Fragrance glossary

Absolute

A highly concentrated aromatic material extracted from flowers, resins or gums using volatile solvents, then washed with alcohol. More potent and often darker-smelling than the corresponding essential oil.

Accord

A blend of materials that reads as a single, unified smell — the point at which individual notes stop being separable. Accords describe how a fragrance actually smells rather than what is listed in it.

Agarwood / Oud

Resinous heartwood formed when Aquilaria trees respond to fungal infection. One of the most expensive raw materials in perfumery, now largely replaced in commercial fragrances by synthetic oud accords.

Aldehydes

A family of synthetic molecules, most famously the fatty aldehydes used in Chanel No. 5. They read as waxy, soapy, citrus-peel bright and give a vintage 'perfumey' quality.

Amber

A loose category rather than a single material: usually a base built from labdanum, vanilla and benzoin, giving a warm, sweet-resinous glow. Not the fossil resin of the same name.

Ambergris

A waxy substance produced in the digestive tract of sperm whales and found floating or on shore. Prized as a fixative; now almost universally replaced by synthetic substitutes such as ambroxan.

Animalic

A descriptor for materials with a bodily, skin-like or feral quality — civet, castoreum, some musks and certain floral absolutes such as jasmine.

Aromatic

Herbaceous and fresh in a lavender, rosemary or sage direction. Distinct from 'fresh', which usually means citrus or aquatic rather than green-herbal.

Atomiser / Sprayer

The pump-and-nozzle assembly. Its type and finish are significant for collectors, since a sprayer change can indicate a packaging revision even when the code is unchanged.

Attar

A traditional oil-based distillation, historically from India and the Middle East, made by distilling flowers into sandalwood oil.

Base notes

The slowest-evaporating materials, first smelled in the dry-down. Usually woods, resins, musks and vanilla. They determine how long a fragrance lasts on skin.

Batch code

A short alphanumeric string printed on the bottle base or box that usually encodes a production date. It dates a bottle approximately; it does not prove authenticity.

Bespoke / Exclusive line

A collection made in small volumes and sold only through a house's own boutiques. Released in smaller runs, which makes them more sensitive to the second-hand market than mass-distribution lines.

Bouquet

A harmonious composition built around florals, or simply a synonym for a blended (as opposed to transparent) structure.

Chypre

An accord built on a contrast of citrus top notes, a labdanum–oakmoss base and a floral heart. Named after Coty's 1917 Chypre; the classic chypre structure was largely broken by restrictions on oakmoss.

Civet

A paste from the perianal glands of the civet cat, historically used to give warmth and depth. Now universally synthetic due to animal welfare regulation.

Concentration

How much perfume compound is dissolved in alcohol. Common designations, in ascending order: eau de cologne, eau de toilette, eau de parfum, parfum, extrait. The definition is house-dependent, not standardised.

Decant

A portion of a fragrance transferred out of its original bottle into a smaller vessel by a third party. Common in the collector market; note that decants break the chain between bottle, batch code and remaining quantity.

Dry-down

The final stage of a fragrance's evolution on skin, after the top and heart have evaporated. What the fragrance smells like an hour or more in.

EAU

Eau de toilette.

EDC / Eau de Cologne

The lightest common concentration, traditionally 2–5% compound. Usually citrus-forward and short-lived.

EDP / Eau de Parfum

Typically 15–20% compound. Longer lasting than EDT, and now the default concentration for most new releases.

EDT / Eau de Toilette

Typically 5–15% compound. Fresher and lighter than EDP, and for many classic releases the original concentration.

Essential oil

A volatile oil obtained from plant material by steam distillation or expression. The traditional aromatic base of perfumery, now partly replaced by synthetic molecules.

Extrait / Parfum

The highest common concentration, typically 20–40% compound. Richer and slower than EDP, and often used for a house's classic releases.

Fixative

A material added to slow evaporation and hold a composition together on skin. Musks, resins, some woods and synthetic fixatives such as ambroxan.

