How Perfume Notes Work

Talk in any sort of depth about perfume and you will probably encounter the word, “Note”. So what are perfume notes, what are these things that list them, and how do they work anyway?

A note in perfume refers to a single scent. Perfumes are made from many different notes blended together. For example, jasmine is a note featured in Chanel No.5. Notes are categorized in layers, from top notes, middle notes, and base notes. Perfumes work through evaporation and it is often the top notes that evaporate first and are the first notes you smell when you spray or apply perfume. The evaporation is followed by the middle notes and finally the base notes. Slofe

Contrary to popular belief, the perfume notes you see listed on perfume reviews, on the fragrance itself, or sites that sell perfume are not ingredients lists. They are also not 100% accurate descriptors of what the fragrance actually contains.

Notes listings are used by the perfume reviewer or the marketers of the perfume to describe what you may experience when you use the scent. Many times these notes lists are missing many, many, many other scents in the perfume itself. Fragrances are highly complex and some can have hundreds of different scents in them and nothing, short of gas chromatography, will be able to tell you for sure all of the notes in a perfume.

So with all this secrecy, what good are notes lists then? Simply put, notes lists help consumers imagine what a fragrance might smell like and help them determine if they would like that scent. While you cannot instantly know what a fragrance smells like until you stick your nose in, you can get a general idea using a notes list–most of the time. Notes can also help guide people through the progression of a fragrance by giving them a general idea of what they might be smelling.

In the end, notes are a mechanism for giving perfume sniffers an idea of what they’re experiencing. But they shouldn’t be used as a be all and end all list of ingredients because they aren’t.


Creed Love in White

Love in White is one of those fragrances with a wide split between people who love it and people who hate it. It’s Creed’s answer to the ultimate fresh fragrance. This stuff is so fresh and crisp it makes my eyes water. Billed as a women’s fragrance, Love in White comes in a cute, feminine white bottle that’s supposed to represent a woman, the sand, and the sea. I can dig it. Love in White

In Bottle: Sweetness, aqua, and something sharp. Like sugar water with broken bits of glass and twisted pieces of metal. Love in White is strong too. So strong that my first whiff of it went straight up my nose and exploded in the back of my head. The sharpness that I assume might be the zest is so strong in this that it went beyond fine fragrance and reminded me of household cleaner.

Applied: Not much dying down of that sharp note on application but I do get the rest of the fragrance now that it’s on my skin. It’s like somebody turned up the volume on the jasmine note here because it’s very high-pitched, almost shrill as it tries to out sing the sandalwood. Meanwhile, iris with its rather distinct brightness is adding to the fresh feel. There’s got to be some aqua note in this because I swear I can smell water. I suppose that’s where the ocean imagery comes from but so much of this fragrance is clean and fresh that it’s hard to move beyond those two concepts to something gentler. The dry down helps a bit, the sharpness fades and the florals have sore throats and are now just whispering. I can appreciate the quiet calm of the dry down here as the soft creaminess of that vanilla shows up to help tame the sandalwood a little.

Extra: Love in White kind of reminds me of household cleaners. Not in a bad way. I mean, household cleaners contain fragrances meant to offend the least amount of people. Love in White is that inoffensive. The thing I can fault it for is how close it has to stick to my skin so I have to get up really close and personal. And when I’m that close, the fragrance is incredibly strong.

Design: The white bottle for Love in White is supposed to represent the feminine, the ocean and the crisp ocean air. I’m not sure I’m really feeling the look of the bottle or the conceptualization of it but it is pleasant enough to look at.

Fragrance Family: Fresh

Notes: Orange zest, rice husk, iris, jasmine, daffodil, magnolia, rose, vanilla, ambergris, Mysore sandalwood.

When it’s all said and done Love in White is a very fresh sort of shrill scent with a loud projection that also manages to stick relatively close to the skin. I have to get up close to really smell it but once I’m that close I also tend to get its entire assault up my nose.

Reviewed in This Post: Love in White, 2010, Sample vial.


Acqua di Biella Kid Mohair

Kid Mohair by Acqua di Biella was inspired by Audrey Hepburn and is supposed to be reminiscent of a warm embrace from a refined and elegant woman wearing a super soft and comfortable sweater. Now that’s an interesting, and very vivid image. Kid Mohair

In Bottle: Citrus with something musky hanging about in the forefront. I do get the slight sweet, syrupy scent of mango that adds an exotic touch to this fragrance. There’s also a sharp clean note to this that I can only assume is patchouli shoving its head into the picture.

