basic categories of cologne

[flashpoint321]

The deeper I get into colognes and fragrance, the more confused I seem to get. What are the basic groupings of fragrance: spice, floral, etc. Or are there any agreed upon groupings for men's or women's. Then beyond that, I have no idea what to do with categories like "soapy" or "vetiver." What someone calls soapy, someone else says that is not soapy. Or even a cologne called vetiver, I have seen people say it doesn't smell like vetiver. How can I even tell what vetiver or soapy smells like!? I know certain ones like coffee, vanilla, but anything I don't already know, I have no idea how to figure it out. Could anyone suggest some articles, books, websites etc to help me. I love this stuff, but I like to approach it in a linear fashion.

[Dennard]

Here is a link to the Fragrance Finder section of Sephora's website. It's covers the main categories and gives you examples of each. Hope this helps.

http://www.sephora.com/browse/me/ind...ml?categoryId=

[Ekove]

You can read about it, but the best way to go around is to go smell it.

Soapy: Try the Prada line
Vetiver: Encre Noire by Lalique

[Master-Classter]

um, yeah... just read the section on "Fragrance Families"
HERE - http://www.basenotes.net/threads/252...BOUT-Fragrance


As someone who's also just starting out, what I have done is got together a bunch of different frags all around a certain concept to understand what's common and what's different. For example, I have samples of about 10-15 various "vetivers", and after smelling them all back to back many times, I now have a good idea of what vetiver generally smells like as well as 2-3 typical variations on the theme. I then figured which ones I liked and bought one bottle that's typical and one bottle that's completely different.

[Snafoo]

I would also suggest visiting a health food store like Whole Foods and checking out the aromatherapy oils. You'll be able to find a number of scents that are regularly mentioned here in Basenotes, including ylang-ylang, bergamot, vetiver, and others. Also try the spice section and check out cumin, star anise, cardamom, etc.