Fragrance Families Explained
Fragrance Families Explained – In the world of perfume, everything is categorized into fragrance families, and it’s not uncommon to find yourself choosing perfumes with similar olfactory scent profiles.
Perfume is made up of different notes and accords that determine how each fragrance comes across. That is why in this article you will learn about things like:
Fragrance Families Explained
Knowing this sort of thing can be very useful when it comes to buying your favorite perfume, and it is tailored to your experience and knowledge of perfumery.
Fragrance Wardrobe: How To Build A Collection Of Scents You For Every Occasion
Categorized into four major families in the perfume industry, these technologies, each divided into their respective subgroups, will help you identify fragrance families more easily without getting confused.
Additionally, this ultimate guide to fragrance families will serve as a great way to get closer to finding your signature scent.
Affiliate Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualified purchases. Buying through the links/banners provided will not incur any additional cost to you. Saint Grail only recommends products and/or services that are insightful and helpful to readers. Please read the affiliate disclaimer for more information.
Fragrance families are a classification system used by the perfume industry to place different fragrances into olfactory groups.
Explore Michael Edwards’ Fragrance Wheel
These families have evolved over the centuries with continuous technological discoveries, the fragrance wheel has been changed many times to help you narrow down your favorite perfume choices and differentiate the scents.
Simply put, notes are perfume indigents, and are “imaginary” notes made from many other notes to achieve a distinct accord (note) that cannot otherwise be recreated.
Such accords are leather, amber and marine notes, while base notes can be bergamot, rose and vanilla. But, while it may seem as simple as this, there are a few other things to consider.
Aromatic alcohol-waters known as perfumes are made from multiple notes and accords that are created from a combination of natural and chemical ingredients to create a general scent profile.
A Guide To Fragrances For Him
For example, top notes such as citrus, for example, sandalwood and agarwood tend to evaporate more quickly than those found in the middle or base stage of a perfume.
In modern perfumery, an accord is an important part of creating a harmonious blend of two or more notes into a distinctive scent.
While this process is more complicated than it sounds, it’s always good to know how your perfume is made and when you can expect more natural ingredients rather than synthetics.
So, to conclude, fragrance terms called “notes” and “accords” are often used in marketing to describe what consumers expect when smelling a particular perfume.
Learn About Fragrance Types & Find Your Perfect Scent
A fragrance wheel is a great tool to help you decide what kind of scent you like. As you can see, colors blend into each other, and opposite colors clash.
Groups that border each other tend to share common scent characteristics, similarities, and differences in their odor profiles.
Since the fragrance wheel is updated from time to time, and some categories like foggers merge into new categories, I decided to create a Holy Grail fragrance wheel for ease of use.
Also divided into main groups and sub-groups of Oriental, Floral, Woody and Fresh, they are a great place to start for perfume beginners.
Scentbird Monthly Perfume Subscription Box: Designer Scents $16.95
For example, the Woody and Oriental families share a common warm and dry theme, while Fresh and Floral are bright, powdery and airy.
The fragrance wheel was created and introduced by perfumer Paul Jellinek and named the Odor Effect Diagram (Practice of Modern Perfumery, 1949).
In this section, I will discuss each fragrance family and their respective sub-families with additional explanation of the family-specific characteristics and the inclusion of some prime example perfumes that best represent them.
While some families are more masculine than feminine and vice versa, we currently live in a time of technological advancement that makes each fragrance family unisex and wearable for most people.
Fragrance 101: Understanding The Fragrance Pyramid
We have seen this scent trend with many perfume houses like Tom Ford, Mancera, Montel, Ettot Libre d’Orange and many more.
Floral perfumes are one of the most popular fragrance families and are loved by millions in the market. Especially by women. Probably the broadest olfactory family that ranges from soft aroma profiles to dense and complex.
The easiest way to describe what flowers smell like is to imagine a bouquet of flowers that has many aspects of a blooming fragrance.
A floral fragrance can be made from either single flower notes (soliflor) or many flowers (bouquet). Nature has provided the perfumer with countless different ingredients, thanks to the many different flowers around the world.
Fragrance Categories And Families Explained
As old as the classic and citrus (fresh) family, it leans more towards the feminine, but recently, many floral-dominated fragrances like Dior Homme have proven that men can wear floral family scents and smell great too.