Applied: Opens up with a really lively, fresh citrus note with a slight touch of musk. I’ve lost track of the mango but the fragrance is quick to turn for the powdery side of things as it starts working on that refined woman sweater embrace scent. Kid Mohair does warm up a bit and, strangely enough, is reminiscent of comfort. It’s a nice, pleasant, feminine and comfortable fragrance that settles itself nicely into a powdery, lightly floral and ever so slightly sweet fragrance. The dry down is also rather interesting, as the powder recedes the further this develops before it finally settles on a clean musk.

Extra: Acqua di Biella is a niche house established in 1871 by Luigi Cantono. Kid Mohair was composed by Chiara Cantono.

Design: Kid Mohair is packaged in a glass bottle with a very interesting textured glass finish that kind of reminds me of the privacy glass sometimes used at the dentist’s office. Not that it’s a bad thing. I would personally find hours of entertainment just feeling the texture.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Mango, mandarin, rose, osmanthus, pink pepper, patchouli, ambrette, musk.

Most people’s initial reaction to the name of this fragrance immediately conjures of images of human children with particular hairstyles. Kid mohair is actually a type of yarn taken from young mohair goats. This makes it a very luxurious, silky, material that’s usually made into sweaters.

Reviewed in This Post: Kid Mohair, 2009, Eau de Parfum.


Demeter Earl Grey Tea

I spent a lot of time trying to find just the perfect tea fragrance. Something that smells exactly like a cup of earl grey tea without any other fluff surrounding it. I tried Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs with notes that were supposed to smell like earl grey tea but found there were other notes getting int he way. I tried niche and mainstream and finally I decided to settle down and see if Demeter Fragrance Library could get me any closer to that earl grey scent. Earl Grey Tea

In Bottle: Bergamot with a squeeze of lemon, I think. There is a heavy, gritty, dusty note settled on a black tea like note underneath the citrus opener. It’s almost like smelling a cup of weak tea with a sprinkling of dust on top.

Applied: Bergamot comes roaring out on the entryway, dragging this very bright yellow lemon behind it. The dynamic citrus duo is followed by a really strong hit of black tea. This is the earl grey scent I’ve been looking for. No punches pulled, no extra fluff, just plain old earl grey with a squeeze of lemon. It smells as advertised and I’m just delighted! Then, just as quickly as I was delighted, Earl Grey Tea disappears on me. It packs its bags and heads out the door, leaving almost nothing but its slightly astringent black tea scent. And after a few more minutes, even that’s gone. I understand this cologne is truly meant as a very temporary burst of happiness and amazement but the longest I’ve ever gotten Earl Grey Tea to stay on my skin was around thirty minutes. I’ve tried lotion, I’ve tried using more, I’ve sprayed it on my clothes but this stuff just wasn’t meant to last. It’s fabulous while it’s there though, as close to earl grey tea as any perfume has gotten so far.

Extra: Demeter Fragrance Library, instead of focusing on complex evolutions of top, middle and base notes,  focuses more on creating scents to invoke memories. They have a huge selection of literal interpretation fragrances. If you think you might like Earl Grey Tea, why not try out their Orange Cream Pop fragrance? Dirt is a very popular one, and their Espresso scent might send you to the nearest Starbucks after sniffing.

Design: Really simple bottle. Glass cylinder with a metal cap. The sprayer distributes a larger than normal amount of fragrance but trust me, it’s necessary here. The labels and packaging are fairly simple but there’s not much complaint on my end here. Demeter doesn’t charge anywhere near as much as other fragrance houses might so I’m more than happy with the packaging we do get.

Fragrance Family: Gourmand

Notes: Bergamot, lemon, black tea.

Gourmand, not gourmand? It smells good enough to drink to me. In either case, one could spend a lot of time smelling the offerings from Demeter but don’t forget that one of the founding noses of Demeter has branched off to form his own line too. Christopher Brosius creates fragrances under CB I Hate Perfume.

Reviewed in This Post: Earl Grey Tea, 2009, Pick-Me-Up Cologne Spray.


Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab The Girl

One of my favorite pairings, florals and amber. The Girl is, well, feminine. But I don’t like assigning seasons, genders, or occupations to certain scents. I will say that this is a lovely, pure amber fragrance that doesn’t try to muddy the waters by adding in too many florals. The Girl is a limited edition fragrance from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab’s 2009 Halloween limited edition run. The Girl

In Bottle: Light jasmine and ylang-ylang. Smooth fragrance with a nice sweet amber and almost vanilla scent. The heart of this fragrance is in the amber and the florals are used as backing for this. There’s a bit of woodsiness in this too which helps cut up the smoothness with a bit of dry airiness.

