Rendezvous Academy

Welcome to Rendezvous Academy! Use this free resource to study up on key industry terms and concepts. The more you know, the more you'll get out of the hobby!  

 

CONCENTRATION - Cologne vs. Perfume: It's not just semantics! 

  • Eau de Cologne (EDC): A weak concentration less commonly used in perfumery, typically between 2-6% aromatic compounds. 

  • Eau de Toilet (EDT): A standard concentration used in perfumery, typically around 10-15% aromatic compounds. Most ‘designer’ scents are released in EDT concentration.

  • Eau de Parfum (EDP): An elevated concentration used in perfumery, typically around 15-20% aromatic compounds. Most ‘niche’ and ‘indie’ scents are released in EDP concentration. 

  • Extrait de Parfum: aka ‘pure parfum’, ‘parfum’, or simply ‘extrait’, and is the most concentrated formulation used in perfumery, ranging from 20-40% aromatic compounds. Select ‘niche’ and ‘indie’ scents are released in this powerful concentration. 

  • The terms 'cologne' and 'perfume' have been misconstrued in popular culture, but actually relate to the potency of the fragrance, and not the gender it's marketed to.

 

PERFORMANCE - What are the terms used to describe the behaviour and intensity of a fragrance? 

  • Projection: How strongly a scent radiates from your skin, generally measured in feet. Heat from your body and the environment will increase the diffusivity of a scent, causing it to project more loudly. All fragrances will eventually die down to a 'skin scent' before disappearing entirely.  
  • Longevity: How long the perfume lasts on your skin. Many factors contribute to longevity, including your unique skin chemistry, perfume formula, concentration, method of application and amount applied, and environmental factors.
  • Sillage: {‘See- Yahajj’} French for 'wake', sillage is the scent trail that follows behind you, and the way a scent lingers in a space after you've left. If you've ever caught a whiff of someone on the street as they've passed by, that's their sillage you're smelling.  

 

STRUCTURE - How are fragrances built, and how do these different elements interact with each other?

  • Ingredients: Today's fragrances are typically made with a blend of natural and synthetic ingredients. Through greater funding and advancements in technology, perfumers now have access to an enormous archive of powerful synthetics, many of which didn't exist even 15 years ago. This boom marks the dawn of a golden era in perfumery where artists are designing radical, inventive, and captivating creations with the plethora of new materials at their disposal. To give you some perspective, between 2009 - 2017, Michael Edwards' Fragrances of the World database added 16,664 new perfumes.
    • Notes: Perfumers needed an intuitive language to give context to the olfactive sensations consumers experienced when smelling a fragrance, which we refer to as 'notes'. Think of notes as the individual building blocks of a fragrance:
      • Anything can be a note so long as it’s a specific, isolated thing. Some common notes include cedar, vanilla, jasmine, grapefruit, lavender etc.
      • Notes can be considerably more abstract too, even drawing from the synthetic world as well as the organic one: ink, dirt, ice, skin, metal, ozone, gunpowder etc. 
    • The molecular structure of each ingredient, be it natural or synthetic, is unique like a fingerprint - some structures are robust and long-lasting whereas others are delicate and fleeting. This in turn creates a pyramid-like hierarchy of the freshest, most volatile notes at the top, all the way down to the richest, hardiest notes at the base. This is where the terms 'top', 'middle', and 'base' notes come from. 
      • Other terms commonly used are 'opening' or 'head' notes, 'heart' notes, and 'dry-down' respectively.
    • As time progresses, the top notes evaporate revealing the heart notes underneath, which in turn reveal the base notes towards the end of a perfume's lifespan. The rate at which this happens and the degree of change is different for all perfumes. Some scents are more 'linear' and undergo less transformation than others.
      • In this way, we can begin to understand how different fragrances take on unique personalities, as each will behave differently based on their construction. 

    • Accord: A more general term referring to a collection of related notes that convey a specific scent impression. It can be helpful to think of accords like 'perfume genres', i.e. smoky, fruity, spicy, sweet, fresh etc. 

