Unencrypting The Fragrance Code | Notes

I always read about fragrance, and what scents they contain to see if I can actually pull any specific scents out. It help me describe them a little better if I need to, and I like to know what I smell like.

It took me so long to realize that, without a little research , I'm never going to really understand the notes of fragrance , and what I'm actually meant to smell like at various stages of wearing a fragrance.

A fragrance is structured almost like a pyramid with three layers. The top notes are a the top of the pyramid, the heart notes site in the middle and the base notes are at the bottom .

Top Notes are smelt the moment you put the fragrance on. They can still be detected after you've worn it for a while but the intensity fades after you've had the fragrance on for about 10-15 minutes. It's always best to try a fragrance and smell it again after about 15 minutes to make sure you like all the notes in the perfume.

Heart Notes, or middle notes, and in the middle and last for most of the time that you can detect the fragrance on your skin. The scents you find in here are probably the most 'present' notes in the fragrance and are considered the most dominant scents. If you smell a fragrance, these are the most likely notes you can pull out and name. They become more present as the fragrance warms to the skin, and last longer than the top notes. They can also sometimes be called the body notes.

Base Notes are the bulk of the fragrance and are the longest lasting notes in the fragrance. They can be detected after about half and hour, so when you test something give it some time to sit on your skin before you purchase. They are used to support the middle notes to make it a more rich and complex scent.

The last little thing I wanted to talk about are body lines. This might be pretty obvious to some, but I never even knew that they lotions and potions that go along with a fragrance had a name but they do. The body lines are essentially the products with the same scents like body lotions/creams/butter, deodorants and shower gels. They allow for the layering of the fragrance making the scent linger just the bit longer than it would with other scented products mixing in with the perfumes notes.