Applied: Strangely enough the musk is one of the first things I get. Clean and smooth initially as the florals catch up to the party. Jasmine has less of a presence here than ylang-ylang but neither of them are really stars. They seem to be there to bolster this pretty white amber and touch of vanilla scent. Meanwhile the musk is still hanging around giving this an older, more sophisticated, quality while still maintaining the fragrance’s smooth amber floral scent. It’s just hard to describe The Girl. It’s a well-blended fragrance. On the dry down I’m smelling a bit more of the woods as the amber and vanilla chill out a little bit. And I mean, literally chill out. The Girl takes a turn for the cold and ethereal on dry down.

Extra: Immortelle, one of the featured notes in The Girl, is used to refer to a number of flowers in which one particular species can be steam distilled for its essential oil. Which smells like rubbery honey to me.

Design: The Girl is contained in a 5ml amber glass bottle with a plastic top. It has a limited edition label with the house name fragrance name on it.

Fragrance Family: Oriental

Notes: White amber, silver birch, immortelle, davana, pale musk, star jasmine, and ylang ylang.

I wouldn’t say The Girl is a typical oriental but its focus on the amber and vanilla helps it in that direction. If you’re looking for oriental in the classical sense, you would need to look more into Mitsouko or Shalimar. The Girl is a much more modern smelling oriental that’s in and of the same vein of L’Instant de Guerlain or Allure by Chanel.

Reviewed in This Post: The Girl, 2009, 5ml Bottle.


Danielle Steel Danielle

Yeah, go ahead and laugh. I saw a bottle of this sitting on a counter today next to some mangled looking boxes of Britney Spears Fantasy and J-Lo Glow. Having heard of Danielle Steel and seeing the literal wall of romance novels all with her name on them at the used bookstore, I decided to put my pledge–to smell all there is to smell–where my money is. Danielle

In Bottle: Powerful alcohol in this one, it’s hard for me to get past it. Though I do wonder if that’s a fault of this particular bottle having gone off or what. Still the opener is a citrus–mandarin, I think–bright and green and fresh. There’s rose in this too and something very sweet. Like toffee or apple. Maybe it’s candy apple. It’s hovering around the sticky, syrupy section where a fragrance goes from pleasantly sweet to cloying.

Applied: Rose and citrus up front, very nice on spray and initial application. It’s a bit reminiscent of Nina by Nina Ricci at first but then the apple and the rose wear off, leaving citrus to do the rest of the work. And the citrus mixes with that strange candy scent I mentioned earlier. The two of them end up battling back and forth creating this sharp green fragrance before Danielle goes from bearably bright to burnt sugar with a heavy dose of miscellaneous florals. And that burnt sugary floral is what I get for the next million years as Danielle has some of the most impressive longevity I’ve ever witnessed in a perfume. Really, I don’t think that spot of skin on the back of my right hand will ever smell normal again. After several scrubbings, it is still there, except the burnt sugar is just burnt now and the florals are shadows of their former selves swimming in a sharp green note that just won’t go away.

Extra: Danielle Steel is the quintessential romance novel writer. I’ve never read any of her books but I’ve held a couple and wasn’t really compelled to read any. It is impressive, though, to see an entire wall’s worth of books, all with her name on the spine. Danielle, the fragrance, falls under Elizabeth Arden Inc.’s massive umbrella. other fragrances by Elizabeth Arden attributed to celebrities include the Britney Spears line and the Hilary Duff line.

Design: Tame design. Squarish glass or crystal bottle with a plastic cap that covers the sprayer. Sprayer distributes an even and fine mist. There’s some production value put into this but the design isn’t really inspiring or new. I mean, it’s a Danielle Steel inspired perfume, I shouldn’t really expect anything postmodern.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Mandarin, jasmine, orchid, rose, amber, vetiver, musk.

Danielle Steel herself admitted that she had nothing to do with the creation of the fragrance. At least the woman is honest about it. I still don’t like this perfume though. It’s like a mixture of everything I don’t like. Too strong florals. Too sharp citrus. Too cloying base note that won’t go away. The syrupy sweetness in this reminds me of Miss Dior Cherie but with apple and rose instead of strawberry.

