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PerfumesThe fragrance reviews have breakdowns of the notes that are in the fragrance, but how can someone that's new to perfume know what they smell like?
As an fanatic hobby cook I know what most of the eatable notes smell like, but I have for example know idea of how vetiver, amber or patchouli smell and how I can recognize them in a fragrance.
PerfumesI'm just starting too, I mainly narrow down notes I don't know by comparing different fragrances, especially when they have a quality in common. Like I've noticed that powdery scents that I dislike often have violet or iris/orris, so those are things I tend to avoid if they're dominant. Also I learn by reading articles and blogs, and reading the reviews for fragrances that sound interesting, sometimes people write really evocative descriptions. And by sneaking little sniffs of odd spices or flowers when I get the chance 
It also helps to just try new scents, and see what I can pick out compared to the list of what's in it. Think I've just pinned down lily of the valley from 
Dior Diorissimo, which is really lovely.
I find it really difficult too with a lot of notes, including some flowers.
One example could be daffodils which I've seen mentioned several times. To me real daffodils have no smell at all. I
PerfumesI sometimes smell fragrance oils, for example, ones that are used in candle making, etc. Also soaps and candles can be helpful.
I'm still learning too
good luck!
To learn what perfume notes smell like, you could start by paying attention to things in your daily life. You can learn all of the spices by getting small amounts in a grocery store and smelling them. Go to a health food store and smell the essential oil testers. You will probably find oils like vetiver, patchouli, frankincense, lavender, clary sage, myrrh, etc. Put a drop on a paper strip and enjoy it as it dries down.
Whenever you're outside and walk past roses or jasmine or irises or daffodils, stop and smell them. You'd be surprised how much scent these flowers have when they're alive and well and not the scentless hybrid florist varieties. If there's a pine tree, crush the needles and smell them. Smell the resin that's oozing out of the trunk. Smell the salty air and the seaweed at the beach. You know most of these scents already, you just have to put the commonly used names with them.
Some note names, like amber, may be used to describe many different things. Most commonly, amber is a mixture of many different materials including labdanum, vanilla, benzoin, and often musk.
Simply by paying attention to the natural smells in your day-to-day life, you can learn to identify a lot of the note names used to describe perfumes.
Fragrance oils are probably the worst reference points, since they are complete perfumes with top, middle, and base notes, and may not smell at all like what the name suggests. Soaps and candles contain fragrance oils, so the same applies to them.
Welcome to the wonderful world of fragrance!
PerfumesA bit late with a reply, but thanks for the tips!
I`ve found it helpful to order sampler-packs with perfumes containing the same note, otherwise different. (In my case, from theperfumedcourt.com, but there is others you can order from as well.) For example:2-3 months ago I had problems recognizing white flowers from each other. I`m still not "there", but I have improved a lot. It`s no problem to smell if it`s Jasmine, frangipani or tuberose any longer. Good luck!
PerfumesGo to a florist shop and smell things. Ask exactly which flower is in which bouquet and smell it. Different flowers even from the same family will be recognizably different.
Go out in nature and smell things.
Order tiny vials of absolutes and essential oils from reputable dealers or even a trustworthy health food store. Smell repeatedly in various dilutions to fragrance free base or oil.
Jasmine will smell different from Egypt than Jasmine from India. Jasmine Sambac is clearly different than Jasmine Officinale.
Rose damask and Rose centifolia differ greatly even though both are rose. Damask and centifolia varieties will vary subtly from country to country...like the Bulgarian rose damask differs from Turkish rose damask.
There are at least half a dozen different kinds of lavender. All smell like lavender but all subtly different.
Ylang Ylang is distilled 3 different ways routinely and all the distillations smell unique.
There is no shortcut. When you are confident of recognition of one type, combine it with several others and test in various dilutions to see what the combo smells like.
That way you know what the natural base is. Then, go on to perfumes and you will have a good basic working knowledge of what you are smelling. Also, it will make you a better judge of how good the quality of the artificial chemical reproduction is and whether or not it agrees with your skin. (Most perfumes are a combo of artificial chemicals anyway, regardless of how expensive they are, unless you custom make your own from essential oils, absolutes, and bases.)
I suggest getting a good sample of artificial "fragrance oils" of individual scents to smell and judge various types of chemical reproductions of the organic essential oil. Some are much better than others and some agree with your skin more than others.
I don't know any other reliable way.
Think about it just like high quality cooking. You have to go and smell and test the batch of basil or oregano or peppers or cuts of meat, or whatever fresh batch you have and as I'm sure you know, they vary widely. The dried spices in cooking vary greatly from the fresh, and the quality does too. Even the oil bases vary just like cooking and you just have to smell the perfume component, just like you have to smell and taste in cooking. Some artificial butters are better than others. But nothing is exactly like real butter. And so on and so forth.....just like perfume.
Last edited by RosaMilena (2011-10-26 21:31:12)
PerfumesI smell real flowers whenever I get the chance (around my house and neighborhood, at a botanical garden, wherever) to remind myself of how a lily smells compared to jasmine, for example.
I rely heavily on essential oils. If you go to a health food store, stop at the essential oils section. You don't even have to buy anything, because they often have testers. It's a great way to compare just about anything: e.g., frankincense to patchouli and sandalwood (plus florals, fruits, evergreens, and herbs!). I keep a small list in my purse of a few smells I want to master.
While not always reliable/accurate, candles--particularly high-end ones--can help because they usually have only one or two notes. For example, I had no idea what vetiver smelled like. I saw a candle marked vanilla and vetiver--so I sniffed. Now I have an idea of what vetiver smells like.
PerfumesMost of the flowers that I like I grow right in my yard. The tropicals that won't winter over here are the only ones I don't get to smell on a regular basis. It's actually my plant addiction that started this fragrance addiction. I'm trying to learn how to detect notes as well but I think I have the earthy/woody notes down. Good luck and happy sniffing!
I think we all have this problem to a greater or lesser extent.
There is no substitute for smelling things, but some descriptions of notes can help you to "find" notes that you know are there in the fragrances you wear.
I looked at
http://www.gogoperfume.com/Perfume_Glossary.aspx
but I'm sure there are plenty of other places with similar glossaries and descriptions of perfume notes and terms.
Last edited by pob75 (2012-03-21 06:30:30)
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