How to Identify the Fragrance Notes in Your Perfume

Types of Perfume (Determined by the amount of solvent mix and fragrance oil) are these:1. Perfume has 20-40% aromatic compounds;
2. Eau de Parfum has 10-30% aromatic compounds;
3. Eau de Toilette has 5-20% aromatic compounds;
4. Eau de Cologne has 2-3% aromatic compounds;

Fragrance Catagories:
1. Floral - dominated by one or more types of flowers;
2. Chypre - oakmoss, labdanum, pachouli, and bergamot;
3. Aldehydic - piquant note produced by the chemicals aldehydes;
4. Fougere - built on lavender, coumarin and oakmoss;
5. Leather - features honey, tobacco, wood, and wood tar;
6. Woody - sandalwood, cedar, and patchouli;
7. Orientals - vanilla, animal scents, flowers, woods, often enhanced by camphorous oils and incense resins;
8. Citrus - mainly refreshing eau de colognes, low tenacity.

Fragrance Notes :
1. Top Notes - Fresh & Sharp, it is the first scent you smell after applying the fragrance
2. Middle Notes - Emerges within one hour of application
3. Base Notes - Bring a rich depth to the fragrance after 30 minutes.

Essential Oils:
1. Absolute - oily liquid;
2. Concrete - waxy or resinous solids or thick oily liquids;
3. Essential Oil - extracted through distillation, an oily liquid;
4. Pommade - fragrant mass of solid fat;
5. Tincture - thin liquid.


Natural & Synthetic Aromatics
Plant:
1. Flowers & blossoms - the largest source of aromatics;
2. Leaves & twigs - lavender leaf, patchouli, sage, violets, rosemary, and citris leaves;
3. Roots,rhizomes and bulbs - iris rhizomes, vetiver roots, ginger family;
4. Seeds - tonka bean, coriander, caraway, cocoa, nutmet, cardamom, and anise;
5. Fruits - oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit cubeba, vanilla;
6. Woods - sandalwood, rosewood, agarwood, birch, cedar, juniper and pine;
7. Bark - cinnamon, cascarilla, and sassafras;
8. Resins - labdanum, frankincense, myrrh, Peru balsam, gum benzoin, pine and fir.

Animal:
1. Musk (Asian musk deer, replaced by the use of synthetic musks due to its price and ethical issues);
2. Civet (Mongoose family);
3. Castoreum (North American Beaver);
4. Ambergris (Sperm Whale);
5. Honeycomb (honeycomb of the Honeybee).

Synthetic:
1. Calone - is an odorant which has an intense "sea-breeze" note with floral overtones and is the basis of some perfumes of the marine trend;
2. Linalool - is a naturally-occurring terpene alcohol chemical, based on its pleasant scent - floral, with a touch of spiciness;
3. Coumarin - is a chemical compound which has a sweet scent, readily recognised as the scent of newly-mown hay.
4. Salicylates - is a chemical compound.