A Lexicon of Fragrance: An Initiate’s Guide to the Language of Scent
There are those who catalog memories by color, others by season. Some by the sound of footsteps on different pavements. And then there are those who remember in scent.
If you're reading this, perhaps you’re one of them.
Perfumery has its own language; an invisible grammar of evaporation curves, volatile molecules, and accords that shimmer and dissolve like sea-foam. It’s a world built in layers, yet experienced in moments. To describe fragrance is to write with smoke and metaphor, yet we try.
Here is a guide to the words we use when we speak of scent, not to reduce it, but to better lose ourselves in it.
Note
A single breath of a larger story.
A note is not a sound, though it borrows the metaphor. It is an individual scent impression; jasmine, bergamot, tobacco leaf, scorched vanilla—woven into the larger symphony of a perfume.
Top Notes
The first spark. Volatile. Fleeting. Like a struck match or a gasp of citrus.
Light, fresh, and evaporative, top notes are the first to emerge and the first to vanish—often within 15 to 30 minutes. Think citrus oils, aldehydes, sharp herbs.
Heart Notes
The story proper. Blossoming warmth. The skin of the dream.
Once the top fades, the heart reveals itself; usually floral, fruity, or spicy. These notes linger for hours and shape the emotional tone of the perfume.
Base Notes
The echo in the hollow. Resinous, musky, slow as dusk.
The final act. Often woody, balsamic, or musky, base notes ground the perfume and can last all day. They tend to be large, slow-to-evaporate molecules.
Accord
Not a single note, but the space between notes where something new is born.
An accord is a harmonious blend of notes that creates a new olfactory illusion—like leather, rain, or fig. It’s the perfumer’s chord.
Dry-Down
The last chapter, written in oils and memory.
The final stage of a fragrance’s evolution on skin, where only base notes remain. The dry-down can last hours—or days—depending on materials and chemistry.
Sillage
The wake a scent leaves behind, like a ghost, or a trail through snow.
Sillage is the aura your perfume leaves in your path. Some perfumes whisper; others haunt a room long after you’ve gone.
Projection
How far a perfume radiates outward, like the glow of a lantern.
Projection refers to the “throw” of a fragrance; how far it extends from your skin into space, especially during the opening phase.
Longevity
How long a perfume stays alive on the skin.
Measured in hours, longevity depends on concentration, ingredient volatility, and your own skin’s chemistry.
Concentration
The strength of the perfume, its soul-to-ether ratio.
- Parfum / Extrait: 20–45% oil — intense, long-lasting
- Eau de Parfum (EDP): 15–25% oil — balanced, wearable
- Eau de Toilette (EDT): 5–15% oil — lighter, daytime
- Eau de Cologne (EDC): 2–5% oil — fleeting, refreshing
Batch Code
The quiet serial number behind your bottle, its birthmark.
This number indicates when and where the perfume was produced, often used for quality control or identifying reformulations.
Flanker
A cousin to a well-known scent. A side story. A variation on a theme.
A flanker is a new edition of an existing perfume—perhaps darker, softer, or more luminous. It shares the name, but walks a different path.
Signature Scent
The perfume that becomes your name in the air.
For some, fragrance is an ever-changing wardrobe. For others, one scent becomes their constant, recognized by friends, lovers, even strangers.
Nose
The artist, the chemist, the mythmaker.
A professional perfumer, trained to compose fragrances from hundreds of materials. Equal parts scientist and storyteller.
Natural vs. Synthetic
A false dichotomy, but a useful distinction.
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Natural: Extracted from plants, resins, or other botanical sources—rose, oakmoss, frankincense. Often rich, earthy, and complex, these materials carry nuance and life. Essential oils, tinctures, and absolutes fall into this category.
- Synthetic: Lab-created aroma molecules designed to replicate or invent scent impressions. Fragrance oils are typically synthetic—precise, long-lasting, and often abstract in character.
Essential Oil
An aromatic oil, distilled or expressed from nature’s raw page.
Used in natural perfumery and aromatherapy. Potent and often complex, but sometimes fleeting on the skin.
Aromachemical
The vocabulary of modern perfumery.
Lab-born molecules like Hedione or Calone; the ghost-lights of modern scent. They conjure jasmine breezes or sea-spray illusions, lending lightness, longevity, and a shimmer that nature never distilled..
Descriptive Scent Terms
Powdery: Soft, talc-like, nostalgic
Earthy: Damp soil, moss, patchouli
Phenolic: Smoky, tarry, medicinal
Petally: Delicate floral softness
Ethereal: Airy, transparent, dreamlike
Animalic: Musky, feral, intimate
Green: Leafy, herbal, fresh-cut stems
Balsamic: Sweet, resinous, enveloping
Aldehydic: Fizzy, metallic-clean, retro
To understand these terms is not to explain fragrance, but to begin speaking its dialect. The rest must be learned on the skin.
