Reference · Glossary
The Complete Fragrance Glossary
50 essential terms every perfume lover should know — from accord to sillage, soliflore to dry-down.
The world of perfumery has its own rich vocabulary — a language developed over centuries by perfumers, critics, collectors, and enthusiasts. Whether you’re navigating a fragrance review site, consulting with a perfumer, or deepening your own knowledge, fluency in these terms will transform your experience of scent.
Foundation Terms
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Accord | A blend of two or more ingredients that creates a new, unified scent greater than the sum of its parts. The chypre accord and fougère accord are classic examples. |
| Note | An individual scent impression within a fragrance. Can refer to a specific ingredient (rose note, cedar note) or an abstract quality (powdery note, green note). |
| Olfactory family | A classification system grouping fragrances with similar aromatic characteristics. Major families include floral, oriental, woody, fresh, fougère, chypre, and gourmand. |
| Pyramid | The structure of a fragrance describing how it evolves over time, divided into top notes, heart notes, and base notes. |
| Concentrate | The raw fragrance material dissolved in alcohol to create a wearable perfume. Also called aromatic compound or perfume oil. |
Fragrance Construction
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Top notes | The most volatile fragrance ingredients, experienced in the first 15–30 minutes after application. |
| Heart notes | The core character of the fragrance, emerging after top notes fade and lasting several hours. |
| Base notes | The most tenacious ingredients, forming the lasting foundation and dry-down of a fragrance. |
| Dry-down | The final stage of fragrance evolution, when the top and heart notes have faded and only the base notes remain. |
| Linear | A fragrance that smells essentially the same from first spray to dry-down, without significant evolution. |
| Sillage | Pronounced “see-yazh.” The trail or wake a fragrance leaves in the air as you move. From the French word for “wake.” Also called projection. |
| Projection | How far a fragrance extends from the skin into the surrounding air. |
| Longevity | How long a fragrance remains perceptible on the skin. |
Ingredient Categories
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Soliflore | A fragrance built around a single flower, intended to capture that flower’s realistic scent. |
| Chypre | A classical accord of bergamot, labdanum, and oakmoss, named for the island of Cyprus. |
| Fougère | A constructed accord of lavender, oakmoss, and coumarin. Forms the backbone of classic masculine fragrance. |
| Gourmand | A fragrance family built on edible-smelling ingredients like vanilla, caramel, and chocolate. |
| Aquatic / Marine | Fresh fragrances evoking the sea, ocean air, or water. Often include Calone — a synthetic compound with a crisp, sea-spray quality. |
| Green | Fresh, natural notes evoking cut grass, leaves, or stems. Often includes violet leaf, galbanum, or fig. |
Natural Ingredients
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Absolute | A fragrant extract obtained from botanical materials using solvent extraction. Often preserves the truest representation of the source material. |
| Essential oil | A volatile fragrant extract obtained through steam distillation of plant materials. |
| Enfleurage | A historical extraction technique where flowers are pressed against fat to capture their scent. Rarely used today due to cost. |
| Oud (Agarwood) | The resinous heartwood of infected Aquilaria trees. One of the most expensive fragrance materials in the world. |
| Vetiver | A grass native to India with a complex, smoky, earthy, woody root note. Widely used as a base note. |
| Ambergris | A waxy substance produced in the digestive tract of sperm whales, historically prized for its warm, animalic, marine character. Now almost universally replaced by synthetics. |
Synthetic Materials
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Hedione | A synthetic jasmine derivative that contributes radiance and luminosity to a fragrance. |
| Iso E Super | A woody, cedar-like synthetic widely used in modern perfumery for its versatility and depth. |
| Calone | A synthetic marine compound used to create aquatic, sea-spray freshness. |
| Ambroxan | A synthetic amber material derived from ambergris. One of the most widely used base notes in contemporary perfumery. |
| Musk (synthetic) | A broad category of synthetic musks replicating the clean, warm, skin-like quality of natural animal musks. |
Community Terms
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Nose | A trained perfumer. Also used colloquially to describe an individual’s sense of smell. |
| SOTD | Scent of the Day. Common abbreviation used in fragrance communities to share daily fragrance choices. |
| Blind buy | Purchasing a fragrance without testing it first, based on reviews or recommendations alone. |
| Decant | A small sample of a fragrance, typically a few milliliters, taken from a full bottle. Common in collector communities for testing. |
| Flanker | A variation on an existing fragrance, modifying one or more elements while retaining the core identity. |
| Batch variation | Differences in fragrance formula across different production batches, due to reformulation or ingredient availability. |
| IFRA | International Fragrance Association. The industry body that establishes usage guidelines for fragrance ingredients based on safety research. |
Questions & Answers
What is the difference between a note and an accord?
A note is a single scent impression — one ingredient or one quality (like “rose” or “powdery”). An accord is a blend of multiple notes that fuse together into something new — like how bergamot + labdanum + oakmoss creates the chypre accord, which smells like none of those ingredients individually but like something entirely its own.
Why is sillage important?
Sillage determines how a fragrance is experienced by others around you. A fragrance with strong sillage announces itself before you enter a room and leaves a trail after you leave. Low sillage (also called a “skin scent”) stays close to the body and is only noticed up close. Neither is inherently better — the right sillage depends on the occasion, the season, and your personal preference.
Go Deeper
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Explore every term, ingredient, and family relationship in The Perfume Librairie’s olfactory atlas.
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