Scent Words

I think, but cannot yet prove, that the really big difference between most perfumers and most non-perfumers is not the sheer sensitivity of the sense of smell but the fact that perfumers have acquired an aroma vocabulary whilst perfumers have not. When I sit down with a perfumer colleague to enjoy a relaxed smelling session I know that we both have calibrated smell brains. Hence, if I refer to a perfume as having a distinct musky top note, we will both know what I mean.

What happens when we disagree with each other about an odour description? The answer is simple since perfumery and all aromascience is a strict empirical business. We go into the perfume studio and we take down from the shelves the particular reference material I have in mind. I might, for example, have in mind the special radiant, up-lifting quality of muskiness found in a famous musk called exaltolide. This musk is part of the natural musk of the musk deer and it was first identified by the famous swiss* chemist and nobel prize winner Leopold Ruzicka working with a famous swiss perfume company. We take down a 1% solution of the exaltolide in perfumery alcohol, dip our smelling strips; wait for the alcohol to evaporate, and then we compare our sensory impressions as we sniff.

But even with this experimental test we must take several precautions and you should note these before you start your own intensive smelling. There are several factors which create great difficulties for the perfumer, including the following; and we must always be vigilant.

&Mac183; The solution or odorant may not be fresh and may have decomposed. Sadly, it is the lot of the perfumer to have to work with many materials which are intrinsiclly unstable. So take care; but you can feel re-assured about the oils in the scent kit, these are stable; but remember that even the best rose oils will deteriorate with time.

&Mac183; The concentration is important. For example, the musks are particularly good at switching-off our sense of smell and if you take a sniff of a solution which is too concentrated, you find that you cannot smell anything on your 2nd sniff and so you think that the material has no smell. When you sniffing the materials from the scent kit, it is possible that you may find them too strong on a strip immediately after you have dipped it. Simply sniff the strip at intervals over the next few hours and you will find a concentration of the scent which is suited to your personal sense of smell.

So in the perfume studio, each scent word is associated with a particular scent oil or aroma chemical. The odour of the substance defines the scent word. But, as you will discover as you explore the rose themes with your scent kit, you may need more than one word or reference material for a scent word. For example, as you will discover yourself; though all rose oils and rose perfumes clearly have an aroma quality in common which we call ‘rosiness’; we can easily distinguish between fruity-roses and lemony-roses and musky roses.














100 vial scent word kit





Feb 96

The Perfumer's Dictionary of Odours and Odour Effects


The Key Terms/Guide to Odour Families

..somewhere time..MUSt discuss the origin and philosophy..ie how we are going about it ... the history of the terms... the gen issueof the best way to approach the issue in the year 2001 etc...


Animal
Beverage
Countryside
Fantasy
Food

Floral
Fruity
Green
Herb..herbal..cl floral etc..flower
Household
Human
Kitchen
Maritime
Minty ..(? in herbal?)
Musky..? in animal

Oily
Spicy

Town

Vegetable
Woody



Evident that this scheme is unsatisfactory..in that unlike a dictionary..but more like a thesaurus?/there is some overiap..for example, kitchem..herb..in practice there will be a minimal overlap, for example, herbal will pick up most of the herbal notes which are likely to encountered in the kitchen (as well as other classes of herbs, eg..which are not used in the kitchen, ) but

under kitchen we will find notes like burning oven, or (X) which do not fit conveniently into any other category.




ANIMALS

Cats...*** the detailed considerations ... urine. bedding ... fur etc can be taken
up in the more detailed listing... housing (eg monkey house)...
cows
Dog
elephant
Fish
fox
gerbils
Horses
monkey
pig
sheep


FLORAL

Acacia
Angelica
Ambrette seed*
Broom

Boronia
Carnation
Clover
Cyclamen
Gardenia
Hawthorn
Heliotrope
Honeysuckle

Hyacinth
Jasmin
Jonquil
Lilac

Lily
Lily-of-the-Valley
Linden (Lime)
Magnolia
Mignonette
Mimosa
Narcissus
Orange Flower
Orris
Rose

Sweet Pea
Tuberose
Violet
Wallflower
Yiang-Yiang


FRUITY

Apple


** just by way of ex ample we attempt an entry for the more detailed list

... apple is simultaneously simple and complex. We all learn to recogize - the label - apple - and we are good at doing this. And when - as below - you learn more about the sophistication of this note you must take care that you never lose the ability which you have to simply and immediately recognize something as - apple - without further analysis.

As you begin to examine apples you appreciate the gamut of notes which cluster in this area. We have the crisp note of green apples, the subsidary fruity notes accompanying the main apply* note - (for examine some apples have a faint peach note eg ... wheeas etc ... the soft luscious fruit notes of apples which have been lying around for some time, and finally, the earthy mouldy note of apples which are beginning to go off ... these notes accompany the main fruity apple notes and indeed there are those who prefer this hint of earthiness in their apples..eventually the powerful earthy note becomes too dominant for all of us and we no longer label the apple as haing the distinditice apple note

Apricot
Bananna green ripe
Bilberry
Blueberry
Blackberry
Blackcurrant
.. .. .. buds


Citrus

bergamot
Clementine
grapefruit
lemon
lime
mandarin
orange (sweet)
orange (bitter)
neroli*
petitgrain
Satsuma
tangerine

Cherry

Cranberry
Damson
Dates
Dewberry
Figs
Fruity
Gooseberry
Grapes

Guava
Kiwi

Mango
Melon

Nectarine
Papaya
Passionfruit
Peach '

Pears
Pineapple
Plums
Prune
Pumpkin

Raspberry
Rhubarb
Sharon*
Strawberry





GREEN


Cucumber
G rass
Green apple
Green beans
Green tomatoes
Leaf
Violet leaf


HERB

Basil
Cardamon
Dill
Fennel
Garlic
Mint
Rosemary
Parsly*
Sage
Thyme

HOUSEHOLD

Bleach
Leather
Talc

HUMAN


Faeces
Hair clean dirty
Perfume
Perspiration
Skin
Stuffy room
Sweat fresh stale
Urine fresh stale

MINTY
Peppermint
Spearmint
X

MUSKY

Natural
Animal (musk deer)


Synthetic
Benzenoid
Galaxolidic
Macrocyclic
nitroaromatic
Steroidal

Oil/Oily

Ldible
cod liver oil

cooking oil fresh rancid



Non-edible
Diesel
Paraffin
Petrol



SPICES


SAVOURY


SWEET
Aniseed
Cinnamon
Clove


Vanilla







VEGETABLE



*criteria of veg .... supermarket .... if we treat it like a veg..It is

COOKED OR UNCOOKED OR BOTH






Asparagus
Aubergines
Avocado

Beans
Beetroot

Cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Corgettes*
Cucumber
Cress

Green beans
Leeks
Lettuce
Mushrooms

Parsnips
Peppers
Potatoes
Onions
Sweetpotatoes
Sweetcorn

Spinach
Tomatoes
green
ripe
Truffles

Turnips

uncooked








..in tomato sauce








green red etc
raw

cooked








roast..boiled..fried

WOODY



Apple

Beech

Birch
Cedar
Patchouli*
Pine
Sandalwood
Vetivert*
(Woodsmoke?)








General Smell Sheet

cf..the old one from long ago... qv