Genealogy of Perfumes

Perfumes - just like food, music or wine - can be classified into groups, and this gives you a framework which is very useful when choosing a perfume for yourself or for others. Without it, describing fragrances is difficult. Imagine going into a shop to buy some music, and not knowing the difference between Pop, Classical and Jazz - you would have quite a problem!

The Cotswold Perfumery sells colour charts that show a list the brand name fragrances set out vertically in date order, and horizontally by the all important CLASSIFICATION OF PERFUMES. The charts have ladies fragrances on one side
and mens on the other.

To use them you first find your favourite fragrance from the index on the chart, then by looking at the heading, you can see which classification of perfume suits you best. Now, the next time someone asks you which perfumes you like, you can give them an informed reply, and maybe help to stop the thousands
of perfumes which are purchased as presents at
Christmas time that are wrong!

In the meantime, the explanatory notes below might help you with the Cotswold Perfumery range, as each of our fragrances is marked with a classification.

Explanation of the Classifications:

 

Green. Green is a colour but you have to imagine it is also a smell. There simply aren't enough words in the English vocabulary to describe odours and we often have to pinch them from other senses. Cucumber is a typical green smell. So is new mown grass. They tend to be quite clean, fresh smelling fragrances but
some are not particularly long lasting. If you are keen on
natural fragrances, it's worth remembering that there
are very few natural green notes.

 

 

 

 

Floral. Fairly self explanatory. Some depict particular flowers like Jasmin or Rose. Others are combinations of many floral notes which are called fantasy notes. Our ladies fragrances in this group are English Rose, Ruby, Muguet and Pallas. We also
have three unisex single floral fragrances designed to be used simply as fresheners.  These are Lavandula, Neroli and Rosa.
Aldehydic. Aldehydes are a group of chemicals which were developed around about the turn of the century. They have a very powerful, bitter, fatty, somewhat waxy type odour. In fact they are not particularly pleasant on their own, but when blended with other ingredients they produce a very unusual twist - the addition of less than 1% will have a considerable effect on a perfume. They were first used in large proportions in Chanel No.5 which is one of the reasons for Chanel's success.

One piece of advice however if you like these fragrances. Aldehydes are inherently unstable and will oxidise to their respective acids if stored incorrectly or exposed to the air. So buy them from a shop with a big turnover to ensure they are fresh, choose small quantities, use them up quickly and store them in a cool dark place - ideally in the fridge!
Our ladies fragrance in this group is Viva. 		 
 


Chypre. Chypre is the French for Cyprus and comes from when the Crusader's invaded in the 13th century and brought back a material called labdanum from the sticky buds of the Cistus bush. It has a heavy, sweet, balsamic type of odour but when blended with other base notes like sandalwood, patchouli and oakmoss, made a very popular base. You need to allow at least 10-15 minutes after application to appreciate the similarity between perfumes in this group, since "Chypre" describes the "main-theme" or "base" of the perfume which you will not appreciate until the solvent and top notes have had time to evaporate.

Chypre perfumes tend to be fairly heavy fragrances and therefore last a reasonable time on the skin. Sometimes described as evening type perfumes, or "sophisticated". Our fragrances in this group are Cymbelline for the ladies and Amber for men.


Oriental. These are the heaviest and longest lasting fragrances of all. They contain very heavy ingredients like tree exudations for example. Frankincense and myrrh are two well known examples. They are thick sticky liquids which evaporate very slowly and as you can imagine, they have the same effect on a perfume making it very long lasting, if a little 'heady'.

But perfumery, like anything else, is a compromise - you can't have fragrances that are light and delicate on the one hand and last for ever on the other. So if you prefer lighter fragrances you simply have to put up with the fact that you are going to have to apply them more frequently. 		 
 


Fougère. One of the most popular group for men's fragrances, fougère is another French word which means 'fern'. It was coined by Paul Parquet - the chief perfumer for Houbigant in 1882. He blended together oakmoss and lavender because he thought they blended well (which they do) and he called it fern. It doesn't smell anything like fern, but the name stuck.
Our men's fragrance in this group is Oberon.

The Classification of Perfumes is just one of the subjects covered in
the One Day Perfumery Course.