Finding your perfect personal scent can sound daunting, but the fragrance wheel makes understanding fragrance families super easy, and it’s a great place to start. Before jumping into fragrance families, look at this guide to the different types of perfumes. Here’s everything you need to know about the Fragrance Wheel and fragrance families to help you find your perfect scent.
What Are Fragrance Families
Fragrance families are a way to categorize different perfumes. This means that perfumes are divided into categories based on their notes and ingredients. To make sure you will be able to find your new favorite fragrance is helpful to understand the different fragrance families that every scent is based on. The four main fragrance families are:
These 4 main fragrance families can be made even more specific through their subcategories. In order to help people figure out their fragrance of interest, the Fragrance Wheel got invented and is still very useful to this day.
What Are Fragrance Notes
Fragrance notes are elements that make up a fragrance. They’re classified as top notes, heart notes, and base notes.
This precisely named mix of ingredients forms the perfume accord, the introductory character of a scent. Perfume makers specifically elect notes to ensure a scent smells nice and evokes a special experience. You can identify fragrance notes based on the time that passed. Top notes are those you smell incontinently after the fragrance first touches your skin. Once this original burst fades, the heart notes kick in to form the substance of the fragrance. The base notes are the ones that last the longest when it comes to the scent.
Top Notes
Top notes, occasionally related to as opening notes, form the top level of a fragrance. This means that the top notes are the scents you discover first after sprinkling on a fragrance. Top notes are basically the first impression of a fragrance. Top notes generally fade fast, which means you will mainly smell them for the first five to fifteen minutes. After that, they will transition into the basic fragrance. As a result, top notes generally correspond to lighter and lesser molecules.
Typical top notes include bergamot, lemon, orange zest, anise, grapefruit, and fresh herbs (basil, sage, lavender).
Heart Notes
As you may assume from their name, heart notes lie at the heart of a fragrance. They’re often known as middle notes because of this. This scent level is the foundation of any fragrance and makes up roughly 40-80% of the definitive perfume. Just before the top notes start to fade, the heart notes enter and will explosively impact the base notes. Heart notes are not to be taken lightly!
Typical heart notes include cinnamon, rose, ylang-ylang, lemongrass, and neroli.
Base Notes
The base notes will shine through once the top notes have entirely faded. Alone, base notes make up 10-25% of the final perfume. Still, the base notes also blend with the heart notes to accentuate the complexity of the scent. Where the top notes make the original imprint, the base notes are associated with the dry-down period of the fragrance, and so, base notes will produce the final, lasting mark.
Typical base notes include cedarwood, sandalwood, vanilla, patchouli, and musk.
The Fragrance Wheel
Micheal Edwards, an international perfume expert, created the Fragrance Wheel to display the relationship between scents. The wheel provides a visual representation of fragrances, which is ideal for helping you understand how they blend and contrast. It’s similar to the color wheel, but for things that smell delightful.
He did this by grouping scents into families and subfamilies. There are four families and fourteen subfamilies on the wheel. The closer each subfamily is to another, the more likely it is to blend well. This knowledge is not only helpful in creating perfumes, but it’s also valuable for finding your favorite scent. The four fragrance families are Amber, Florals, Fresh, and Woody. Let’s dive in and look closely at each family and its subfamilies.
Amber (Oriental)
- Subfamilies: Woody Amber, Amber, and Soft Amber
- Common Notes: Warmth, vanilla, spice, bergamot, musk, pepper
- Perfumes to Try: Alien Goddess Intense, Salty Amber, Replica: Jazz Club
The amber family exudes exotic and sensual scents. It was previously called the Oriental family because of the deep, exotic, and spicy notes that it’s known for. Amber scents usually feature a base scent of vanilla, musk, or resin, often in the form of sandalwood. If you want to look and feel sexy, the sensual scents of the amber family are the way to go.
Typically, in feminine fragrances, light floral essences are commonly blended with scents in the amber family to brighten the perfume. On the other hand, Masculine fragrances in the amber family tend to feature blends of woody scents.
