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Fragrance descriptions for perfumes are like English literature essays – all fancy & nice but difficult to decipher! Many of us get overwhelmed with the description of ‘notes’ and ‘accords’ and ‘fragrance families’ being talked about with reference to Perfumes. The experience of smelling and selecting a perfume stands on the fundamental awareness of these aspects. If you are searching for popular fragrance on the internet, these terms will be thrown at you in every piece of information that’s there. You will read about Fresh Notes, Floral notes or even a Chypre accord. There will be terms like top notes, middles notes, and bottom notes used everywhere. And in all this technical jugglery, you will be too lost to remember that you were only looking for a popular fragrance in perfume. At Dopamine, simplicity of communication is an important promise we have made to ourselves. Understanding details is important, we agree, but it does not have to be complicated. So, before we provide information about the most popular fragrance in a perfume, lets first understand technical terms like fragrance notes and accords in a simple and succinct way. The art and science of perfumery is built around notes and accords, and we will throw more light on this matter. But remember, as a customer you need this information to choose a perfume, not to manufacture one. So you must read it with the focus on keeping your interpretation simple.
What are Fragrance Notes?
Simply put, several ingredients (rose, saffron, citrus, orange etc) are combined to make a perfume. Each Ingredients has its own distinct scent. The scent of each such ingredient is referred to as a ‘note.’ Easy enough? Let’s dig a little deeper. Over a period, perfumers started discovering newer fragrance notes. Initially it was all about scents of natural elements. Then lab made elements started coming in because, counter intuitive as it may sound, the natural scents were ecologically not viable. So, the repertoire of notes increased – have you heard of Aqua note? Well, you cannot technically distil scent out of water, right? Aqua note is a lab made note to replicate the natural fragrance. Then some legendary perfumers combined notes to develop ‘accords’ (combination of two or more notes) E.g., Fougere, Chypre. Companies started adding such popular accords with other notes to make various variants of Perfume. Going further, in order to enable easier, understand and referencing of notes, similar smelling notes (e.g. citrus & orange or wood & patchouli) were clubbed into ‘fragrance families.’ Thus, came about groupings of 8 to 14 (depending on who the classifier is) fragrance families. The purpose of this was to enable customers find a perfume with the family of fragrance note they like. Popular perfume notes are these days popularly classified into families e.g., Citrus, Orange, Ylang Ylang, Aqua belong to Fresh Family. Jasmine, Neroli, Tuberose are a popular fragrance set called White Florals. Resins & Spices are oriental perfume notes etc.
What are the Three Main Notes Categories?
Now that you know what fragrance notes and accords are, you are in a better position to understand what are Top Notes, Middle Notes and Bottom Notes. The grouping of notes into fragrance families is based on how similar they smell to each other, and what characteristics they display – as in how intense they are and how tenacious (long lasting) they are. Woody fragrance family for instance contains notes that may not be intense – they don’t overpower you instantly, but they play out on your skin gradually. Hence, they are considered less intense but more tenacious. Fresh Notes like Citrus and Aqua work exactly the opposite way. Hence for truly magical experience, a perfumer often combines fragrance notes of distinct characteristics. That’s where Top Notes, Middle Notes and Base Notes come in. It’s a sort of a different prism to view the fragrance note.
Top Notes
Also known as opening notes or head notes, these are lightest of all the notes in the pyramid of a perfume. But they are very intense. They are meant to make a mark. When you smell a perfume for the first time, you are smelling the top note. However, these fragrance notes do not have tenacity and are the first to fade. They usually don’t last more than 15 minutes.
Middle Notes
The Middle note or heart notes start to make an appearance while the top notes fade away. They are always there when you spray the perfume but because of the intensity of the top notes, you can’t immediately smell them. Such fragrance notes are more intense than base notes and more tenacious than top notes. They are the main part of the perfume – the fragrance at its peak. After about 2-3 hours they deign to fade away to make way for the base fragrance note.
