The Olfactory Pyramid
One of the first and most important elements to beginning your scent journey is gaining a rudimentary understanding of the olfactory pyramid. Let’s begin.
There are three levels to the olfactory pyramid: base, heart, and top notes. These correlate to both the percentage of a certain ingredient in the formula as well as the way the scent will present itself on you.
Before diving into the mechanics, let’s break down the nomenclature with an analogy. Imagine your favorite song. The base notes correlate to the beat of the song; it’s the song’s core identity and how you’re able to recognize the song as an instrumental. The heart level equates to the chorus; it’s what will stick with you because of its catchiness and what you’ll likely think of when you think of your favorite part of a song. The top notes are equivalent to the song’s intro; it’s what draws you in the beginning to keep listening but soon leads into the ‘heart' or hook of the song.
Another comparable analogy is astrology. Here, the top notes are your rising sign which represents how you initially present to others. The heart is your main or “sun” sign and represents the majority of your personality for all intended purposes. Lastly, the base is your moon sign. In other words, how you are at your inner core when no one else is around.
Now that we share an understanding of the three levels, let’s dive into how we apply that to finding a scent. Top notes tend to draw you into the scent but only last around 5-15 minutes before they dissipate. As a result, while you should always test if you like the initial smell you should wait until after this timeframe to understand how the heart notes resonate with you. The heart notes are what will interact most with your skin oils and will last anywhere from 2 to 4 hours. Testing how you like the heart notes and how they present on you will arguably be the make or break in your decision to purchase. Lastly, the base will be how the smell lingers for anywhere from 4+ hours. While this is important, most of the time you’re wearing perfume ahead of an event or day in which you’ll only be able to smell the perfume on yourself during the heart timeframe.
That’s not to say the base isn’t important, you just may not be as aware of the smell after that time has passed. Subsequently, if you’re shopping for a scent for the first time you’re more than likely okay to make a decision based on the heart. However, if you’re highly meticulous or further along your scent journey you may want to test out perfume through the base phase before purchasing. If you find that the base is more muted than you like, a trick is to buy a travel or sample size of the perfume to re-apply after the 4-6 hours to keep the perfume fresh to your own nose and others.
