Methodology

1. Facts, not borrowed prose

A fragrance's note list, release year, perfumer and concentration are facts. They are not copyrightable and they are held here as structured data. The descriptive writing on each entry is composed by Perfume Codex from that structured record — we do not copy descriptive prose from other reference sites, and we do not present another site's review as ours.

2. Imagery

Each fragrance entry carries a photograph of the actual bottle — the manufacturer's own product photography — composed into a single fixed card layout: real bottle, brand line, name, accord strip and logo in the same position on all 2039 entries. We re-host every image rather than hotlinking, so no third party pays for our traffic.

Two things are deliberate about this. First, we use the real bottle rather than an illustration: identification is the whole point of a reference entry, and a stylised drawing tells you nothing about what the bottle in front of you looks like. Second, the frame around it is ours, so 2039 entries read as one body of work rather than a scraped image feed. Where we cannot source a genuine photograph we say so on the entry rather than substituting a decorative stand-in.

Bottle photography is used to identify a fragrance, not to sell one — there is no purchase link on an image, and no affiliate parameter on any URL on this site.

3. Accords and weights

Accords are recorded with a weight rather than a yes/no flag. A perfume's dominant accord is the highest-weighted entry, and the accent colour and family label used across the site derive from it. This is why two fragrances can share a note and still read completely differently — the weighting differs, and the database records the difference rather than flattening it.

4. Community ratings

Where a rating is displayed it is aggregated public community data, attributed as such and explicitly not first-party. We do not mark it up as review data, because it is not our review and marking it up would misrepresent its provenance.

5. Batch codes

Batch code rules are published with a confidence level and a source. A batch code dates a bottle approximately. It does not establish authenticity, and we say so on every page that mentions one. Counterfeiters print codes.

6. The publication threshold

An entry is published only when we hold a minimum factual dataset: a note pyramid across all three layers, multiple recorded accords, and a launch year. Entries below that threshold are held back rather than padded. This is deliberate — a reference work is measured by the reliability of what it contains, not by the number of pages it serves. It is also why some fragrances you would expect to find here are missing.

7. Corrections

Every entry can be corrected, and corrections are recorded rather than silent. If you find an error, tell us which field is wrong and what you are relying on. Corrections are not a sign of weakness in a reference work. Silent inaccuracy is.

8. What we are not

Perfume Codex is not a retailer, not an authentication service and not a pricing authority. Market ranges shown here are observations of public listings, and they are indicative only. We cannot value a bottle for you, and we will not tell you whether a specific listing is genuine.