Perfume vocabulary: more than 40 terms explained simply

Perfume has an insiders’ vocabulary that discourages more than it enlightens. Here are the terms that come up most often, explained simply, in the order in which you will need them.

The structure of a perfume

Scent pyramid — The way a perfume is described in three tiers: top, heart, base. It is not a recipe but a chronology: it describes what you smell at different moments. The median perfume has 7 to 8 notes, but the range runs from one note to more than twenty.

Top notes — What you smell in the first minutes. These are volatile materials that evaporate quickly. In our catalogue, bergamot appears in 863 perfumes and 100% of the time in the top.

Heart notes — The character of the perfume: they settle in after a few dozen minutes and last several hours. Flower territory: jasmine is there 94% of the time, rose 85%.

Base notes — What remains for hours. Heavy, tenacious materials: white musk (94% in the base), vanilla (92%), sandalwood (92%).

Accord — A set of materials that, blended, produce a single impression — like a chord in music. A “leather” accord is not made of leather: it is a reconstruction.

Drydown — The term for the base, once everything else has evaporated. It is what you smell on your clothing the next day.

Sillage — The scent trail you leave behind you. Not to be confused with longevity.

Longevity — How long the perfume stays perceptible on the skin. A perfume can last a long time without sillage (it stays close to the skin) or project strongly without lasting.

Projection — The distance at which others smell you. An “intimate” projection stays a few centimetres away; a “powerful” projection fills a room.

Concentrations

Extrait de parfum (or parfum) — The highest concentration of aroma material. Median bottle price recorded in our catalogue (July 2026 surveys): €114.

Eau de parfum (EDP) — The most common concentration today. Median bottle: €95.

Eau de toilette (EDT) — Lighter, fresher. Median bottle: €55, i.e. 40% less per millilitre than eau de parfum.

Eau de Cologne (EDC) — The lightest. Historically a hesperidic formula to be reapplied during the day.

Elixir / Intense / Extreme — Commercial, unregulated labels. They generally signal a more concentrated or darker version, but no standard defines them. Do not trust the word: read the real concentration.

The major families

Hesperidic — The learned name for citrus. From the Latin Hesperides, the nymphs guarding the garden of golden apples.

Fougère — A construction, not a smell: lavender + aromatic + a woody-mossy base. Born in 1882. No fern smells of anything — the plant is odourless.

Chypre — Another construction: citrus in the top, oakmoss and labdanum in the base. Named after the island of Cyprus. The classic chypre was shaken by the restrictions on oakmoss (see IFRA), which led to its reformulation.

Oriental / Amber — Warm, resinous, spicy. The term “oriental” is gradually being abandoned in favour of “amber”. It is the family with the most expensive median bottle: €160.

Gourmand — Vanilla, caramel, praline. The youngest family: it is generally said to have been born in 1992 with Angel.

Aldehydic — A sparkling, soapy effect obtained with synthetic molecules. A rare register in our catalogue: 14 perfumes out of 2,061 analysed.

Soliflore — A perfume built around a single flower.

Materials

Absolute — A very concentrated extract obtained by solvent. Reserved for fragile materials (jasmine, tuberose) that heat would destroy.

Essence (essential oil) — Obtained by steam distillation or, for citrus, by pressing the peel.

Synthetics — Molecules created in the laboratory. They are not a sign of poor quality: they allow scents not found in nature, sometimes cost more than the natural material, and avoid plundering threatened species. Synthetic sandalwoods have helped relieve the pressure on Mysore sandalwood, which has become rare.

Oud (or agarwood) — A resin produced by a tree (Aquilaria) when it is wounded or infected by fungi. One of the most expensive materials in the world. See our oud selection.

Ambergris — A concretion from the sperm whale, today almost always replaced by synthetic molecules (Ambroxan).

Musk — Historically animal, today almost exclusively synthetic in Western perfumery (apart from plant musks such as ambrette). White musk is the most widespread material in the catalogue: 1,026 of the 2,060 perfumes analysed, one in two.

Iso E Super — A velvety woody molecule so widespread that it is almost invisible. Some perfumes are built around it alone.

Ambroxan — The synthetic substitute for ambergris. Very present in many recent men’s perfumes.

Technical terms

IFRA — The international professional association of the perfume industry: it publishes standards that limit the use of certain materials for reasons of allergy or photosensitisation. It is one of the reasons an old perfume no longer smells quite as it did at its creation: its formula may have been reformulated to remain compliant.

Reformulation — The modification of an existing formula, because of regulation, cost or supply disruption. Rarely announced.

Maceration — The resting of the formula after manufacture. A perfume very recently bottled can smell “alcoholic”; a few weeks tame it.

Batch — A production lot. Two bottles of the same perfume from different batches may differ slightly.

Flanker — A variation on a successful perfume (Intense, Elixir, Sport, Pour Femme…). The catalogue is full of them: it is a very widespread strategy.

Dupe (or clone) — A perfume that openly takes inspiration from another, generally far cheaper. In France, the Cour de cassation (2006, 2013) refuses to protect the scent of a perfume under copyright: it is mainly the name, the bottle and the packaging that are protected, and misleading copying falls under unfair competition. The law varies from country to country — this is not legal advice.

Olfactory adaptation — The phenomenon by which your nose stops perceiving a constantly present odour. It is the first cause of the feeling “my perfume doesn’t last” — and of all overdosing. Full explanation here.

Blotter (or strip) — The paper strip in the shop. It serves to rule out, never to decide: it has neither your warmth nor your sebum.

Nose — The name given to perfumer-creators, a small profession. Find those we list on the perfumers page.

Five expressions to decode

“Clean skin” — A discreet musky effect that gives the impression of smelling like yourself, only better.

“Beast mode” — A perfume with very strong projection. Often a compliment in enthusiast communities, rarely in an open-plan office.

“Signature” — The perfume you wear every day and are associated with.

“It turns on me” — The formula does not agree with your skin chemistry. It is real: sebum, pH and hydration change evaporation.

“Compliment getter” — A perfume that triggers positive remarks. Generally consensual, sweet compositions, not the most original ones.

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To put this vocabulary into practice, explore the scent families, the catalogue’s notes, or compare two compositions in the comparator.