Reviewed in This Post: Danielle, 2007, Eau de Parfum.


Nina Ricci Nina 2006

Nina by Nina Ricci was my first perfume. At the time, I was still growing out of my body mist and lotion phase and was still wearing fruity fragrances. That was four years ago, before I gave florals, musks, woods, ambers, and all manner of things a try. Nina is a young fragrance, filled with apples and sweetness and sugary sparkle. I remember when it was new, when I had wandered into the perfume section by accident and thought the bottle was just adorable. Nina

In Bottle: Vibrant lemon and lime with a note of apple and sugar. Nina prior to application smells like a lemonade stand. A lemonade stand with a very popular, very aromatic product though. Smell a couple more times and I start to notice this sticky, sweet vanilla toffee too.

Applied: Lemonade followed by the apple note. The apple in Nina is a big, red juicy one that’s been covered in a vanilla toffee mixture. There’s a lot of sweet notes in this fragrance but thankfully that lemonade and lime scent at the beginning doesn’t fade immediately. It sticks around and adds a tartness to Nina so that the sweetness of the fragrance doesn’t turn cloying. There’s a bit of taming going on too from the very light florals as Nina settles down into a fresh scent reminiscent of a cool, refreshing drink. The dry down takes a while to approach because Nina has excellent longevity. Hours after application and the citrus notes fade first, with the apple and sugar holding on strong until those too start to give. It’s on the very last leg of the fragrance’s stages where some of the wood notes show up for a very brief time before completely disappearing.

Extra: Nina Ricci was founded by Maria Ricci and her son in 1932. They started out as a fashion house in Paris. The Nina Ricci brand’s best known fragrance is L’Air du Temps.

Design: Contained in an adorable apple shaped bottle, Nina has a metal cap that protects the sprayer that is also used as the apple’s stem. The leaves have the house’s name engraved into them and the entire bottle is one seamless, beautiful piece of fun decorative art. Even if you don’t like the fragrance for some reason, the bottle makes for very cute decor. As noted in an earlier review, the makers of the Twilight perfume used Nina’s bottle for their fragrance, sparking a lawsuit.

Fragrance Family: Fruity

Notes: Lemon, lime, apple, toffee, peony, moonflower, vanilla, cedar, applewood.

I don’t wear Nina much anymore. Sure, once in a while I’ll dig it out and give it a sniff, maybe a spritz, but I’ve since moved on. Moved on but not forgotten. I wouldn’t get rid of Nina. It was my first real perfume, a stepping stone into the rest of my obsession. To get rid of my first bottle of perfume just wouldn’t make sense to me.

Reviewed in This Post: Nina, 2007, Eau de Toilette.


Montale White Musk

When people think “musk” their thoughts tend to gravitate toward the animalistic musks like civet then they wrinkle their noses thinking about intrepid perfumers chasing down civet cats in the jungles of the world. Very few fragrances still use naturally derived musks. Most of them are synthetics these days and hardly smell anything near animalistic. Montale White Musk

In Bottle: Bright, pure and clean. White Musk smells like lightly perfumed water. It’s airy, translucent and fleeting like the molecules of some fabulous fragrance is carried by the wind to you. With that having been said White Musk, due to its nature, is extremely light and fleeting. Even in the vial, after a couple of sniffs, it becomes hard to detect.

Applied: Very, very, very light. I would have to bathe in this stuff to get anywhere close to the average strength that other fragrances enjoy. White Musk is a blank (in a good way), refreshing, powdery scent. Sort of reminiscent of baby powder but a great deal prettier with hints of sweet florals in it. Think luxury powder in a gilded silver case. It’s also soapy and very clean. I don’t feel like this fragrance is meant to be an entity of its own. Rather it’s a natural scent enhancer and the fragrance is just so happy, light, perky and soft.

Extra: Montale is a French niche perfume house headed by Pierre Montale. The house focuses on agar wood (oud) fragrances. They also have a line of regular perfume from which White Musk is a part of.

Design: Montale’s fragrances come in a metal bottle with a signature look. I have yet to actually hold one in my hand but the design itself is iconic for Montale fragrances and it looks attractive enough. At least it’s a step beyond the standard rectangle glass bottle affair that most niche houses would swear by.

Fragrance Family: Fresh

Notes: White musk, violet, ylang-ylang, geranium.

