Fragrance notes… confusing, eh? Let’s compare spritzing a scent to listening to music. Your taste dictates whether you love a smell (or decide to bust out your best Gangnam Style moves to a piece of music), but it’s the perfectly placed perfume notes that evoke that reaction.
Once you get your head around the science of these scent molecules, it’ll make choosing a fragrance so much easier, so you can unlock next-level perfume personalisation. So, what are perfume notes? We put this guide together to help you navigate the complex world of scent notes, so that you can shop for fragrance knowing exactly what you’re smelling.
Fragrance notes are the individual scent molecules blended together to make a complete and complex fragrance. So, how do perfume notes work? Perfume notes are broadly separated into three distinct groups, categorised by how quickly they evaporate from the skin: top notes are the ones you smell immediately, followed by middle notes and then base notes, allowing for a fragrance journey rather than one linear and short-lived scent.
Fragrance is a scented symphony, blended to stimulate your olfactory system and fire off your happy hormones. But perfumers don’t just chuck a bunch of notes into a bottle and pray to the fragrance gods that it turns out ok.
“Perfumers spend many years learning how to use the aroma molecules available to them and how they interact with each other,” explains head of fragrance at Diem Scents Lisa Hipgrave.
“Fragrances are a carefully balanced recipe. The same material can be used in many different ways combined at different percentages with other materials to give very different and far ranging notes.”
She goes on to use the analogy of an egg, used in many different food recipes, both savoury and sweet. “Fragrance materials are the same, they alter depending on the total recipe. But unlike cooking, there is not as much information available, and we are not brought up to smell aroma chemicals in the way we are everyday items, so an awful lot of learning needs to be done!’
So, what in the name of Queen Cleopatra is a fragrance pyramid?
In simple terms, a fragrance pyramid is three types of perfume notes: top, middle and base, constructed in a sturdy triangular shape. This structure helps perfumers to bring together a good balance of notes that last on the skin for a few hours and don’t just leave on a gust of wind. All three note categories play a leading role in the theatre of fragrance, stepping out on cue as your scent story unfurls on your skin throughout the day.
If we’re sticking with the theatre analogy, these flighty thespians open the show with a bang. They’re the fresh first impression, but being smaller molecules, they’re pretty volatile, throwing a diva tantrum and flitting off stage (evaporating from your skin) around 15 minutes later.
Popular top notes tend to be citrus, fruity and green.
For example, our happy-making ‘Always July’ boasts zesty and tropical top notes of lemon and frangipani, AKA pure joy.
AKA the heart notes, they deliver a well-rounded performance with depth, stealing the show effortlessly once the top notes have made their swift exit. Commonly floral notes or fruity notes, they linger on the skin for longer (potentially an hour or more), but take their bow just before curtain down…
Popular middle notes tend to be floral, spicy and herbal.
For example, our walk-in-the-wild ‘Love Tangle’ boasts sweet outdoorsy middle notes of honeysuckle, jasmine and wild rose - a summer's-day scent that will get nostrils twitching.
The grand finale base notes set the foundation for your fragrance, and seeing as they’re typically rich woods, could be compared to the stage itself. These larger molecules won’t fly off your skin too quickly, and as a result, that opulent “stage smell” will linger long after the audience has left and the theatre has closed (until you take a shower, that is).
Popular base notes tend to be woody, resinous and musk.
For example, the base of our soulful ‘Slow Exhale’ boasts rich woody notes of palo santo and sandalwood. Gorgeously grounding, with long-lasting impact.
Got to grips with fragrance notes? Great news. Now it’s time to familiarise yourself with the primary four fragrance families (stick with us, friend). These “family gatherings” help to describe an overall scent profile, without any awkward questions about your love life.
The floral family: You guessed it, the scent of flowers. Sometimes one floral note dominates, but multiple floral notes create a beautiful bouquet scent. Try our fresh-from-the-florist ‘No Reason’.
The amber family: These fragrances are infused with warm, spicy and exotic-smelling notes, such as tonka bean and heliotrope. If this sounds like your vibe, our spiced-rum-laced ‘Self Made’ will hit the spot.
The woody family: Fragrances dominated by dry, earthy, warm and… that’s right, woody scents and notes, like sandalwood and cedarwood. They tend to pack a punch and last longer on the skin (remember what we said about larger molecules not evaporating as quickly?). Try our soft and woody ‘Stay Close.’
The fresh family: Packed with different notes commonly found heading up the fragrance pyramid, thanks to their fresh, fly-away qualities. Often green and citrus-smelling, they act like an invigorating wake-up call the moment they’re spritzed. See our fresh-as-you-like ‘Liquid Light.’
