Fragrance notes, explained
A note is a single material a perfumer builds with — the individual smells that combine into a fragrance. Here is what each one in our catalogue actually smells like, where it comes from, and which bottles carry it.
Amber
Not a single material but an accord — typically labdanum, benzoin and vanilla built together. There is no amber tree; the name borrows from the resin's colour rather than its source.
1 fragranceBergamot
Cold-pressed from the rind of a citrus grown almost entirely in Calabria. It is also what makes Earl Grey tea smell like Earl Grey.
1 fragranceIris
Distilled from orris root, the rhizome of the iris, which must be dried for three to five years before it can be processed. That wait is why iris is among the costliest materials in use.
1 fragranceMusk
Entirely synthetic in modern perfumery — animal musk has not been used in legitimate commercial fragrance for decades. White musks are a family, not one material.
1 fragranceOud
Resin formed in agarwood trees in response to a mould infection. Wild oud is scarce enough that most modern fragrances use cultivated or reconstructed material.
1 fragrancePatchouli
Distilled from the fermented leaves of a mint relative. It is one of very few materials that genuinely improves with age.
1 fragranceRose
Rose absolute and rose otto are extracted differently from the same flower and smell markedly different — otto brighter and waxier, absolute deeper and sweeter.
1 fragranceSaffron
Usually safranal, the aroma molecule isolated from the stigma, rather than the whole spice — which at perfume concentrations would be absurdly expensive.
1 fragranceVanilla
Cured vanilla pods, or vanillin isolated from them. Vanilla absolute carries the rum and tobacco facets that synthetic vanillin alone does not.
1 fragrance