A Symphony in Three Acts
If the world of perfume has incorporated music into its vocabulary, and the perfumer’s cabinet with lined-up essences is called an organ, perhaps it wants to tell us that perfume is as elusive as music. So, let’s start from the beginning – the note.
Notes are composed into chords, chords into melodies… And with the perfect perfume, we say: a true olfactory symphony.
Perfumes develop their music in three acts: the skin is the stage, the audience is all around you, and the perfume is the orchestra with its operatic ensemble. High, ringing female voices open the performance… In the perfume world, we call these sopranos more prosaically: the top notes.
Top Notes - The First Impression Matters
A perfume is composed of molecules of varying sizes. The lightest and most volatile among them are the ones we first perceive when we spray the perfume – the top notes.
Fresh, airy, and lively, these notes traditionally include sparkling citrus: lemon, bergamot, mandarin…
Light and seductive, floral notes such as May rose, peony, or lavender, as well as juicy fruits like pear and green apple, may also appear at the opening.
Spices such as cinnamon can give warmth or intrigue to the top notes, and in recent years, pink pepper has dominated. Green freshness may come from sage, mint, or juniper, and spicy tones from ginger.
Not all notes are of natural origin - synthetic molecules also play an important role in top notes. Among them are aldehydes, molecules and chords of varying effects that give rhythm to the composition, often providing a key to understanding the other fragrance notes.
Top notes will enchant you, play a virtuosic pizzicato, perform a brief fairy dance on your skin - and disappear within fifteen to twenty minutes, depending on the composition. Enjoy them, but don’t let them captivate you completely: the perfume has more to offer.
But what if top notes are all you ever want from a perfume? If you want a citrus perfume from start to finish?
Try Bigarade Concentree – a citrus masterpiece by Frederic Malle with 40% special bitter orange essence. Or Oyedo by Diptyque: lemon, yuzu, lime, and mandarin on a woody base.
Love grapefruit, the mezzo-soprano among citrus fruits? Try Kérylos – it will sing just for you.
Heart Notes - Where the Perfume’s Heart Beats
They are called heart notes for a reason – they beat at the core of the perfume and define its family: floral, woody, oriental, green, gourmand, powdery, fruity, chypre.
The emotions the perfume wishes to convey are concentrated in its heart: May rose sings of romantic love, harmonizing with jasmine, which adds an irresistible seductive touch, tuberose for a hint of eroticism, or iris, lending a mystical, almost otherworldly quality.
In these middle chords, a memory may also be stored: gourmand perfumes may evoke conversations and people we shared coffee with, or offer treats reminiscent of childhood days. Journeys that shaped us reach us through scents of sea and algae, oriental markets filled with tobacco and spices, and aromatic accords of Greek shores.
All these heart notes harmonize with the deepest and longest-lasting notes, the base notes, a third to an octave lower.
Base Notes – Blending with the Skin and Lasting, Lasting…
You will still perceive them while the heart notes dominate the stage: they appear as a new dimension. Far more than just fixatives that hold notes together or extend their longevity - as often described prosaically - base notes are a crucial part of the composition, without which it would feel like a symphony without its wind and string instruments.
Base notes are composed of large molecules that evaporate slowly from the skin, lingering for hours: when everything else fades, they remain to warm your soul.
Frequent base notes include sensual and warm tones of sandalwood and amber, gourmand notes of vanilla and almond, intriguing patchouli, and the ubiquitous sensual musk. You may also succumb to vetiver’s earthy warmth or the evergreen note of pine.
Synthetic molecules also feature in base notes - ambroxan, for instance, is essential in the world of niche perfumes.
And What If the Fragrance Pyramid Is Broken?
The fragrance pyramid, built from wide, stable base notes, through the essential heart notes, to the light and high top notes, is typical for classical perfumery.
The niche movement, however, emerged by breaking the rules – as with any revolution in the artistic world.
Sometimes this meant even breaking the pyramid: the perfume was composed linearly, without the typical development described above.
Or a perfume made from a single ingredient – a synthetic one? This was the revolution initiated by German perfumer Geza Schoen, who created perfumes containing just one synthetic molecule in high concentration. More precisely, one in two perfumes.
The first, a molecule that gives a specific effect – Iso E Super. The second, typical for base notes as a fixative – Ambroxan.
This gave birth to Escentric Molecules, which shook the perfume world and quickly became legendary.
The brand now offers variations of these two – now iconic – molecules with other scent ingredients, and other perfumes with a similar concept have appeared, such as Not a Parfume, another bestseller.
Proof that even perfumes without a traditional pyramid can seduce us.
Forget the Notes – Embrace the Harmony
Since its founding, Metropoliten has provided a sample of each perfume you can try in-store, along with a discreet sticker on the back or bottom of the bottle listing the main notes.
They serve as a guide and a first hint of how the perfume might smell – but like sheet music, they cannot convey the beauty of the full composition.
Not all notes are listed – nor can they be. Some perfumes are crafted with more than a hundred notes, while minimalist ones, like those by Jean-Claude Elena, have just ten to fifteen.
This legendary perfumer notes in his book Perfume – The Alchemy of Scent that today, 60 basic ingredients make up 80% of all perfume formulas.
The number of ingredients, however, does not determine a perfume’s beauty or quality. Beauty is created by the perfumer composing the notes, and interpreted, according to personal taste, cultural patterns, and lifestyle, by the one who wears the perfume on their skin.