Tip: Have a look at these irresistible vanilla perfumes for women.
Florals
- Subfamilies: Fruity, Floral, Soft Floral
- Common Notes: Jasmine, rose, ylang-ylang, fruit, patchouli, resin, musk
- Perfumes to Try: Burberry Her Eau de Toilette, Valentino Donna, English Pear and Freesia
All things florals are the epitome of femininity. While most, if not all, perfumes have floral essences, this fragrance family features strong base notes of florals like rose or jasmine. For depth, they are often blended with cedarwood or musk, and some even have a hint of pepper.
You’ll likely find most floral fragrances with fruity or fresh blends. Typically, fragrances in the floral family are less intense or lighter than those in the amber family. These are the perfect summer or springtime scents.
Did you know: English Pear and Freesia is internationally renowned female entrepreneur Jo Malone’s most popular fragrance. Jo Malone is the founder of two major fragrance brands.
Fresh
- Subfamilies: Water, Aromatic, Green, Citrus
- Common Notes: Green notes, citrus, herbs, sandalwood, musk, bergamot, light florals, ocean
- Perfumes to Try: Neroli Portofino Acqua, Wood, Sage & Sea Salt, Replica: Under the Lemon Trees
If you’re looking for those bright, clean, and fresh summertime scents without strong floral notes, the fresh fragrance family might have exactly what you need. Fresh fragrances have possibly the most complex notes in the perfume world.
You’ll often find fresh perfumes that are said to have a base of ‘green notes.’ This is best described as the scent of dew-covered grass in the morning or a cut stem of a plant.
Just like the morning air, fresh fragrances are crisp and gentle. Fresh blends often include citrusy notes from lemongrass, orange or lemon zest, or even a hint of bergamot. You’ll also find herbal notes like sage and spicy scents like ginger.
Woody
- Subfamilies: Mossy Woods, Woods, Dry Woods
- Common Notes: Cedarwood, sandalwood, citrus, orange blossom, patchouli
- Perfumes to Try: Oud Wood, Replica: By The Fireplace, Chloé Nomade Naturelle
Woody fragrances are warm, opulent, and comforting and are best suited for fall and winter. Base notes like sandalwood or the drier cedarwood allow for a spectrum of combinations. Perfumes of the Woody fragrance family commonly feature blends of clean, spicy, or floral notes.
Although they’re best for the colder seasons, if you’re after a deep and mature fragrance, woody notes are ideal. These perfumes are perfect for fall holidays at the lake, grabbing a coffee on a gloomy day, or even date nights.
Can You Mix Perfumes Together?
Yes, it’s definitely possible to mix perfumes together and create your own, unique scent. Layering scents doesn’t unavoidably mean sprinkling two fragrances directly on top of each other, though. It can be a combination of a body spray or lotion with a fragrance, for example, or spraying one in your hair and the other on your wrists. Either way, don’t be afraid and play around with creating your new favorite fragrance. There’s no right or wrong!
Now I get that this is still quite intimidating if you’ve never layered fragrances before. So to give you a head start, here are some general rules to keep in mind when picking the perfumes you want to layer.
Final Thoughts
Now that you know the basics of blending and contrasting fragrances, it may be a little easier to find your signature scent or a new addition to your fragrance collection. Once you dive into the technicalities of the beauty industry, you’ll discover that there’s a lot that goes into picking products that work for you. But, don’t worry, you can find heaps of information on everything beauty-related right here. I cover everything from no-makeup makeup look essentials to finding the best fragrances for women.
FAQ
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Such an interesting read Simone! xx
Danielle’s Beauty Blog
I’m happy to hear this, thanks Danielle! xx
This is such a wonderful and interesting post, I adore perfumes and love learning something new about them! This was super interesting to read, thank you so much for sharing. <3
http://www.couture-case.com/
I’m so happy to hear that you liked it! Thanks for the love. <3