Flanker

A new release built on an existing successful fragrance and sold under a variation of its name — an Intense, a Legere, a limited edition. Collectors treat flankers as separate compositions, because they usually are.

Fougere

A structure built on lavender and coumarin with a mossy-woody base. Named after Houbigant Fougere Royale (1882); the backbone of classic masculine perfumery.

Gourmand

Built on edible-smelling materials: vanilla, caramel, chocolate, coffee, tonka. A dominant commercial direction since Angel (1992).

Headspace

A technique for capturing the volatile compounds given off by a living flower, used to reconstruct scents that cannot be distilled.

Heart notes

The middle stage, appearing after the top notes fade and lasting several hours. Usually florals, spices and soft fruits.

Indolic

Describing the heavy, slightly faecal-floral quality of materials such as jasmine absolute and orange blossom, caused by indole. Valued in classical florals; a common complaint in modern ones.

Intense / Extrait-style flanker

A flanker presented as stronger than the original. The concentration is not always actually higher — check the listed concentration and the batch code before assuming.

Leather

A note group made from birch tar, isobutyl quinoline or castoreum, recreating the smell of tanned hide.

Macerate / Maceration

Resting a compounded fragrance for weeks or months before bottling so the materials marry. A long maceration is part of why an older bottle of the same formula can smell different from a newer one.

Middle East / Oriental market

Fragrances released in a stronger concentration or a different formulation for Gulf markets. These are a distinct collector category and should not be confused with the same-named European release.

Moss / Oakmoss

A lichen extract giving a dry, woody, slightly bitter base. Restricted by IFRA, which is the single largest cause of reformulation across the classic chypre and fougere repertoire.

Musk

Originally a secretion from the musk deer; now almost entirely synthetic. Reads as warm, skin-like, sometimes powdery, and functions as a fixative.

Nose / Perfumer

The person who composed the fragrance. Credited properly on this site; on many retail sites it is omitted entirely.

Note pyramid

The conventional three-part presentation of a fragrance's materials as top, heart and base. Useful shorthand, but note that modern compositions are not always linear — a pyramid is a description, not a formula.

Powdery

A soft, dry, cosmetic quality, usually from iris, violet or certain musks and heliotrope.

Projection

How far a fragrance carries away from the wearer. Distinct from longevity, which is how long it lasts on skin. The two are not correlated.

Reformulation

A change to a fragrance's formula, usually driven by material restrictions, cost or supply. The dated ways to detect it are a change in colour, a weakening of the base, or a batch-code transition.

Resins and balsams

Gum-like plant exudates: benzoin, labdanum, myrrh, frankincense, peru balsam. Warm, sticky, church-like, and indispensable in amber bases.

Sillage

The trail a fragrance leaves in the air behind a moving wearer. Often confused with projection; sillage is the wake, projection is the reach.

Skin chemistry

The interaction of a fragrance with an individual's skin — temperature, moisture and pH. The main reason the same bottle can smell different on two people, and the reason a sample on paper proves very little.

Solid perfume

A fragrance in a wax or balm base rather than alcohol. Different shelf life and different projection; a distinct collector format.

Splash / Non-spray

A bottle with no atomiser, decanted or dabbed onto skin. Common before the 1980s and still produced for some lines.

Tester

A bottle or unit intended for in-store display, usually without a retail box. Testers are frequently sold second-hand; they are not inherently older or newer than retail stock, but the packaging difference affects price.

Tonka bean

The seed of Dipteryx odorata, rich in coumarin. Gives a sweet, hay-like, almond-tobacco warmth and underpins the fougere family.

Top notes

The most volatile materials, smelled in the first fifteen minutes. Usually citrus, aromatics and light fruits.

Vintage

In this database, used carefully: a bottle produced during the period of an earlier formula, before a documented reformulation. Not simply 'old' — a 1990s bottle of a still-current formula is old but not informative in the same way.

Wholesale / Counterfeit

Copies sold as original. Counterfeiters print batch codes, so a code that decodes correctly proves nothing. Physical checks — bottle weight, crimp, nozzle, printing quality — matter more than the code.