Perfumery Terms

Terms Definition
Top Notes The first impression. Top notes are what you smell in the seconds and minutes after you spray a fragrance — the bright, volatile materials that announce themselves before quickly fading. Citruses, light herbs, sparkling spices, and aldehydes typically live here. Top notes usually last 15 to 30 minutes on skin, sometimes less. A perfumer composes them to seduce you in the first sniff, knowing they'll soon hand off to the heart.
Heart Notes (Middle Notes) The character of the fragrance. As the top notes fade, the heart emerges — the central personality you'll wear for most of the next several hours. Florals, spices, fruits, and rounded materials usually make up the heart. If a perfume has a story to tell, this is the chapter that tells it. Heart notes typically last between two and four hours.
Base Notes The foundation, the memory, the part that lingers on your sweater the next morning. Base notes are the heaviest, longest-lasting materials in a fragrance: woods, resins, musks, ambers, vanillas, leathers. They emerge slowly, often building over the first hour, and can last six to twelve hours or longer on skin. The base is where a perfumer signs the composition.
Dry Down The final stage of a fragrance, when the top notes are long gone and the heart has softened — what you smell on skin three, six, eight hours in. The dry down is closer to the soul of a perfume than the opening. Perfumers spend disproportionate time perfecting it, because it's what your partner smells when they hug you the next day.
Fragrance Pyramid The visual diagram perfumers and brands use to represent a fragrance's structure: top notes at the top, heart in the middle, base at the bottom. Most product pages you've ever read use this format. The pyramid is a simplification — fragrances don't actually move through their notes in clean, separated stages — but it's a useful way to understand how a perfume is composed and how it will unfold on skin.
Linear vs. Evolving Fragrance A linear fragrance smells more or less the same from first spray to dry down — it doesn't dramatically transform on skin. An evolving (or developmental) fragrance shifts noticeably as it wears, revealing new facets over time. Neither is better than the other; linear scents are reliable and easy to wear, evolving scents are more theatrical and reward attention.

CONCENTRATION & STRENGTH

Terms Description
Parfum (Extrait de Parfum) The most concentrated form of a fragrance, typically 20 to 40 percent fragrance oil in alcohol. Parfum sits closest to skin, projects the least, and lasts the longest — often eight to twelve hours or more. Historically applied dab-style from a stopper, not sprayed. The most expensive and most intimate way to wear a perfume.
Eau de Parfum (EDP) The most popular concentration in modern fine fragrance, typically 15 to 20 percent fragrance oil. Eau de parfum projects well, lasts six to eight hours on average, and offers the best balance between presence and refinement. The default category for most luxury and niche perfumes today.
Eau de Toilette (EDT) Lighter than EDP, typically 5 to 15 percent fragrance oil. Eau de toilette is fresher, more diffusive, and shorter-lived — usually three to five hours of wear. Often the go-to concentration for citrus, aquatic, and aromatic fragrances designed for daytime and warm weather.
Eau de Cologne (EDC) The lightest concentration, typically 2 to 5 percent fragrance oil. Originally a citrus-and-herb formula developed in Cologne, Germany in the early 18th century. True eau de cologne lasts only one to two hours and is meant for splashy, frequent application — the perfume equivalent of a cool washcloth on a warm day.

 

HOW A FRAGRANCE BEHAVES ON SKIN

Terms Description
Sillage Pronounced "see-yazh." French for "wake," as in the trail a boat leaves behind in water. Sillage describes the scent trail a fragrance leaves as you move through a room. A perfume with strong sillage announces your arrival and lingers after you leave; a perfume with soft sillage stays close to skin and is noticed only in intimacy. Sillage is one of the most discussed and most subjective qualities in perfumery.
Projection How far a fragrance throws — the distance at which someone else can smell it on you. A high-projection fragrance fills a room; a low-projection fragrance is a private experience. Often confused with sillage, but distinct: projection is about radius, sillage is about trail.
Longevity How long a fragrance lasts on skin from first spray to faint dry down. Longevity is determined by concentration, base note structure, skin chemistry, climate, and what you've eaten that day. A long-lasting fragrance is one that wears 8+ hours; a short-lived one can fade in 2 or 3.
Skin Scent A fragrance that sits very close to the body — felt rather than projected. Skin scents are intimate by design, often built on musks, ambers, and soft woods, and are typically discovered by someone leaning in rather than passing through a doorway.
Diffusion Closely related to projection, diffusion describes how broadly and evenly a fragrance distributes itself in the air around you. Some materials (hedione, certain aldehydes) are prized specifically for their diffusive qualities — they make a fragrance feel larger than its actual presence.
Tenacity A technical term for how long an individual raw material — not the whole fragrance — lasts on a blotter or skin. Perfumers use tenacity ratings to predict how long each note will stay audible in a composition.
Bloom The moment a fragrance "opens" on skin, usually within the first 10 to 30 seconds after application, as heat lifts the volatile molecules into the air. Some fragrances bloom dramatically and become softer over time; others stay quiet from the start.

