Perfumes

The types of scents used to make up a perfume aren’t added at random. Typically, certain scent oils go together better than others, and these are often classified in types of perfumes. Whether you’re looking through designer perfumes or those under a celebrity line like Paris Hilton, all have a composition to scent oils that go together, generally based on a scent classification. Although the percentage of aromatic oils varies with perfume, eau de parfum, eau de toilette, and cologne, each type has three parts, top notes, middle notes, and base notes. In some cases, the division is simple, with only a few notes in each part, while others use a plethora of scents to achieve a final product. For the latter, this is particularly common with celebrity perfumes.

Traditionally, perfumes and colognes have fallen into seven types. These include floral, bouquet, amber, wood, leather, chypre, and fougere. Out of these, floral is used for a single, distinct flower smell, while bouquet is a combination of multiple flowers. Chypre is used for top citrus scents, such as orange and bergamot, while fougere is a combination of lavender, coumarin, and oakmoss. Generally, the floral and bouquet perfumes are designed more for women, while amber, wood, and leather are used often for colognes. Chypre and fougere are used for either a men’s or women’s fragrance.

Over the past 20 years, the palette of fragrance types expanded, with variations created upon these original seven. Some of the newer types of perfumes include green, bright floral, aquatic, citrus, fruity, and gourmand. Many of these are self-explanatory in their composition and are used for both perfumes and cologne. Gourmand, on the other hand, is a dessert scent, while bright floral uses bolder flower notes on all levels. Similarly, many of the celebrity scents are based upon these newer types and even combine two or three to make a fruity gourmand with floral notes fragrance, or a green one with wood and leather notes for cologne.