Elegant, mysterious, and downright confusing – such is the language of perfume. I mean “what does fougère mean anyway?” Well, look no further because this guide is going to decode the secret world of fragrance. And you’ll be speaking perfume in no time.
To start you will be introduced to the different fragrance families. After you become acquainted with them you will learn the following:
Part II– Fragrance Industry Terms
Part III – Fragrance Performance Indicators
Part IV – Perfume Characteristics
Part VI – Fragrance Ingredients
Part VII – Scientific and Medical Terminology of Fragrance
After reading this guide you’ll be able to chat it up with the best perfume alchemists out there.
Let’s get down and dirty…
PART 1 – UNDERSTANDING FRAGRANCE FAMILIES
Fragrance families can be thought of as categories of fragrances. They can be thought of like an organizational system. There are four main fragrance families. And they are fresh, floral, oriental, and woody. Within those categories, there are additional fragrance families or sub-categories. Let’s explore.
AMBERY – This fragrance class is an amalgam of vanilla, animal scents, flowers, and woods. And it can be enhanced by adding camphorous oils and incense resins.
AQUATIC aka MARIN, OCEANIC, or WATER: This modern fragrance category is very clean, and evokes the feeling of the sea. Main notes generally include a chemical named calone.
AROMATIC – A fragrance class of intense grassy scents like sage and rosemary.
AROMATIC FOUGÈRE – This class of fresh note fragrances whose main notes are lavender and other aromatic herbs are enhanced by elements from the other families of citrus, the floral, oriental, ambery, and the woods.
CHYPRE – Mossy woody scents by another name. Chypre in French means Cyprus. These fragrances are made up of bergamot, oakmoss, patchouli, and labdanum. This fragrance category is usually mixed with citrus notes and is pronounced: sheep-ra.
CITRUS – Scents of orange, lemon, bergamot, mandarin, and grapefruit
DRY WOODS – The family includes notes of dry woods and leather.
FLORAL – A fragrance category whose main notes include scents of fresh-cut flowers. Smells can be single floral notes (called Soliflores), floral bouquets (a combination of several flowers), or bright florals which is a combination of single floral and floral bouquets.
FLORAL ORIENTAL – A fragrance family whose main notes include orange blossom and sweet spices.
FOUGÈRE – Fougère means fern in French. Many men’s fragrances belong to this family is characterized by its sharp herbaceous and woody scents. The notes in this family are comprised of lavender, coumarin, and oakmoss. It is pronounced: foozh-air.
FRESH – The notes in this family are clean, crisp, and uplifting. They are typically comprised of citrus and green notes and tend to evaporate quickly.
FRUITY – This family is a subcategory or the fresh family. The notes are light and slightly sweet. The main notes are scents like raspberry, strawberry, apple, mango, pineapple and other non-citrus fruits.
GOURMAND – The tantalizing family is made up of scents with edible or dessert-like qualities. Think of warm sweet scents that contain notes like vanilla and tonka bean, as well as synthetic components designed to resemble some of your favorite tasty treats.
GREEN – The green family is another subcategory of the fresh family. It can be thought of as a lighter and more modern interpretation of the Chypre type. Main notes include galbanum and other notes like clary sage.
LEATHER – An intriguing family of fragrances which expertly fuses scents of honey, tobacco, wood and wood tars to mimic the scent of leather.
MOSSY WOODS – This family is a combination of the wood and oriental notes. Their main notes include oakmoss and amber.
ORIENTAL – This fragrance family is full of rich, warm, spicy scents. Think of clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger.
SOFT FLORAL – Floral notes rounded out with aldehydes and powdery notes like musk and iris.
SOFT ORIENTAL – Oriental notes softened with the delicate scents of fresh floral notes.
WOODY – These are the earthy grounding scents of moss and dirt. This fragrance family includes woody scents like sandalwood, cedar, vetiver, and patchouli.
WOODY ORIENTAL – This family is a combination of the wood and oriental families.
WHAT’S NEXT?
So, you’ve been introduced to different fragrance families. Charming, aren’t they? Now that you’ve got your feet wet, it’s time to immerse yourself in the alluring language of fragrance industry terms. Here we go…
Part II – Understanding Fragrance Industry Terms
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