FAQ & Perfume Guide
KNOW YOUR PERFUME
There are more than 30,000 Designer perfume brands around the world and perfumes are no longer limited to the wealthy class. A Perfume is just like any other accessory for you, and it is the most intimate way of sharing your inner feelings, thoughts and character. It is therefore important to find a perfume with a scent that leaves a long-lasting aesthetic impression to all those who engage with you.
âOdors have a power of persuasion stronger than that of words, appearances, emotions, or will. The persuasive power of an odor cannot be fended off, it enters into us like breath into our lungs, it fills us up, imbues us totally. There is no remedy for it.â
â Patrick SĂźskind, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Know Perfumer
A perfumer is an expert on creating perfume. These half-artist, half-scientist hybrids undergo rigorous training, memorizing the smells of hundreds of ingredients, and spend decades perfecting their craft.
Spray your perfume 15-20cm away from your pulse points â behind the ears, temples, wrists, nape of neck, back of the knees, in the crease of your elbows, between your breasts, and navel area and let it develop. The blood flows close to the surface in these zones and heats the fragrance oils. But do be aware to never, ever rub the wrists together after applying fragrance, because it affects the oils. Spray and waft your wrists around â and be patientâŚ! You can also spray perfume into the air and walk through it.
Initially, order the sample pack and experience the way a fragrance develops on your skin. Allow a few minutes for the alcohol and the top notes to subside and smell the scent. Iit is really the heart notes and the lingering base notes which you will live with, and which are crucial.
OLFACTIVE FAMILIES
Citrus
Freshness, acidity and sunny, accounting typically for the top note of the fragrance are infused with hesperidic fruits such as lime, lemon, bergamot, orange, mandarin and grapefruit etc.            Â
Fruity
Fruits and vegetables provide a nuanced texture and a refreshing feel in fragrances. Their effect ranges from the refreshing to the succulent, all the way to the musty and mysterious. Commonly used fruity notes are raspberry, peach, apricot and melon etc.            Â
Floral
Floral scents add a romantic and often feminine touch to a composition, augmenting the feel of natural beauty. Floral manage to enter almost all perfume compositions in one form or another, from the lightest eau de cologne to the most lush oriental, even in some masculine colognes. Rose, jasmine, tuberose, lavender, ylangylang and magnolia are few famous floral extracts used.
Woody
Woody notes can serve as a top note or middle note and gives a sophistication and mystery. Apart from Sandalwood and cedarwood, Vetiver and patchouli are interesting exceptions in the group of woody notes.Mosses comprise a sub-group, as they consist of parasitical lichen organisms growing on trees, such as oakmoss
Spices
The Spices group is a familiar category of perfume notessuch as cinnamon, pepper, cloves, coriander, ginger. Some spices are classified as intense for a short durationand some gentler, giving a cooling sensation.
Fougere
The effect is an interplay between sweet and bitter with a woody, damp and cool character, establishing fougères as the quintessential masculine fragrances.
Oriental
Combining earthy base notes such as musk, amber or vanilla. This evokes the libidinous nature of our own human animal instincts. Due to ethical concerns for animals the use of musk has rendered obsolete and substituted with synthetic variants which are called âfantasy notesâ
Chypre
Chypre fragrances are warm and dry and almost all built round a woody, mossy accord of bergamot, oakmoss, patchouli and labdanum. Elements of flowers, fruits or woodiness are sometimes played up in chypre fragrances â so this family has a few ârelationsâ, within it.
FRAGRANCE NOTES
Top notes
Also known as the opening notes or head notes. The scent you smell during the first 10-15mins after spraying the fragrance. The Top notes represent the first impression, and it should succeed luring you. Common top notes include citrus, light fruits, and herbs.
Heart notes
Also known as the Middle notes, the Heart notes blossom after the Top notes fade away. The foundation of any fragrance lies here which makes up anywhere from 40 to 80% of the total scent. It is often a smooth combination of floral or fruit tones; sometimes infused with spices. Common fragrance middle notes include geranium, rose, lemongrass, ylangylang, lavender, coriander, nutmeg, neroli and jasmine. This lasts for around 45-60 minutes.
Base notes
The base notes are usually associated with the dry-down period and their ultimate function is to provide a lasting impression of the fragrance. It comprises 10-25% of the total aroma and some commonly used base notes are sandalwood, cedarwood, vanilla, amber, patchouli, oakmoss and musk
FRAGRANCE CONCENTRATION
Shopping for new perfume can be overwhelming with all of the scents available. Not only are there countless scents available, there are also different fragrance concentrations. Underneath the name of the perfume on a bottle will normally be the fragrance concentration. A fragrance concentration refers to the strength that a fragrance has. Perfumes with a higher fragrance concentration contain more perfume oils and less alcohol. Fragrance concentrations are broken into categories including parfum, eau de parum, eau de toilette, eau de cologne, and eau fraiche.
Parfum
Parfum, also known as extrait de parfum or pure perfume, has the highest fragrance concentration. Parfum will contain anywhere from 15% to 40% fragrance however concentration is generally between 20% to 30% for most parfums. Of all scents, parfums last the longest; usually six to eight hours. Parfum generally also commands the highest price of all the fragrance types due to the high concentration of fragrance. People with sensitive skin may do better with parfums as they have far less alcohol than other fragrance types and therefore are not as likely to dry out the skin.
Eau de Parfum
After parfum, eau de parfum (EDP) has the next highest concentration of fragrance. Eau de parfum generally has a fragrance concentration of between 15% and 20%. On average, eau de parfum will last for four to five hours. It is also generally less expensive that parfum and while it does have a higher concentration of alcohol than parfum, it is better for sensitive skin than other fragrance types. Eau de parfum is one of the most common fragrance types and is suitable for everyday wear.
Eau de Toilette
Eau de toilette (EDT) has a fragrance concentration of between 5% and 15%. It is cheaper than eau de parfum and is one of the most popular types of fragrance available. EDT fragrance will normally last for two to three hours. Eau de toilette is considered by some to be for daywear while eau de parfum is considered nightwear. The term eau de toilette came from the French term âfaire sa toiletteâ which means getting ready.
Eau de Cologne
Eau de cologne, or EDC, has a much lower concentration of fragrance than the above types of perfume. EDC generally has a 2% to 4% percent concentration of fragrance and a high concentration of alcohol. It is cheaper than other types of fragrance however the scent generally only lasts for up to two hours. EDC generally comes in bigger bottles and more of the fragrance needs to be used. Originally eau de cologne referred to a traditional recipe that used herb and citrus notes with little anchoring with base notes.
Eau Fraiche
Eau fraiche is similar to eau de cologne in that the scent will generally last for up to two hours. Eau fraiche has an even lower concentration of fragrance than eau de cologne, normally only 1% to 3%. While eau fraiche has a low fragrance concentration, it does not contain a high amount of alcohol. Along with the fragrance, the remainder of eau fraiche is mostly water.
Along with the types of perfume listed above, there are mists, aftershaves, and other types of fragrances available. Higher end fragrances can cost a significant amount of money so doing research beforehand will ensure that you get the type of fragrance you are looking for. Along with fragrance types there are also fragrance notes which determine the final scent. With all of the types and scents available, shopping for perfume is not always easy but it is possible.
SPECIAL NOTES
Never try more than three perfumes at any one time, on your body, or youâll confuse your senses. And because itâs hard to remember what you applied where, we suggest you to jot down the name of which perfume you applied to which pulse-point.