Probably one of the more common misconceptions about perfumes is the discussion on musk. A lot of people associate the word “musk” with dirty, sweaty, or stinky smells. Musk is often used as a scent fixative in many perfumes. These days there are thousands of synthetic musks in use that don’t smell at all sweaty, stinky or animalistic. Synthetic musks are great examples. With their usually clean, almost invisible sheerness, that makes them great fixatives for fresher, cleaner, modern fragrances.

Reviewed in This Post: White Musk, 2010, Eau de Parfum.


Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue Pour Homme

Light Blue Pour Homme falls into that weird category of “sports” fragrances that are described as fresh, clean and perfect for the active man. It’s no surprise then that Light Blue Pour Homme is as inoffensive as they can get. It also sort of smells like deodorant and at the same time smells like about ten other sports fragrances for men out there. Light Blue Pour Homme

In Bottle: Spicy, woodsy, citrus. Pretty standard as far as inoffensive aquas go. With an opener that contains lime, bergamot, rosemary and a hit of woods, I don’t see this turning any heads to someone or away from someone. Most people would probably just think you’re wearing a standard men’s deodorant.

Applied: Same deal here, hit of bergamot, lime, rosemary and some woodsy notes. It stays like that for a few minutes with the citrus ebbing out a bit as the rosemary gets stronger. The dry down is a bit woodsier but still with that sharp, fresh and clean bite to it. Light Blue Pour Homme is an all-purpose sporty fragrance with a lack of distinction. It doesn’t smell bad at all. It just smells–eh–ordinary. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing either. If you’re just looking for something that’s going to smell good, that you can wear during the summer months, that won’t offend anyone, Light Blue Pour Homme is the safest bet.

Extra: Dolce & Gabbana started in 1985 as an Italian luxury fashion house. One of their most popular fragrances, that this one was based off of, is Light Blue.  Another that you may be familiar with from Dolce & Gabbana is The One.

Design: The bottle for Light Blue Pour Homme is a step above the bottle for original Light Blue. Pour Homme has a more interesting shape, though the look of it reminds me more of a bottle for a face cleanser than a luxury fragrance. But still, the design is decent. The sprayer works fine, distributing a fine and even mist. The cap is easy to take off and put on. It has that really nice slide to it.

Fragrance Family: Spicy Fresh

Notes: Apple, bluebell, cedar, jasmine, rose, bamboo, amber, musk.

With the fact that I said this smells more like a deodorant than an interesting men’s fragrance, I will point out that Light Blue Pour Homme comes in deodorant stick form. Hey, talk about convenient.

Reviewed in This Post: Light Blue Pour Homme, 2009, Eau de Toilette.

Disclaimer: The fragrance sampler spray reviewed in this post was provided to me for free. I am not in any way receiving pay or compensation for this review. This review was written based upon my personal experience and opinions of the product.


Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Morocco

Morocco is among one of the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab’s more popular fragrances. Morocco conjures up romantic images of drinking tea in one of the most vivid nations in the world. The fragrance is BPAL’s interpretation of the place, using spices and warm milky notes to bring forward a very lovely gourmand fragrance. Morocco

In Bottle: Creamy, sweet tea with a touch of spices. I want to say I’m smelling saffron, nutmeg and cinnamon blended into a warm, milky, spicy beverage. There’s a touch of sweetness to this too that helps Morocco avoid being a hit of spices and milk. The sugar adds a much needed dimension because the sugar helps tip Morocco into gourmand territory.

Applied: Spices and milk before the milk settles off. Morocco moves along, carrying its cinnamon and nutmeg scent as sugar trails in behind. The fragrance ages into a slightly spicier piece of work when carnation starts to bloom. As Morocco continues to unfold on the skin there’s a touch of something musk coming up and intensifies as the dry down continues to wind its way through the streets piled high with spices and milky tea. Final dry down is a lovely creamy musk and woods.

Extra: BPAL fragrances are perfume oil blends. Which means they are fragrance oils set in carrier oils. This means the fragrance is set in an oil base such as almond oil or jojoba oil instead of alcohol and water.

Design: Morocco is contained in a 5ml amber glass bottle with a plastic top, just like other general catalog Black Phoenix Alchemy lab fragrances.

Fragrance Family: Gourmand

Notes: Spices, milk, sugar, carnation, sandalwood, cassia.

I do like Morocco, really and I was leery to even try it because of the spiciness. Sometimes too many spices can be a bit much to handle but Morocco strikes a very agreeable spice middle ground.

Reviewed in This Post: Morocco, 2009, 5ml Bottle.