Base Notes
Base notes are like the happy endings in a movie. Where the top notes introduce the popular fragrance notes in the perfume, base notes are associated with the dry-down period of the fragrance. With base notes you will experience the lasting impression of the perfume. These fragrance notes are often rich and smooth.
You can check out our link about Fragrance Guide to round up your understanding about notes and accords.
What are some of the Popular Fragrance Notes?
Now that you have a handy understanding of notes, accords and fragrance families. Let us look at some of the popular fragrance notes.
The accord of Rose flower or Rose smell can be described as floral, delicate, soft, and fruity. Ten out of ten people will associate this olfactory accord with timelessness, luxury, beauty, and romance. When combined with other fragrance family ingredients, it can transform to powdery, musky, and even spicy woody. Rose fragrances have started featuring increasingly in Unisex perfumes and men’s fragrances too. Rose Perfumes are, therefore, unmatchable in any bouquets of perfume notes – from fresh fragrances to deeply floral, from heady, opulent scents to subtle musky version. Check out Dopamine Perfumes consisting of Rose as its dominant fragrance.
Lavendar scents are characterized by aromatic, clean, and floral notes that tend to evolve into camphoric and licoricey facet. It also possesses strong nuances of being green (think of freshly cut hey), herbal and sweet notes. Due its complex & foreboding nature, Lavendar fragrance perfumes are sophisticated and intoxicating. They blend well with other notes and are usually combined with citrus notes, woody notes, and spicy notes with great ease. Lavendar Perfumes are, therefore, an extremely popular choice for many different bouquets of perfumes – from fresh fragrances to deeply floral, from heady, opulent scents to subtle musky version. Check out Dopamine Perfumes consisting of Lavender as its dominant fragrance.
Jasmine scents are heady and intense floral notes that tend to evolve into musky and powdery nuance. It also possesses subtle nuances of being green (think of freshly cut hey), herbal and sweet notes. Due its versatility. Jasmine fragrance perfumes are rich and intoxicating. They evoke an extremely refreshing feeling. Jasmine fragrance also can blend well with other notes and enhance its long lastingness. Check out Dopamine Perfumes consisting of Jasmine as its dominant fragrance.
Originally associated with women’s fragrances, Vanilla is finding its way into Unisex as well as Men’s fragrances. Be it Vanilla Perfume for women or Vanilla Perfume for men, each of them has a powerful trigger to mood and memory simply because of the association Vanilla brings with it. At Dopamine shop our basic principle in selecting a fragrance is ‘how it makes you feel’ and that is why we love Vanilla base fragrances. Vanilla Fragrance Perfumes not only add sweetness to perfumes, but they also evoke a deep sense of warmth, cosiness, intimacy, and comfort. It is also associated with luxury and lifestyle. And boy, Vanilla fragrances are exceptionally long-lasting! Choosing Vanilla in a perfume is picking up the best of every aspects – fragrance, feeling and sophistication.
An extremely popular note, Oud fragrance is a part of the culture in the Middle East and its only recently that it has started gaining immense popularity due its fragrance profile; it can be best defined as woody, earthy, musky, and dark, evoking a sense of intimacy. Given this increased demand and its rarity as a resource, it can get expensive to manufacture. Oud fragrance, while classified as woody, has oriental characteristic too. An oud perfume user discovers quickly that it can linger on and on your skin, with myriad textures depending on the body heat. It also takes on some characters of its other ingredients giving it a versatile and mysterious allure. This combination makes Oud Perfumes an excellent choice is one is looking for luxury and long-lasting features.
Shop Your Favourite Notes at Dopamine Shop
At Dopamine Shop, we have curated the best perfume collection by blending popular fragrance notes with complementary, modern aromas to create a world-class range of Extrait De Parfum. Discover amazing options featuring combinations of popular perfume notes in our exclusive ranges of perfume for him, perfume for her, and unisex perfume.
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