Almost every fragrance is described with a list of notes split into three tiers. It looks like an ingredients list. It is closer to a timetable.
What the three tiers mean
Top notes are what you smell first. They are the most volatile materials in the composition (citrus, light herbs, aldehydes) and they are gone quickly by design. Their job is to make a good first impression and then get out of the way.
Heart notes arrive as the top fades and carry the middle of the wear. Florals, spices and fruit usually live here. This is the part of a fragrance most people actually mean when they say they like it, because it is what they smell for most of the day.
Base notes are the heavy, slow materials: woods, resins, musks, vanilla, amber. They are barely noticeable at first and they are what remains at the end. They also anchor everything above them, which is why a fragrance with a weak base seems to evaporate. How quickly each stage passes depends on your skin, the weather and how much you apply.
The practical consequence
Judging a fragrance from the first spray is judging the part that will be gone before you leave the house. This is the single most common reason people buy something they later do not wear.
A fragrance with a citrus top and a resinous base will smell like two different products at the first spray and later in the day. Neither one is the real one. Both are.
How to test properly
- Spray on skin, not on a paper strip. Skin chemistry changes the heart and base noticeably; paper does not have any.
- Wait at least twenty minutes before forming an opinion. If it still appeals after an hour, it will probably still appeal in a month.
- Test one, or at most two, at a time. Three is already more than your nose can separate.
- Do not test everything on wrists. Forearms work, and you get four spots instead of two.
Our Sydney and Brisbane stores are set up for this: spray on skin, leave, and judge it hours later rather than at the counter. Addresses are on the stores page.
Reading our product pages
Every product page on this site lists the pyramid, and the collection pages let you filter by scent family, intensity and concentration. If you know you get on with a particular heart (rose, say, or vanilla), filtering by family is a faster route than reading pyramids one at a time. Start from Floral, Amber, Woody or Fresh.