      • Lemon + Tangerine + Grapefruit = Citrus Accord. 
      • Cardamom + Black Pepper + Nutmeg = Spicy Accord.
    • Accords can also be used to convey something more familiar, as the strategic combination of key notes can be used to create specific, recognizable scents. In this case, the olfactive identity of each individual note is lost and a new impression is formed:
      • Iris + Rose + Violet + Raspberry = Lipstick Accord 
      • Lime + Cinnamon + Coriander + Nutmeg + Vanilla = CocaCola Accord.
    • Accord Combinations: Combining multiple accords to create a complex, layered, and harmonious experience. There are some classic accord combinations that produce distinct and recognizable perfume styles:
      • A floral accord created by notes like rose and carnation combined with 'Oriental' notes like amber and vanilla will create a 'Floriental' perfume. 
      • A 'Fougere' {'Foo- jair'} is a classic men's perfume DNA, and is French for the word 'fern'. Fougere's are classified by their Aromatic, Green, and Woody accord progression, hallmarked by notes of lavender, bergamot, patchouli, oak moss, vetiver, and a synthetic molecule called 'coumarin' which has a distinct smell of almond and freshly cut hay. 

     

    TERMINOLOGY - What are some common phrases and vocabulary used in the fragrance industry and community? 

    • Aromatic: Aromatic notes can be thought of as Things Grown In an Herb Garden: sage, mint, tarragon, basil, lavender, wormwood, juniper, and other plants which possess an intensely green-grassy-spicy scent. Aromatic notes are often paired with fresh, citrusy, and spicy notes, and are typically found in men's fragrances.
    • Atomizer: The pump mechanism that turns liquid fragrance into vapour.
    • Beast Mode: A fragrance with monstrous projection, oftentimes accompanied by robust longevity as well.
    • Chypre: {'Shee- prah'} Meaning 'Cyprus' in French, this vintage olfactive style was named after perfume 'Coty Chypre' created in 1917, and is based on the harmony of oak moss, labdanum, patchouli and bergamot. 
    • Dumb Reach: A FragCom term used to describe a safe, go-to fragrance for when you don't want to put much thought into what to wear.
    • Etat Libre d'Orange: {'ELDO'} A favourite indie house here at Rendezvous Scents that creates perfumes emphasizing originality, audacity, authenticity and freedom of expression. 
    • FragCom: Short for Fragrance Community.
    • FragHead: A FragCom term used to describe someone who's really into perfume. FumeHead and Fragoholic are also commonly used. 
    • Flanker: Flankers are to the perfume industry as sequels are to the movie industry; if a fragrance does well with customers it's likely a new twist on that same formula will be released to fill some niche or trend. A few notes are tweaked here and there and BAM, you've got a Flanker. Some common flanker styles include Sport, Night, Intense, Floral etc. 
    • Gourmand: A trendy style of perfume built around edible notes like honey, vanilla, chocolate, caramel, maple etc. Thierry Mugler's 'Angel' was launched in 1992 and is considered to be a trailblazing scent that sparked intrigue and demand for these delectable scents, now popularly enjoyed by men and women in colder months. 
    • House: A fashion / designer brand or perfume company.
    • Indole: A widely-used chemical compound that smells floral at low concentrations and fecal at high concentrations. Naturally found in several white flowers, the term "indolic" usually describes an 'overripe' or 'animalic' scent. 
    • Juice: The liquid perfume inside a bottle.
    • Kilian: Officially 'By Kilian', a beloved niche perfume house from Paris. Created by Kilian Hennessy, grandson of the founder of the LVMH group (the 'H' standing for Hennessy, the famed cognac-making family) Kilian fragrances are inspired by fine spirits, exotic travel, and fine art. 
    • Labdanum: A deep, powerful, sticky resin obtained from the Rockrose plant in the Mediterranean. It is the main ingredient in creating amber for perfume with sweet, animalic, and woody olfactive nuances. Amber is the fundamental note that comprises all 'oriental' fragrances, and is one of the four primary 'olfactive families.'
