Perfume fragrances were classified by Charles Piesse who was a perfumer from the 19th century. Charles had actually tried to classify each type of fragrance to a musical a musical chord. Unsurprisingly his system failed but the terminology stuck on. The current perfume fragrance pyramid was invented by William Poucher in the 1920’s. The fragrance pyramid is based on the instability of the perfume ingredients or how fast the fragrance fades away

The fragrance of a perfume is described as top note at the point when it just gives you a whiff and then passes on. The heart notes then follow where the fragrance actually has a chemical reaction with your skin; and finally are the base notes where the true essence of the fragrance is revealed when the highest molecular weight from the ingredients begin to surface.

There different categories of scents to describe perfumes meant for women and perfumes meant for men. Under the women’s category, we have the most common scent, which is floral. This is in fact the largest category and the primary ingredients are from flowers like rose, jasmine, carnation, violet and orange blossom. Some of the perfumes that come under this category are Paris and White Diamonds. Some of the sub categories for floral fragrances are like floral green (Bvlgari, Chanel 19); floral fruity (Baby Doll, Amarige) and floral woody (L’Eau D’Issey, Romance)

The next category is oriental. This means the scent is made to create warm, exotic impression because of its ingredients like balsams, spices, resins and musk. Perfumes that fall under this category are Royal Secret, Contradiction and Shalimar. Some of the sub categories of oriental are oriental spicy (Opium); oriental citrusy (Candies); floriental (Hugo Woman, Wings) and oriental gourmand (Angel, Casmir and Wish)

The other categories of perfumes are chypre, citrus, fougere and green. Chypre was first described by Francois Coty to describe the aromas from the island of Cyprus. This fragrance is generally sweet, soft and earthy with ingredients like oakmoss, patchouli, bergamot and citruses. Some of the well-known perfumes under this category are Paloma Picasso, Fendi and Femme. Citrus fragrances have citrus fruits like tangerine, lime, mandarin and lemon in them. These are very common in men’s fragrances. Examples of citrus scented perfumes are CK One and Jess. Fougere is French for fern, which relates to freshness and is best described in Cool Water. Green fragrances are from green plant parts like grass, pine and herbs. Safari and Bvlgari Extreme best describe this scent.

Now that we are familiar with the fragrances, what about the concentration? We frequently hear about edt and edp.

Actually, perfumes are the combination of fragrant oils that have been mixed in high-grade alcohol where 15 – 25% is oil and 90 – 95% is pure alcohol. This concentration is known as parfum. When the percentage of oil is lower then it is know as eau (water)

The strength of the eau can vary depending on the percentage of the pure perfume oil that is contained. EDC (Eau de cologne) has the least concentration with just 2 - 5% of perfume oil mixed in water and alcohol. EDT (Eau de toilette) has a bigger concentration of 4 – 10% of perfumed oil. EDP (Eau de parfum) has 8 – 15% perfumed oil and the most highly concentrated of all fragrances is Parfum or perfume, which has 15 – 25% of perfumed oil.

Taisha Grant writes about Perfume Choices and Perfumania

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