What are notes in perfumery?

In perfumery, a note refers to the individual scent components or impressions that make up a fragrance's overall aroma profile. Much like notes in a music composition, they are the building blocks of a perfume. These are typically divided into top notes (bright, short-lasting and volatile, often lasting just a few minutes on skin), middle notes (also called heart notes, longer lasting than top notes) and base notes (the most persistent notes of a perfume, sometimes lasting days on skin). A single perfume can contain many notes, which we often refer to in terms of recognisable natural materials. So we’ll say a fragrance contains a jasmine note, or a sandalwood note.

However, as long as we have the vocabulary to describe it, we can seemingly zoom endlessly into a scent. We can say a perfume has a sandalwood note, but we can also break that down further and say that sandalwood has a balsamic note, a creamy note, a milky note, and so forth. Often we can use many descriptors to talk about a single aroma molecule, highlighting the fact that ultimately “a note” is a linguistic construct we use to describe our scent impressions.

Here at the NOTE COLLECTION we are continually delighted and inspired by the vast array of notes available to the perfumer. Once they have acquainted themselves with these, perfumers can use the materials available to create new scents, juxtaposing different notes to create novel and exciting perfumes, never smelled before. Or perhaps they might want to keep things simple, highlighting a single note or a flower as if to pay homage to the grandeur of the natural world.

In perfumery, there is no right or wrong. Art is subjective, and perhaps our taste in scent is the most subjective of all, shaped by our genetics, personal history, and memory. Talking about fragrance can be a fun and enlightening way to connect with others, testing our own impressions against those of the people around us. Smelling a fragrance and getting lost in it is even better. So let’s have fun with it. Welcome to the NOTE COLLECTION.