A key part of many oriental fragrances, especially those marketed as masculine scents, woody notes are favourites of mine. One of my earliest scent memories is of my grandad’s shed – he loved carpentry and made some amazing things for us as kids. Although he tried to teach me, woodwork wasn’t really my forte as […]

They can be overpowering or subtle and sexy and definitely add depth and dimension to rich floral or oriental perfumes. What we call animalic notes are not everyone’s cup of tea though! Nowadays we are more likely to use synthetic replacements than actual materials from animals for the obvious reasons and often there are a […]

Oriental fragrances recall the rich warmth of resins and balsams and spices from the east.  They can be ambery with notes of labdanum and vanilla, edible with notes of chocolate and foodie accords or exotic and spicy with floral notes. They are warm, rich and sensual, often seen as evening or winter fragrances. 

The Chypre fragrance category was derived from materials that were traditionally found on the island of Cyprus (Chypre in French) – for many centuries a hub for the trade in aromatic materials.  In 1917 Francois Coty, originally from Corsica created a fragrance based on Bergamot, Oakmoss, Labdanum, Jasmine and animalic musks named Le Chypre which […]

There are many types of fragrance you can create easily with natural materials but to create a perfume that smells like the crashing of waves and the fresh blast of the ocean is a challenge. Many natural perfumers use seaweed absolute but this is quite pungent and can tend to smell dirty rather than the […]

The fougere fragrance family is one that gets it’s name from an actual fragrance, that of Fougere Royale (Royal Fern) created in 1882 by Paul Parquet; chief perfumer at Houbigant. Fougere Royale was originally sold as a toilet soap and was a fantasy accord in that it was created to evoke the smell of a […]

  We often think of violet notes as being sweet, sugary and slightly powdery. The sweets Parma Violets come to mind and the scent associated with them is slightly old fashioned. Most people are quite surprised when smelling the natural violet leaf absolute as it’s very green, wet and mulchy – really different from the […]

In the 1920?s Coco Chanel challenged the view that “nice girls” should smell like flowers with her now iconic fragrance. At a time when women were cutting their hair and raising their hemlines the combination of flowers, vanilla and musk in a perfume may have gone unnoticed. It was the overdose of fatty aldehydes in […]

Green notes add a sharper freshness and naturalness to many types of fragrance from floral to fruity and chypre. Cis 3 hexenol is a very powerful material reminiscent of freshly cut grass and should be used sparingly in fragrances. I found a great infographic about this on a chemistry site called Compound Interest – for […]