrance straight off of that 1st spritz alone. You need to let it dry down, especially if you’ve sprayed it on a tester card. I always leave it for an hour & give it another sniff, if I like how it smells after that & if the fragrance is still strong enough & lingering, then I know I’m onto a winner.
Heart Notes are what you start to notice as the top notes are starting to disperse & these individual scent notes make up to 40-80% of the fragrance. Lasting anywhere between 20-60 minutes, this is the part of the fragrance that transitions from the top to the bottom & helps to ease into the base notes which on their own would not smell as pleasant straight away as they need time to develop their aroma.
Base Notes give the lasting scent impression. They provide balance & depth to a fragrance. How long they linger will depend on the type of fragrance we purchase as some are stronger than others. For example, an Eau de Toilette & Parfum vary greatly when it comes to the strength & longevity of their scent profiles. Whenever you can still smell a fragrance for hours or days after wearing it & I don’t just mean perfumes, it can be candles too. That’s the base notes you’re smelling.
It’s only recently that I’ve started taking a more in-depth look into what makes my favourite perfumes smell so good. I’m fascinated by how each individual ingredient is chosen & layered to create a long-lasting scent that is recognised & loved by so many.
In the next post of my fragrance series, I’ll be looking at what actually goes into making an iconic fragrance like YSL Black Opium & also exploring the ways that Perfumers choose which scent notes to use & the reasoning behind it.
I really hope that you’ll join me on this journey, I’ll also be attempting to re-create some of my favourite fragrances as diffuser blends. Let me know if you have any that you’d like me to try & create xx
Beauty, FND & Me 