Learning Olfactory Notes with Perfume Decants

As people dive deeper in the world of perfumes, they often realize that one or more olfactory notes are more appealing than the others. Discovering the preferred notes and collecting afterwards the fragrances containing these particular notes is easier to do if people rely on perfume samples and perfume decants. Moreover, samples and decants are preferred for perfumes with great longevity and projection, but not so great versatility. In these conditions, a fragrance is used in smaller quantities and less often, facts that make smaller bottles more convenient. Not at last, fragrance samples and perfume decants are sought after by people who do not want to spend a fortune on a collection of scents, and at the same time, they want more diversity. Testing fragrances in order to find the most likeable notes may take some time. Citrus notes, for example, are the most volatile and because of this, they are most often used as top notes in fragrances. The top notes do not last very long, so searching for a citrusy fragrance with good longevity may be time consuming. Flower notes have medium volatility and hence are more frequently seen as middle notes. The medium notes are the ones responsible for the main theme of the fragrance, as people testing perfume decants will soon find out. The base notes of fragrances are represented by fixative ingredients, such as wood notes, amber or musk. As these are the least volatile of the three categories of notes, they stay around the longest. The number of olfactory notes that are used in modern fragrances is impressive. The resulting number of combinations is also great, as perfumers mix different ingredients in various quantities. Despite of this fact, people can learn by sniffing perfume decants that certain notes are very similar, so two fragrances to not need to have identical note breakdown to smell the same. For example, vanilla, tonka beans and benzoin crystals can be used interchangeably with very similar effects. In such cases, it takes a trained nose to distinguish the olfactory notes between them. Actually, it is not unheard of to stumble upon two fragrances made by different perfumers from different perfume houses that smell very similar, if not identical. Making a thorough comparison in order to decide which one has better sillage and longevity also requires perfume decants, in order to avoid spending a lot of money on full bottles.