How do perfumes smell

Next take a look at our fragrance strength chart to understand the longevity of different fragrance types. Fresh fragrances usually comprise of citrus, water and green notes. This means they have refreshing, zesty and vibrant smells. Fresh green fragrances are often reminiscent of herbal and leafy scents for a crisp, uplifting smell.

Floral fragrances are one of the most popular families, and one of the broadest. Any fragrance that has a sweet and flowery scent will belong under this family, using notes such as roses, jasmine, lilies and peonies. Oriental fragrances are warm, sweet and even a little spicy.

A more luxurious fragrance family, oriental fragrances vary from floral oriental, soft oriental and woody oriental. Perfumes and aftershaves in this family are rich and sensual, often made with interesting notes of cardamom, cinnamon, vanilla alongside the likes of jasmine, orchid and orange blossom. I spoke with Luca Turin [a biophysicist with a keen interest in scent] about it, and he assured me that this has yet to be investigated, so my theories are just that, theories, but picked up from observations accrued over many years.

Meet the Expert. Interestingly, I have noticed that people with different hair color carry scents differently too. My advice? Always check the effect of a fragrance on your skin before parting with your money. So why does scent smell so different on everyone? Use a shower gel designed for sensitive skin that will help keep your pH in check. One study found that people are drawn to scents that will work with their natural body odor. Keep scrolling to find out how oily and dry skin types can change how your perfume smells.

Notes that would just disappear on dry skin can be symphonic on oily skin. They can turn quite modest, discreet scents into a magnum opus. However, you have to be careful; certain elements can become too much and upset the balance of a perfume. The delicate scents will disappear, so if you want to make a statement, then you need something with a strong voice.

Once again, it is thanks to our olfactory sense and its almost super-powers! The sense of smell, still controlled by our brain, has well-oiled mechanisms that allow it to filter information. When we breathe in, hundreds of volatile odoriferous molecules travel through the air and land in our nose, tickling the 10 million olfactory neurons in our nasal cavity equivalent to 10 square centimeter, or one large postage stamp.

These neurons will then work hard to transmit this message to the brain via the olfactory nerve. Once the message has arrived, it will be decoded and stored in our large internal library, and the olfactory memory will then be activated. When we wear a fragrance regularly, the brain associates it with our own body odor. The fact that we no longer smell our perfume is part of a physiological process of olfaction.

With our own scent, the stimulation of our olfactory sensors is permanent. This is also the case with the smell of our home, or a perfume that we wear very often. Faced with this, our receptors will drop their guard to become familiar with the smell and make it commonplace, because they consider it to be harmless. These totally unconscious mechanisms thus modulate the quality and quantity of olfactory informations reaching our brain.

This is called olfactory adaptation, or habituation. Among the first-mentioned are citrus and fruity fragrances whereas vanilla, musk and woody scents tend to remain on the skin for longer. Is this true? Smaller molecules are released faster than heavier ones and, if you are warm, they evaporate even faster. Then there is no need to adopt a scientific approach. On the other hand, perfume manufacturers are skilled at producing combinations that many people like.

Perfumiers and chemists are also getting better at developing new synthetic fragrances in the lab, which opens the way for completely new smell experiences that can otherwise be difficult to extract, lily, for example.

The possibility of producing animalistic fragrance notes, such as musk, provides ethical advantages. Chemists can also send in new, personally created fragrances to perfume companies. Can it be claimed that synthetically produced chemicals in perfumes are better or worse than the natural versions?

No, according to Ulf Ellervik, a certain synthetic molecule is exactly the same as one that comes from a natural source. Alcohol, on the other hand, is another reason that perfumes have a somewhat sharp, pungent smell and that some are perceived as a little unnatural. It is needed, however, to dissolve scent substances and evaporates quite rapidly.

Creams and oils can also act as scent bearers. Fats dissolve certain scent substances better and release them at a slower rate. Whether we want to or not, we also smell of ourselves. Of sweat, for example. Bacteria flourish around armpits and genitals, as the sweat glands there produce substances that bacteria like. They double in number every 20 minutes, explains Ulf Ellervik, and there can be several hundred strains.