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Three Notes in Every Scent
WTDNJul09_Perfume
Three notes in every scent
The strongest lasts longest
There’s much more to perfume than first meets the nose. The chemistry of its essential oils changes gradually after the liquid is applied to the skin. So a fragrance that smells a certain way at first can become quite different eventually, as a French perfumer with the weighty name of George William Septimus Piesse discovered in the 19th century.
To explain this transformation, Piesse determined that every scent is composed of three basic “notes”—the top, middle and base notes. Like a musical arrangement, these blended notes can become a harmonious fragrance.
The top one, also known as the head note, is the first scent you perceive, says Shandy Martinez, perfume representative at The Perfume Bar. It is typically fresh and sharp. “A top note can be anything from citrusy to floral to oriental, depending on the perfume,” she says. But that dominant fragrance doesn’t last long—usually just a few minutes—before the middle note emerges.
The middle, or heart note, is the essence of the perfume. It’s a stronger scent that emerges as the oils warm on the skin, Martinez explains. When that note fades, the base note—the strongest and richest fragrance—surfaces and usually lasts for several hours.
For example, Dolce & Gabbana’s The One for Women is a popular new fragrance that has a citrus top note with hints of peach and lychee, which develops into a blend of floral middle notes and finishes with a vanilla and amber-musk base note.
The three-note characteristics of a perfume also apply to men’s cologne. In The One Cologne for Men, for instance, the grapefruit, coriander and basil top note changes to cardamom, ginger and orange blossom and finally to an aroma of cedar and tobacco.
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