Just like music, perfumes have their notes. Usually perfumes created in accordance with classical French tradition have three stages of composition opening.
Classical structure:
Top notes:
This is the first fragrant impression that can be smelt immediately after perfume is applied from the bottle. It is present for 1-5 minutes after evaporation of alcohol base. The top notes usually contain components with weaker fixation properties. They fade quickly but give a nice and harmonious introduction in to the heart of composition. Those are mostly citrus, green notes, delicate flowers or fresh fruits.Middle notes:
Or the notes of the heart, are the one dominant in the perfume composition. It is mainly a flowery combination. The notes of perfume heart start appearing just when the top notes start fading and skin produces a chemical reaction with the perfume. Middle notes can be smelt on skin for about an hour, and with higher perfume concentration even more. Base notes:
Base notes are the most stable and durable notes of the perfume composition. They appear approximately 10-15 minutes after application of perfume and remain on skin for about 24 hours, and depending on the concentration, even more. This part of fragrant composition is the warmest and most sensual, and unites harmoniously with the skin odor. Such long-lasting fragrance fixatives are used amber, musk, frankincense, sandalwood, vanilla and various raisins. Therefore, remember, it takes 15-20 minutes before all the fragrant components develop completely and the entire composition can be smelt.
Modern composition:
Modern perfumes may have their own original structure, such as the structure of ‘Echo’. The characteristic of this structure is that the fragrant notes are expanding in waves, like an echo, during the whole day. An example of such combination may be mentioned Lancome’s Tresor and many American perfumes.
Composition in a shape of ‘8’ is such a composition which, once completely open, it turns in the opposite direction, and then opens again from the beginning. As an example may be mentioned Lancome’s Magie Noir and many American perfumes.
Perfumes of the perfume house Comme des Garsons are characteristic for their original structure in which each note lives its own separate life and opens in accordance with the chemical properties of skin.
Top notes:
This is the first fragrant impression that can be smelt immediately after perfume is applied from the bottle. It is present for 1-5 minutes after evaporation of alcohol base. The top notes usually contain components with weaker fixation properties. They fade quickly but give a nice and harmonious introduction in to the heart of composition. Those are mostly citrus, green notes, delicate flowers or fresh fruits.Middle notes:
Or the notes of the heart, are the one dominant in the perfume composition. It is mainly a flowery combination. The notes of perfume heart start appearing just when the top notes start fading and skin produces a chemical reaction with the perfume. Middle notes can be smelt on skin for about an hour, and with higher perfume concentration even more. Base notes:
Base notes are the most stable and durable notes of the perfume composition. They appear approximately 10-15 minutes after application of perfume and remain on skin for about 24 hours, and depending on the concentration, even more. This part of fragrant composition is the warmest and most sensual, and unites harmoniously with the skin odor. Such long-lasting fragrance fixatives are used amber, musk, frankincense, sandalwood, vanilla and various raisins. Therefore, remember, it takes 15-20 minutes before all the fragrant components develop completely and the entire composition can be smelt.
Modern composition:
Modern perfumes may have their own original structure, such as the structure of ‘Echo’. The characteristic of this structure is that the fragrant notes are expanding in waves, like an echo, during the whole day. An example of such combination may be mentioned Lancome’s Tresor and many American perfumes.
Composition in a shape of ‘8’ is such a composition which, once completely open, it turns in the opposite direction, and then opens again from the beginning. As an example may be mentioned Lancome’s Magie Noir and many American perfumes.
Perfumes of the perfume house Comme des Garsons are characteristic for their original structure in which each note lives its own separate life and opens in accordance with the chemical properties of skin.