The know-how of perfume

– Scents for dummies –

I really understand that when you're in a beauty shop for the fragrance range you totally don't know who, what, how, and where anymore. Believe me, I really get it. Because I have attended quite a few launches of the latest scents and then we hear everything about top notes, heart notes, eau de toilette, and eau de parfum and I really had to get my bearings in this dictionary of intelligent names. Scents are indeed a world. And I will give you a shortcut in all this material to lead you a bit faster to your favorite.

It's a scent. Nothing else.

It's a scent. Not perfume, or even worse, a little perfume, and also not a fragrance. Scent. Shame shame shame. Scents consist of multiple raw materials and they stack up in top notes (also called head notes), heart notes, and base notes. All those notes are the different ingredients.

Top notes

When you spray the scent, this is the first thing you smell. They are quite volatile scents that evaporate quickly, so always take a little longer to smell the scent if you really want to catch something good. Very fresh notes are often used for the top notes. Think of citrus and lavender. They are there, but they also evaporate.

Heart or top note

It is not without reason that it is called heart notes, because this is the heart of the scent. They usually only appear after a few minutes, but this reveals the scent that lingers around you all day. The ingredients are then also a bit less volatile. Often you smell flowers or herbs like jasmine and iris.

Base note

This is really the foundation of the scent that ensures the longevity and binding of all other notes. Very often these are woods or vanilla. They are the scents that really linger around you the longest.

Eau de toilette or eau de cologne

With these two scents, you are dealing with dominant top notes. They are often unisex. An eau de toilette is generally a bit lighter, an eau de cologne a bit heavier and more lasting.

Eau de parfum

When you talk about the heart notes that are very concentrated, so that really have the vast majority of the scent in them, you can speak of an eau de parfum.