Basenotes › Basenotes Forums › Fragrance Discussion › Just Starting Out › Educating my nose
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Educating my nose

post #1 of 2
7/12/10 at 6:06pm
Thread Starter 
I often hear, "There is so much patchouli in this" or "there is a strong presense of vetiver". Whenever I smell a fragrance, I only smell the fragrance. I don't smell lots of sandalwood or a little bergamont. I don't even know what the majority of notes smell like at all. I only own two fragrances, but I still want to better understand fragrances. So I am asking if you could supply COMMON notes under each category to help improve my knowledge. I am not asking for every single notes. Here are the categories:
Spicy
Citrusy/Fruity
Woody
Aquatic
"Green" (I am not sure exactly what this means)
Gourmand
Foujar (Not sure how to spell, also don't know what this means)
Reply
Reply

Features on Basenotes

Greatest Hits: Annick Menardo
Basenotes Reader Awards 2013 - Finalists Announced.
Petals Falling From The Sky - A Report From The Cote d'Azur's Bataille De Fleurs
post #2 of 2
7/12/10 at 7:01pm
Okay. Not the whole answer to your question, but a start...It's fairly straightforward, as the notes of the first three you mention correspond to the plants one would imagine.

Spicy: as it sounds: cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper, cumin... (the spice shelf)
Citrusy/Fruity: Orange, Lemon, Lime, Bergamot, Grapefruit, etcetera. Fruity: Currant, cherry, raspberry, apple, etcetera (as it sounds, the fruits section at the grocery store, plus a few)
Woody: Cedar, Pine, Cypress... etcetera. also Oud which is a specially prepared aged wood that a whole book could be written about. Fresh or "incensy" woody smells.
Aquatic: Ozone, "sea-salty smells"... etcetera
Green: Herbal, Grassy, fresh... rosemary, lavender... grassy, hay (coumarin, which is a sweet grassy smell)... oakmoss and vetiver can smell green, mossy (Oakmoss and vetiver also are elements in a lot of woody scents... in fact, oakmoss and vetiver feature in MANY scents, period. There's enough for a book on each of these.)
Gourmand: smells like food. Popular gourmands are berries, chocolate, coffee... etcetera
Fougère: This is a type of scent, and not just a note. The word means "fern-like." The classic Fougère includes lavender, oakmoss, and coumarin. (to me, by definition, a Fougère is a Green scent, but variations are out there.)

If you want to educate your nose "formally" I'd recommend grabbing/testing as many essential oils and other elements of scent as you can find.
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Just Starting Out

Features on Basenotes

Greatest Hits: Annick Menardo
Basenotes Reader Awards 2013 - Finalists Announced.
Petals Falling From The Sky - A Report From The Cote d'Azur's Bataille De Fleurs
Basenotes › Basenotes Forums › Fragrance Discussion › Just Starting Out › Educating my nose