Understanding Perfume Scents

Shopping for perfumes or colognes is not an easy task. I may say that shopping for shoes that would perfectly match your attire would be a lot easier.

Perfume shops, stalls, or boutique usually have testers so you could have the luxury to put on the perfume for free before deciding whether to buy the product or not. I used to do this before whenever I ran out of cologne and want to have a free spray :)

What makes perfume hunting tedious is when you have to test the perfume that attracts you because of its elegant bottle and only to find out that the scent is too strong for you. Before you can decide which perfume you are going to purchase, you’re feeling dizzy or having a headache because of all the testing that you have gone through. Now that you’ve made your choice, it will be the perfume that you are going to purchase from now on for the rest of you life because you don’t want to repeat the whole process of shopping for the perfect perfume. My dear friends, these should not be the case. If you familiarize yourself with the basic fragrance groups, you will not only save time, but also make your shopping experience more enjoyable. The following paragraphs will discuss the common fragrance groups and categories when it comes to perfume in order to assist you in finding the right perfume with more ease.




Floral Category: A floral fragrance is decidedly feminine and is characteristically connected to romance. This category of perfume is the most common and the largest scent for perfumes. These scents are made mainly from flowers like rose, jasmine, carnation, violet and orange blossom. Some of the perfumes that come under this category are Paris and White Diamonds. Some of the sub categories for floral fragrances are like floral green (Bvlgari, Chanel 19); floral fruity (Baby Doll, Amarige) and floral woody (L’Eau D’Issey, Romance).


Oriental Category: These scents are made to create, exotic impression because of its ingredients like balsams, spices, resins and musk. Ingredients in this fragrance comprise softwood, sugared almonds, lime, pear, and amber. This category is very popular during wintertime, and colder months of the year because of its heavy, musky traits. Burberry Brit, fashioned by Burberry, is a very renowned fragrance that appears to have an oriental base.


Citrus Category: A large number of masculine fragrances fall in this category, however, citrus is becoming a growing trend in women's fragrances as well. These scents are derived from different fruits. These usually are the ones which smell fresh and light without giving you a heady feeling. The most common fruit scents are: apple, watermelon, citrus, mint, strawberry, cherry, lime, lemon tangerine and mandarin. This category of perfume scent is most popular during warm months. Examples of citrus scented perfumes are CK One and Jess.


Chypre Category: This is a well-liked fragrance category. This category of perfume scents was given its name by the French which means Cyprus. It is however an intricate category, that combines woody, mossy, and flowery scents together with leather and fruit. Perfumes falling in the Chypre category of sent are most generally strong, earthly scents. Some of the well-known perfumes under this category are Paloma Picasso, Fendi and Femme.


Green Category: Perfumes falling into this category of scents tend to be sharp, outdoor scents. This includes the scents of pine, juniper, leaves and herbs. Lavender and cocoa are also examples of green scents.


Fougere Category: These perfume scents is most common among men but there are popular perfumes for women that fall into this category as well. These aromas are usually created from herbs and mossy ferns. Perfumes that fall into this category normally come together in a very sophisticated style. Safari and Bvlgari Extreme best describe this scent.


The world of scents can be hard at times to fully understand and most fragrance retailers will make you think their perfumes are totally new scents. But when you do come to know it however, you will soon realize that all these scents are likely to fall into one of these categories.






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