By Anupriya Jamuar

Have you ever heard a wine connoisseur describe the many notes, flavours, and textures in such a complex way that it makes your head spin? Sometimes, you may experience the same head-spinning confusion when researching perfumes as well. We're here to tell you it doesn't have to be that way—decoding a fragrance can actually be fairly straightforward.

Here’s our cheat sheet:

Top notes

Also referred to as head notes, these are the opening notes of your fragrance. So, your top notes are what you smell shortly after spritzing a perfume. These are crucial in developing your fragrance's profile and establishing its first impression because they have the greatest impact on the wearer.

Since they are the lightest notes in any fragrance, they evaporate fast from your skin, lasting about 5-15 minutes before transitioning to the second group of notes. Light floral scents like bergamot, citrus, or rose are often used as top notes.

Heart notes

These are the essence of your perfume. They appear as the top notes begin to fade for a smoother transition and remain the entire duration of your scent. Heart notes are also the most crucial component of every smell, accounting for 70% of the total. These notes have a stronger aroma, which enriches your experience and buffers the scents of your fragrance's base notes.

These notes, also known as middle notes, can last anywhere from an hour to till your fragrance fades and are primarily composed of deeper notes like cardamom, rich florals, peppers, and vanilla.

Base notes

These are the foundation of any fragrance. Base notes burrow into your skin and linger the longest, intensifying and adding resonance to the scent's lighter components. Since they are the base notes, their perfume is thicker and stronger, which is why they're combined with the heart notes to make the aroma more pleasant.

Base notes appear around half an hour after the heart notes and can last for up to six hours or more, remaining on your skin for the duration of the perfume's lifespan. Strong notes like amber, leather, cedarwood, musk, and patchouli are often used as base notes.

A Beginner’s Guide To Understanding Scents