Perfume Notes

It’s often easy to think that the perfume’s scent is equivalent to the scent you first smell when spraying the tester on the little white strip of paper. However, a perfume’s scent changes over time, and this is necessary for a longer lasting scent. For the perfume to have different scents, there are three parts of a perfume: top note, middle note, and last note.

I had the opportunity to create my own perfume in a place called Rettre.

The class first started out by smelling all the scents in each note for ten minutes. They had shelves with labeled bottles for each smell.

I wrote down the scents I personally thought were good on the sheet of paper they provide. After this process, the worker looks at the scent you want and the scents you wrote down to give recommendations on combinations. 

This was the paper I needed to fill out when making my own perfume.

Many of the top notes smelled light and sweet, and they were classified as fruity or citrus. Although the top note provides the first impression to the perfume, it’s not the main or long-lasting scent of the perfume. The top note actually evaporates away fifteen to thirty minutes after first sprayed, so it’s gone extremely quickly. 

As a result, the heart (middle) note and base (last) note play an essential role in the perfume’s long-lasting ability. The heart note is the main scent of the perfume. It typically lasts for thirty minutes to an hour. It’s usually a flowery scent. The base note lasts almost six hours. It has the lowest evaporation rate out of the three notes. It’s typically a woody or musk scent. 

Next time when testing out a perfume, don’t get tricked by its first impression. Wait to find its underlying characteristics!