You can identify fragrance top notes, middle notes and base notes based on how your perfume changes once you’ve sprayed it. The top notes, which dominate the initial scent, evaporate from your skin first, followed by the middle heart notes, and finally, the rich and lingering base notes.
Spray on your fragrance of choice and work out what the first burst of notes smells like. Do the same for the layer of notes that follow around 15 minutes later, and why not hazard a guess at the fragrance family they belong to? Once a couple of hours have passed, have a good sniff of the richer notes still lingering on your skin. Practice makes perfect, so keep spritzing!
Think about the smells you savour in everyday life. Do you inhale the heady scent of flowers every time you step out into the garden? Bury your face in freshly laundered sheets? Stick your nose into the pot of honey before slathering it on your morning toast? Allow these behaviours to guide your fragrance decisions. Quite often, a fragrance will be named after a more specific sensory experience, such as our ‘Jump Ship’ (a sun-soaked day at the beach) and ‘Off Piste’ (cold forest air).
Fun fact: the words that follow ‘Eau de’ on your fragrance bottles indicate the strength of the juice inside it (as in, the percentage of aromatic ingredients compared to the likes of water or alcohol). It’s usually between 5% and 25%, and the higher the concentration of scent, the longer lasting it will be.
We’ve put together a handy guide comparing scent concentrations to types of alcohol if you fancy a read. Otherwise, we’ll explain the different concentration strengths below:
5-10%: Splash them on and top them up throughout the day. Often citrussy, they’re great for cooling down in the summer.
10-15%: A decent body but still light. People tend to want something with a little more oomph, these days.
15-25%: A longer-lasting, more intense scent. At Diem Scents, we blend most of our scents at 20-25% for consistent longevity.
Exploring and personalising Fragrances
While we advocate and enable scent exploration here at Diem Scents, we get why so many people are stuck in a fragrance rut, not wanting to risk their hard-earned money on something that just smells meh! That’s where our scent quiz comes in. Using smart AI software, we’ll get to know you, then send a bespoke discovery set of 5 x 2ml fragrances for only £20, which can be redeemed against a 30ml purchase when you find your next fragrance fling.
As mentioned earlier, perfumers do a great deal of experimentation to ensure that the fragrance created matches the requirement of the customer or client, often wearing it on their own skin during creation to pick up any off scent during evaporation. Factors they have to take into consideration include:
Below, we’ve answered some of the most commonly asked questions about fragrance notes to help you brush up on your knowledge.
It’s believed (although not widely studied) that a person’s skin can affect how a fragrance smells on them. Oily skin is thought to enhance the longevity of a scent due to having more natural oils that cling to the fragrance molecules. Suffer from dry skin? Moisturise well before spritzing - although some scent aficionados argue that this “sticks” the fragrance to your skin, affecting its projection. “And it’s not just to do with oily or dry skin,” adds Hipgrave. “It's about the genetics of the person, their hormones and even things like what they eat. Our natural oils change depending on all these factors, which makes our own personal odour unique to us.”
While there’s no hard-and-fast expiry rule when it comes to fragrance, two years is the recommended time for a re-stock, perhaps more if stored well away from heat and light sources. As a general rule of thumb, less volatile notes that last longer on your skin will also last longer in the bottle, but they still require savvy storage. Direct sunlight, heat and air exposure can all cause fragrance molecules to degrade quicker and change the scent profile.
It depends on your perfume priority. Want longevity on the skin? Go for heavier wood and musk notes. Need uplifting? Citrusy notes such as lemon are a proven mood booster. Looking for an unforgettable first-date fragrance? The warm and spicy notes found in amber fragrances will be bewitching from that first awkward air kiss.
As discussed, all fragrance notes play a crucial role in the way a fragrance evolves on the skin, but the heart notes can be considered the main characters.
The lighter notes at the top tend to be citrusy and fresh, you’ll smell them first, but the notes fade and they tend to evaporate quickly. Middle notes are complex and well-rounded, making up the heart of the fragrance. Base notes will linger for hours on the skin due to their size. Often packed with woody notes, musk and vanilla, consider them the foundation of your fragrance.
Think about the everyday smells that make you smile and use them as a starting point. Into your friend’s fragrance? Look up its notes and find something with a similar fragrance pyramid. Or you can take our quiz, and we’ll do all the hard work for you.
Congratulations! You’ve graduated from Diem’s fragrance notes masterclass (the only educational accolade anyone needs, in our humble opinion).
While we’ve bombarded you with the intricacies of fragrance notes (sorry about us), bear in mind that, quite often, a fragrance will just “feel right” - like an extension of yourself. But trial and error is key to discovering your preferences, which can’t be done with full-sized bottles (unless money is no object!). Take our quiz, order our discovery kit, and start homing in on the notes that naturally appeal to you. You might surprise yourself….
