Compendium of Terms & Notes

Notes in a perfume are single aspects of the scent. This is similar to how musical notes combine to make a chord.

Notes are not always indicative of a specific ingredient, just the single aspect of the overall scent.

 

  • Accord - A balanced blend of notes that adds up to more than just the sum of its parts.
  • Agrestic - denotes herbal and/or rustic family of notes.
  • Allspice - cinnaminic, clove, spices, wood.
  • Amber - an accord of incense-related notes, usually some (or all!) of the following: vanilla, labdanum, benzoin, sometimes styrax.
  • Ambergris - oceanic, animalic, musk. we do not use natural ambergris
  • Amyris - deep, earthy, wood, dry. Similar to sandalwood.
  • Animalic - aroma ingredients that were originally sourced from living animals, almost all of these are now synthetic
  • Apricot - fruity, extremely sweet, juicy, jam, honey
  • Apricot Brandy - Boozy, with aspects of apricot, honey, wood, berries, oak, and amber
  • Base - a premade, multiple ingredient compound used as part of a finished fragrance
  • Base (2) - The longest lasting part of a fragrance, also called the dry down
  • Beeswax - earthy, mild, waxy, resinous
  • Benzoin - A resinous mix of vanilla and cinnamon, used often in incense
  • Birch Leaf - spicy, green, forest, eucalyptus-like without the camphor, refreshing
  • Black Agar (synthetic oud) - extremely deep, smoky, incense, dark wood, earthy, slightly medicinal
  • Blackberry - a tart and citrus berry, with deep and green undertones
  • Black Leather - sharper and cleaner than Leather
  • Blonde Wood - light, transparent wood notes
  • Cardamom - a heady and warm spice with a nutty aspect
  • Cashmeran - warm, soft, clean fur-like musk, spicy
  • Cannabis: herbal, spicy, terpenic, earthy
  • Cedar - deep, wood, aromatic, almost animalic
  • Cherry Blossom - transparent, sweet, green, fruity, sometimes almond-cherry aspects
  • Cinnamon - bright, spice, sweet, dominant top note unless composed carefully
  • Clary Sage – green, diffusive, musky, salty. Used to create some synthetic ambergris ingredients
  • Clove - sharp, spicy, pepper, wood
  • Clover - soft, sweet, green, bright, grass
  • Coumarin/Tonka - cherry, almonds, hay, creamy/lactonic, not to be confused with the medication Coumadin
  • Dandelion - Warm, slightly sharp and bitter green notes
  • Fig – warm, lactonic, juicy, honey, wood, fruit, cinnamon, cherry, almond
  • Fig Leaf - bitter, green, clean, refreshing, sometimes creamy/lactonic
  • Fir Needles – forest, green, juicy, jam, camphor, Christmas tree
  • Frankincense - warm, sharp, resinous, incense, can have citrus and pine top notes
  • Gardenia - an extremely lactonic and slightly herbal white floral, with very slight touches of banana/mushroom/celery-like notes. Can be created with or without pronounced animalic/indolic notes
  • Geranium - leafy, floral, rose-like, sometimes has mint-like aspects
  • Gunpowder - mineral, smoke, slightly bitter
  • Hedione - transparent, sparkling, slightly green, slightly jasmine. This material is one of the backbones of modern perfumes.
  • Honey - Warm, sweet, syrupy, sometimes powdery, sometimes animalic
  • Iso E Super – warm, transparent, wood, skin enhancer, amber. This material is one of the backbones of modern perfumes.
  • Jasmine: White floral, green, narcotic. One of the most common perfume ingredients.
  • Juniper - spicy, gin, green, forest
  • Labdanum - resinous, amber, incense, leather
  • Leather - sharp, deep, earthy, also see Black Leather
  • Minerals - A combination of metallic, ozone, earthy with traces of green notes
  • Myrrh - deep, resinous, earthy, sweet, dry, leathery
  • Neroli - citrus, green, floral, wood
  • Oak Moss - deep, earthy, moss, forest
  • Opoponax (Opoponox) - "Sweet myrrh", myrrh but with more aspects of vanilla, caramel, oak, amber and less leathery and powdery
  • Ozone/Air - reminiscent of clean, cold air. Meant to invoke a sensation rather than a specific odor
  • Patchouli - earthy, sweet, oily, herbal, balsamic
  • Pear - sweet, juicy, fruity, wood
  • Pink Lemonade: Fruity, sweet, acidic, tart
  • Plum: Fruity, deep, sweet
  • Pomegranate: Tart, berry-like, green
  • Pretty Oud (synthetic oud): Earthy, leathery, incense, warm
  • Rose - deep, floral, fruity, jam, spicy. One of the most common perfume ingredients.
  • Rose (double distilled) - A much deeper rose, with more pronounced patchouli-like and spice aspects
  • Rum - sweet, booze, vanilla, spices
  • Sandalwood - warm, wood, deep, may have a smoke-like aspect to it
  • Styrax - resinous, incense, warm, with a wax-aspect. Often used as part of amber accords
  • Thyme - herbal, aromatic, agrestic, spicy, high doses take on a smokey-tar aspect
  • Tomato Leaf - green, earthy, sharp, astringent
  • Tulip - floral, white musk, peppery
  • Vanilla - Full, warm, resinous, sweet. Can be used in anything from gourmand to incense
  • Vetiver - earthy, deep, grass, sometimes dry and/or smokey
  • Vetiver (double distilled) - dry, woody, root-wood like, earthy
  • Violet Leaf - green, leafy, fresh, powdery
  • White Agar: A "cleaner" version of Black Agar, based on white musks and woods.
  • White Musk - cleaner and brighter than traditional animalic musks, can mimic clean skin, can enhance the scent of the wearer's own skin as well