Perfumes have niche names called ‘families’ grouping fragrances of similar notes together. Micheal Edwards a renowned perfumer in 1992, designed a well explanatory diagram called the fragrance wheel to help describe a perfume and also to understand the families and sub-groups of perfumes.

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These families differ from each other but are similar with fragrances in the same family as them. Fragrances that are extracted from flowers belong in a different family from fragrances of spices or fruits. The fragrance wheel spins from lighter fragrances to thicker fragrances that have more depth.

The four families are;

1. Fresh notes
2. Floral notes
3. Oriental notes
4. Woody Notes

Fresh Notes

This family comprises fragrances from the scents of nature’s ‘green’ smells with sub-groups of green (fresh cut grasses and leaves), citrus, water and fruits. They are bright, light, clean and invigorating scents that are not usually sexy but lean towards juicy and playful. Perfumes with fresh notes are great for daytime wear and perfect for work as they have unobtrusive fragrances. Examples are scents extracted from lemon, berries, pineapple, basil, fennel and many more.

Floral Notes

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Florals are flower based scents from any other flower or any other bloom in the garden. They have defined floral notes that gives perfumes a delicate, light, sweet and easily recognizable scent. Floral notes are the most widely used scent in feminine fragrances and is consistently the best selling family because it works for almost all occasions. Floral perfumes are great for daytime and it may scent like a single flower or a bouquet of mixed flowers. Examples: rose, carnation,violets, gardenia, jasmine, lotus. Florals has its own subgroups featuring floral (fresh cut flowers), soft floral (aldehydes, powdery notes), floral oriental (orange blossoms, sweet spices).

Oriental Notes

The oriental family of notes are reminiscent of the Far East. They are spicy, sexy, mysterious and exotic scents. That’s a whole lot of words to describe them 😂 but they really are so bomb. Don’t wear these perfumes unless you want to be noticed as they have deep, rich and dark fragrances. They are piquant and pungent notes that have musky, warm and hot character. Oriental perfumes are perfect for evening wear. Examples of oriental notes are ginger, cilantro, vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves. There is a sub-group of soft- oriental scents (incense resins, musk), oriental (vanilla, spices) and woody oriental (sandalwood, patchouli).

Woody Notes

Woody notes evoke freshly cut or dry woods with mossy base and an intense deep aromatic scent. They are usually heavy and sophisticated smelling earthy and warm like a collection of scented woods. These type of fragrances are considered too heavy for a visit to the hospital or where you are in close proximity to people on formal occasions, rather it should be best reserved for special occasions, parties or black tie events. They can be used during daytime or nighttime, it is really just dependent on the occasion and the crowd. Examples of woody notes includes pine, cedar, agarwood, amyris, myrrh. The sub-groups of woody notes stretches out from woods (aromatic woods, vetiver), to mossy woods (oak moss, amber), to dry woods (dry stems, leather), aromatic (lavender, aromatic herbs).