 

EXTRACTION & PRODUCTION

Terms Description
Absolute The most concentrated form of a natural fragrance ingredient, obtained through solvent extraction. Absolutes capture more of a material's complexity than essential oils — including molecules too delicate to survive steam distillation — and are usually thicker, darker, and more aromatic. Rose absolute, jasmine absolute, and tuberose absolute are some of the most prized.
Essential Oil The volatile aromatic compound of a plant, typically extracted through steam distillation or cold pressing. Essential oils are the foundation of natural perfumery and the raw form most familiar from aromatherapy. Lavender, citrus oils, peppermint, and most herbs are extracted this way.
Enfleurage A traditional, labor-intensive extraction method largely abandoned today: petals are pressed into a layer of odorless fat, which absorbs their scent over days or weeks. Used historically for the most delicate flowers (jasmine, tuberose) that lose their scent in distillation. A handful of artisans still practice enfleurage as a craft.
Steam Distillation The most common method of extracting essential oils. Plant material is exposed to steam, which carries the volatile aromatic molecules into a condenser, where they're collected as oil and water. The oldest extraction technology still in regular use — refined in Persia over 1,000 years ago.
Cold Pressing The extraction method for citrus oils. Rinds are mechanically pressed at low temperatures, releasing the oil without heat damage. Bergamot, lemon, orange, and grapefruit are all cold-pressed.
CO₂ Extraction A modern technique using pressurized carbon dioxide as a solvent. CO₂ extraction captures a fuller, truer-to-nature aroma than steam distillation, and is increasingly favored for delicate florals and resins.

 

NOTES, ACCORDS & COMPOSITION

Terms Description
Note A single olfactory impression in a fragrance — what your nose perceives as a single ingredient or idea ("rose," "leather," "lemon"). A note may correspond to a single raw material or be built from several materials blended together.
Accord A blend of multiple materials designed to function as a single olfactory impression. A "leather accord" might be built from birch tar, castoreum, suederal, and a handful of other materials, but the perfumer wants you to smell it as one thing: leather. Accords are the building blocks of composition.
Animalic A descriptor for fragrances or materials that smell warm, sensual, slightly raw — reminiscent of fur, skin, sweat, or musk. Animalic notes were historically derived from animal materials (musk, civet, castoreum) and are now built from synthetics. They give a fragrance depth, intimacy, and tension.
Powdery A descriptor for soft, dusty, slightly sweet notes — orris, heliotrope, violet, certain musks. Powdery fragrances often feel vintage, romantic, and slightly nostalgic, like a grandmother's vanity table.
Aldehydic A descriptor for fragrances built around aldehydes — clean, soapy, slightly metallic, slightly champagne-like. Chanel No. 5 is the defining aldehydic perfume.
Aromatic A descriptor for fragrances built around herbs and aromatic plants — lavender, rosemary, sage. Often used in masculine and fougère contexts.
Balsamic A descriptor for soft, warm, sweet, resinous notes — benzoin, tolu, Peru balsam. Balsamic fragrances feel comforting and slightly nostalgic.
Green A descriptor for fresh, sharp, vegetal notes — galbanum, violet leaf, fig leaf, crushed grass. Green notes feel cool, slightly bitter, and very awake.
Boozy A relatively new descriptor for fragrances featuring spirit notes — rum, whiskey, bourbon, cognac. Boozy fragrances have surged in modern perfumery as part of the gourmand and oriental revival.