The Oriental fragrance family is equally popular with men and women. Orientals have dominated the fragrance market in the 21st century and they aren’t stopping anytime soon.
Rich spices like vanilla, cinnamon, cloves and balmy resins like benzoin, myrrh, incense, amber are some of the prominent notes found in this broad family.
It is not uncommon for oriental perfumes to exhibit gourmand qualities (“food” notes). Thus, this fragrance family is often sweet, dense, sensual, powdery and inspired by oriental cultures.
Led By The Nose
Orientals are long-lasting perfumes that are often worn as nighttime scents in romantic and clubbing scenes during fall and winter when they blend perfectly with the skin and cool air.
The woody family leans more towards the masculine, and is usually made up of warm and rich textures. If you’re a fan of woodsy, sawdust, earthy, and dry scents, this family might just be for you.
Woody perfumes are divided into three main categories but there are many more variations because it is the fragrance family that tends to overlap the most with others with a combination of fresh and resinous notes.
Woody perfumes also tend to be longer lasting, blended for different seasons, and because of their warm heart, more and more unisex.
Perfume Notes Explained
Fresh Family is the biggest crowd-pleaser of all, and the only one that leans equally on both the masculine and feminine sides. Perfume has never been more affordable and accessible than it is now, and fresh fragrances have dominated the market since the early 90s.
Of all the fragrance families we’ve covered, the Fresh family spans the most varieties of sub-categories of all the different Fresh compounds that work like bread and butter with the others.
They are easy-to-wear, often fresh and delightfully unfussy scents. Fresh perfumes are also the only fragrance family group that can be worn in any season and on most occasions.
Fresh fragrances have a blend of bright fruits, aromatic herbs, light woods and musk in their composition.
Woody Fragrance Family
When shopping for perfume it’s always good to know which fragrance families suit your taste, but it’s also good to expand your perfume knowledge.
Maybe you are someone who is just starting to collect perfume or just want to know what kind of fragrance families work in the longevity/projection sector.
Either way, once you figure out what type of scent is best for you, I recommend checking out S.P.A. The Signature Factor guide to easily finding your personal signature perfume.
Last but not least, what is your favorite fragrance family and what are your thoughts on the fragrance cycle? Let’s start a conversation and tell me about it in the comment section below. Shopping for your next fragrance can be tricky business; After all, with so many to choose from, how do you decide? Our guide to fragrance strengths and types, along with our easy-to-use fragrance wheel, will help you figure out which fragrance you want to try next. Scent Families The first step to finding your favorite scent is to understand the different scent families that each scent is based on. The four main types are warm, woody, oriental and fresh, each effect brought out by different combinations of scents. Fresh fragrances, such as Davidoff Cool Water, typically rely on aquatic and citrus notes, while warmer fragrances, such as DKNY’s Be Delicious, use more floral and juicy fruit scents. Next take a look at our Fragrance Strength Chart to understand the longevity of different fragrances.
How To Choose The Right Perfume Or Cologne For You
Fresh fragrances usually have citrus, water and green notes. This means that they have a refreshing, exciting and vibrant smell. Citrus-based fragrances are typically made with lemon, mandarin and bergamot, while aquatic fragrances are made with aquatic notes such as sea spray; Think L’Eau d’Issey by Issey Miyake or Acqua di Gio by Armani.
Fresh green scents are often reminiscent of herbal and leafy scents for a crisp, uplifting scent. They are sometimes referred to as aromatic fougere fragrances, made with notes of lavender, rosemary or basil.
Floral fragrances are one of the most popular families, and the most widespread. Any fragrance that has a sweet and floral scent will fall under this family, using notes such as rose, jasmine, lily and peonies.
Oriental fragrances are warm, sweet and even slightly spicy. A more luxurious fragrance family, oriental fragrances vary from floral orientals, soft orientals and woody orientals.
What Are Fragrance Notes?
Perfumes and aftershaves in this family are rich and sensual, often made with intriguing notes of cardamom, cinnamon, vanilla, along with jasmine, orchid, and orange blossom.
Woody scents are another warm family, with a hint of mystery