Understanding Womens Perfume Notes

When shopping for womens perfume, we have to be able to test out a fragrance before buying it. We know what we like and what we don't, what kind of scent we are looking for. But perfumes aren't just categorized by flowery or spicy, winter or summer. There's a much deeper mixture of notes within those perfume bottles that make up the fragrances that define us all day.

Notes are broken up into three categories; top notes, middle (or heart) notes, and base notes. The top note is the first scent a person smells when spraying the perfume. It's the initial impression a person gets when buying a perfume. The scent is sharp and often evaporates quickly.

The middle note is the scent that follows the top notes. It is the main body of the perfume and usually emerge a few minutes to up to an hour after applying perfume. Following this is the base note. Often these scents come about before the middle notes have completely evaporated, so the mix of middle and base are the main scent of the perfume. Base notes take the longest to disappear and can last even a day after application.

Because of this, it's important when trying out a perfume to not jump on buying it because of the top note. Try it on and don't make the purchase right away. You should instead wait for some time for the middle and base notes to really become apparent so you know what the perfume will smell like the majority of the time you are wearing it.

The actual fragrance notes can vary, but are broken into a few different categories. Floral is one of the most well known and common types of fragrance, which can cover all kinds of flowery smells. Single floral perfumes mean that only one type of flower scent is used. Bouquet perfumes mean there's a mix of several flowers involved.

Citrus perfumes are fragrances that include citrus fruit scents like lemon, orange or grapefruit. They usually have a very zesty tone. The fruit family of scents is similar, but would include all fruits outside of citruses, like berries, apple or mango.

Oriental perfumes include spices like cinnamon and fragrances distilled from leaves, seeds and bark, giving a darker, more mysterious aroma. They often contain notes of wood and citrus.

All of these fragrance families can be mixed to create your womens perfume. They are the scents that become the top, middle and base notes and come together as unique blend. With so many different combinations it's easy to see just how so many perfumes exist.