    • Musk: Natural animal musk is banned for use in perfumery by the IFRA. Instead, a wide variety of natural musk-like materials can be derived from plants, and several synthetic compounds exist as well. One such musk comes from the Ambrette seed (Musk Mallow) and has a velvety olfactive texture with sweet and floral nuances. 
    • Nose: An industry term for perfumer. i.e. "The nose behind that scent is Jean-Claude Ellena." 
    • Olfaction: The technical term for the action or process of smelling.
    • Olfactive Family: There are four olfactive families in which all other notes and accords fall into: Fresh, Floral, Woody, and Oriental / Amber.
    • Oud: Also known as Agarwood, this fragrant compound is extracted from the fungus-infected resinous heartwood of the Agar tree, primarily found in the forests of India, Southeast Asia, and Bangladesh. The vast majority of Oud is made synthetically due to the exorbitant cost of using real Oud oil in perfume. Oud can smell deeply animalic, resinous, smoky, earthy, and medicinal based on the variety.
    • Pre-form: A FragCom term used to describe a fragrance before it's undergone a reformulation. Pre-form juice is often highly sought after by collectors as bottles grow scarcer as time passes. 
    • Patchouli: An exotic bush that grows mainly in India, the leaves of which produce the essential oil of patchouli. Sweet, dark, with an earthy, woody edge, it is very popular in many blends, especially the contemporary woody floral musks. There are also synthetics and fractal extractions.
    • Quince: Cultivated for their ornamental qualities, the Quince is an aromatic fruity note, sour and incredibly dry. 
    • Reformulation: It's not uncommon for fragrances to be reformulated over time as certain ingredients become scarce via supply chain shortages, natural disasters, and tighter IFRA guidelines. Some collectors may seek out 'pre-form' bottles that contain the original juice for sentimental or collection value, since reformulated scents tend to be lighter and less intense. 
    • Sandalwood: A classic oriental woody note with its distinctive soft, warm, smooth, creamy, and milky nuances. When used in fragrance it acts as a fixative, enhancing the longevity of other, more volatile materials in the composite. Real sandalwood is incredibly rare as it's been over-harvested and now endangered and protected in India. However similar, related species of wood are sold as sandalwood and will be what's found in cosmetics and fragrance today. 
    • Skin Scent: A fragrance with minimal projection that sits close to the skin, often only detectable by the wearer. All fragrances will eventually die down to a skin scent before disappearing entirely.
    • SOTD/N: Scent of the Day / Night. 
    • Tester: A genuine fragrance, typically sold to retailers without the official box and/or cap, displayed in stores to be used by customers to sample. 
    • Tonka Bean: A small pod native to Brazil that shares olfactive similarities to vanilla, but with spicy and nutty nuances. 
    • Vanilla: With native strongholds in Mexico and Madagascar, vanilla is derived from the seed pod of the flowering Vanilla Orchid vine. Due to a never-ending demand coupled with laborious hand-processing, vanilla is  one of the most expensive ingredients used in perfumery.
    • Vetiver: The dry, fibrous roots of grasses typically found in Haiti or Indonesia. While some vetiver can smell smoky or dusty, other varieties can smell clean and greenish. Overall, vetiver is typically thought of as smelling of either moist or dry earth with grassy, smoky, and woody nuances. 
    • Wormwood: A bitterish, herbal and strong-smelling plant note from the Artemisia genus, most commonly found in absinthe and vermouth. 
    • Xerjoff: A renown niche house from Italy, and a favourite here at Rendezvous Scents.
    • Yuzu: Native to East Asia, the Yuzu is a bright, sweet, and very bitter citrus fruit with sour and terpenic nuances. It's sweeter cousin 'Yuko' is found only in Japan where it's become a household name and ingredient.  
    • Ylang-Ylang: {'EE-Lang-EE-Lang'} Native to India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines etc., the Cananga Tree produces yellow, alien-like blooms that smell rich, creamy, sweet and sour, with nuances of banana, woods, white florals, and dirt.  
    • Zoologist: An award-winning indie house from Canada, and a favourite here at Rendezvous Scents. Zoologist creates innovative perfumes inspired by animals and the habitats they live in.