PERFUME FOR DUMMIES

I find it totally understandable that you find yourself standing in front of an enormous range of fragrances and have no clue where to start. I’ve regularly visited launches of the newest perfumes where they inform you about top notes, heart notes, eau de toilette and eau de perfume, this meant I had to master these intelligent dictionaire terms and more. The world of perfume has it’s own planet. I’ll give you a shortcut through this maze of information so you’ll find your favorite a lot quicker.

It’s fragrance. Nothing more.

It’s a fragrance. Not a perfume, or worse: cologne it’s not even a spice. It’s a fragrance. Shame on you. Fragrances consist of multiple commodities that build up into top notes, heart notes and base notes. All these notes are different ingredients.

Top notes

Spray the fragrance and this is the first thing you smell. These are wispy scents that quickly vaporize, so always smell the fragrance longer if you want to catch the real scent. Top notes usually consist of fresh notes. Think citrus and lavender. They’re there but they evaporate.

Heart or top note

It’s not called the heart note for nothing, because this is the heart of the fragrance. They usually show up a few minutes later but it determines the overall scent, the little cloud that forms around you. The ingredients are less volatile. Mostly you smell flowers or herbs like jasmine or iris.

Base note

This is the base of the fragrance. It’s responsible for the shelf life and the glue that holds all the notes together. These are often wood based or vanilla. These are the scents that linger the longest.

Eau de toilette or eau de cologne

Both fragrances have dominant top notes, often unisex. An eau de toilette is commonly lighter and cologne is heavier and long lasting.

Eau de parfum

When speaking in terms of heart notes that a really concentrated and are responsible for the lion share of the fragrance it’s eau de parfume.