I'm interested in hearing from all of you who are good at analyzing the notes of scents. I'd like to know whether you deliberately trained yourself to do this, and if so, what technique you used. Obviously, the real perfumers among us know the most about this, but I'm interested in tips from everybody. I'd really like to get better at identifying notes.

On a related topic, I'd love to find a source with really comprehensive descriptions of the most common perfume ingredients. The osmoz site is useful, but I'm looking for something more complete.

Teaching yourself the smell of fragrance source materials is the simplest place to start - try to identify the smell of all the flowers and fresh herbs you can. Sniff all the essential oils and absolutes at the health food store, Bath & Body Works, The Body Shop, etc. Then sniff perfumes with those notes and see if your nose can find them.

For note descriptions, Dawn Spencer Hurwitz has quite a bit on her website:

https://www.dshperfumes.com/notes_eo.asp?page=16

I've gotten pretty good about identifying notes in fragrances...and identifying scents that people are wearing, but it comes with the territory of working with fragrances all the time.... I've just gotten used to them... I didn't do anything in particular to train myself, but just being in the industry will heighten your sense of smell... I used to have very bad allergies when it came to scents, now i can smell almost all of them without having a reaction (with the exception of anything with eucyluptus in it, I'm so allergic to that!)

Today some guy in the jewlery dept asked me if i could tell what he was wearing, and he was FLOORED when I nailed it on the first time (it was the new Nautica Voyage, which smelled great on him!!!) He was like "DAMN your good!" ha ha... I just smiled and said it came with the job!



Dawn

I'm pretty good at identifying notes in perfume and wine. I was born with a nose like a bloodhound so after sniffing thousands of fragrances in my lifetime I guess I developed a knack for identifying the notes. It seems I "get" floral notes more from a visceral reaction than from a recognizition of the exact fragrance. A scent will take me to a place in memory, a song, or maybe even a mood and after I think about the scent memory I realize what I must be smelling.

As far as I 'm concerned identifying notes in scents is only one aspect of discovering perfumes. I 'm not good at it because I prefer the emotional evocative part of discovering a scent rather than just judging it upon its olfactory composition. There are a lot of variables that make a great perfume one can enjoy.
A few Serge Lutens perfumes descriptions have purposely no olfatory notes details; instead you 're introduced to these perfumes throughout his vision and literate style. I relate and connect to this nicely.

Oh, I agree that this is the most important way to relate to a scent. In the final analysis, a list of notes doesn't tell you much about a fragrance. But I still want to cultivate my ability to pick out individual notes. It's just a different level of understanding. In the same way you can have a highly refined palate for wine or food without knowing much at all about how they are produced--but it's more fun and adds to your pleasure if you gain some technical knowledge.

I am very intrigued by TA's method of associating notes with particular memories or emotions--that seems to synthesize the impressionistic and technical approaches nicely.

I consider myself quite amateur at this, but I enjoy the exercise nonetheless, and it does give a richer appreciation of the fragrances at times--much like knowing chords and instruments may bring a deeper enjoyment of a musical composition.

I had a gardening background, so I already had some appreciation of the fragrances of many herbs and flowers, and had been exposed to a fair amount of cookery so spices were already known as well. You'd be surprised how many scents you know just from day to day living.

If you stumble upon one of those organic-type, mix-your-own oils places, it's a good place to try to investigate the purer oils of things one might not come across in day to day life.

Another strategy is to know which notes are prominent in a number of perfumes and then smell the perfumes close to another and figure out what is in common. There is a lot to learn but no reason not to learn more and more.

I'm not great at identifying individual notes in the more abstract fragrances. I can tell the basics, just from excessive exposure like rose, jasmine, lily of the valley, and gardinia. There are certain notes I don't like so those stand out for me like musk and patchouli. It has taken me a long time to recognize oakmoss. Finally, I ordered some pure oakmoss absolute. It is marvelous on its own and very long lasting. Many modern fragrances have hundreds of ingredients, so you can't expect to figure them out beyond the major accords. Older fragrances and Annick Goutals are great fun because you can figure them out.