When you purchase a perfume, it is important that you think about the type of notes that you want in that perfume. When we talk about notes, we talk about the overall scent.
So, really, on this page, when we discuss the best perfume notes, we are really discussing what perfumes smell like.
Of course, there are plenty of different perfume types out there. On this page, we are going to discuss the most popular perfume notes, i.e., the ones that you are most likely going to encounter when you are purchasing a perfume.
Popular Perfume Notes:
1. Citrus Perfumes
Citrus perfumes are among the most common perfumes that you can buy. Almost every single bouquet on the market will likely have some sort of citrusy twist to it. This means that you may be able to catch hints of lemon or lime with citrus notes.
You may be able to sniff bergamot in there. You may even be able to catch hints of many different types of oranges.
Basically, think of citrus perfumes as akin to dipping your head into a bowl of citrus fruits and taking a bit whiff!
2. Fruity Perfumes
We suppose fruity perfumes can also cover citrus. However, fruity perfumes and fruity perfume notes tend to cover different areas. For example, you may be able to get hints of cherries and apples.
You may get coconut in there. You may even get some pears, peaches, and plum notes. Fruity perfumes can be enhanced by various nuts too.
Sure, they are not technically fruits (it is right there in the name!), but many nuts, including almonds, can give off a bit of a fruity vibe when added to the right perfume.
3. Floral Perfumes
The vast majority of perfumes on the market, particularly for females, will be perfumes with a floral vibe to them. This means that they are going to be loaded up with various flowers.
One of the great things about floral perfumes is just how different all of them are. A perfume that uses a lot of roses, for instance, will be entirely different from a bouquet that uses jasmine or lily.
The chances are that you already have a rough idea of the sort of flowers that you enjoy, so why not look for them in a perfume?
4. Green Perfumes
Green perfumes have always been tricky to describe. This is because it can really mean anything that evokes feelings of sniffing fresh forests or grass.
With green perfumes, there will often be leaves in the notes. You may be able to catch water plants and maybe even various grasses.
Some green perfume notes will be enhanced with woodiness (more on those in a short while). A lot of male perfumes rely on green notes, particularly with aquatic plants and tea.
5. Spicy Perfumes
Spicy perfumes are the norm among male perfumes. You get notes such as cinnamon, or you may be able to get bits of pepper in there. When you have a spicy perfume, the spiciness really cuts through everything.
A lot of spicy perfumes will use wood as the base notes. You may also be able to catch hints of scents that are slightly more oriental (we will talk more about those soon!).
Spicy perfumes can smell rather delicious, mainly because they rely on spices that people use heavily in their cooking.
6. Woody Perfumes
Woody perfumes probably don’t need that much in the way of introduction. This is because woody fragrances tend to be fairly self-explanatory.
This means that they rely on woods and their bark. Some of the most common notes you will find in woody perfumes will involve cedar.
However, you may be able to find dashes of pine and oak. Often woody perfumes are used with flowery notes and the like on the top. They almost give the feeling of sniffing a fresh forest.
7. Oriental Perfumes
Oriental perfumes will be one of the broadest range of perfumes on the market. These perfumes are meant to invoke feelings of the orient. Because of that, they will often rely heavily on dashes of spice.
However, you may also be able to find hints of vanilla, balsam, resins, and gourmand. Many of these oriental perfumes will be spicy, but they will also have a hint of sweetness to them.
Many of them will use plants and spices that can only be found throughout Asia. To us, Oriental note perfumes tend to have a very mysterious and alluring vibe to them.
8. Musky Perfumes
Musky perfumes rely heavily on earthy themes. They have an almost animalistic feel to them. They are heavy in male fragrances, but some female fragrances have musky notes too.
When we talk about musky, we are talking about deep, powerful smells. Common themes in musky perfume notes include myrrh, citronella, and patchouli.
Because musky perfumes tend to be very earthy in nature, they work well with green and woody notes.
9. Fresh Perfumes
There will be a lot of overlap between fresh perfumes and the more fruity, citrusy perfumes on the market. Fresh perfumes are meant to give the feeling of lightness and cleanliness.
They are almost as if you are waking up on a beautiful spring or summer day and smelling outside. Many of the fresh perfumes on the market will lean into various notes, such as lemon and bergamot.
You may be able to get a hint of some of the fresher greens out there. You may even be able to catch hints of light woodiness.
10. Natural Perfumes
Natural perfumes aren’t really a perfume type. It is just the way in which the perfumes are made. Natural perfumes tend to be the more expensive perfumes on the market. This is because natural perfumes are made with real essential oils.
This means that the ingredients that you will find in the perfume that you are using will have been extracted straight from the fruit or plant. They are tough to make, but natural perfumes tend to give a realistic scent, and they smell pleasurable.
11. Synthetic Perfumes
Many of the cheaper perfumes on the market will be synthetic perfumes. This doesn’t mean that they are bad. However, they are not going to have the same scent as something that has been made from natural oils.
Synthetic perfumes work using artificial oils. This means that a team of scientists will have created an oil that sort of smells like a fruit or plant. The note isn’t going to be exactly the same, but it is going to be close enough.
As we said, these perfumes are going to be cheaper, and thus they tend to be the perfumes that people wear in their day-to-day life.
12. Weird Perfumes
Weird perfume notes are really not going to be for everybody. It is weird perfume notes that allow perfume creators to get really creative in what they do. It seems that anything is fair game when it comes to weird perfumes.
You may be able to catch hints of candy, sugar, metallic themes, cashmere, and tobacco. We have even seen weird perfumes that seem to go down the route of using lobster and seafood, although we can imagine that the people that prefer those notes are very much going to be in the minority!
Weird perfumes aren’t really all that common, and a lot of them may be more marketing for a company rather than something they genuinely believe they will sell a lot of.
13. Powdery Perfumes
Imagine the scent of baby lotion or powder. That is the sort of thing that you get with powdery notes. They won’t smell like baby powder, though. Don’t worry. It is more of a dry softness.
When you smell a powdery perfume, you will be able to get hints of freshness. Amber is often used heavily in perfumes going for a more powdery scent.
However, you may also be able to catch hints of rose, violet, and various musks. A lot of the most common perfumes on the market, particularly those designed for day-to-day use, will rely on powderiness.
14. Earthy Perfumes
Earthy perfumes contain ingredients that invoke feelings of growth and the earth. This means that you will be able to find notes of wood, wood resins, grasses, and maybe even a dash of soil.
A lot of earthy perfumes will also include roots and maybe even notes that remind you of water. They feel like a very natural perfume. On top of this, you may get some herbs. This can include sage and the like.
There may be some flowery notes added to top these off. We find that earthy perfumes are often fantastic as male perfumes. However, in recent years, a lot of female perfumes have been turning toward more earthy themes.
15. Beverages Perfume Notes
Beverage perfumes often come in in the creation of male fragrances. This includes hints of rum or alcohol. However, we have also seen weird perfumes on the market that aim to replicate some of the more common soft drinks.
Beverage perfume notes are mostly made to suit everyone that’s for sure.
In the first case, you will get much deeper, masculine notes. In the second case, you will get a sort of sweetness, maybe fruity, feel.
