The Art of Sniffing

July 2007 / Style Magazine

Choosing a fragrance is a personal experience. "Your connection to a fragrance is not only based on taste, but also a summary of...memories and associations," says Tom Crutchfield, a spokesman for Etro and Asprey fragrances. But even if your reasons for liking a fragrance are purely primal, learning about the science behind a scent—particularly how a perfume unfolds on your skin overtime—will help you find a perfume that is undoubtedly you.

Fragrance is divided into three segments: base notes, middle notes and top notes. Top notes are "the scents that jump out at you, as they are the most volatile," says chemist and perfumer Sherri Sebastian, creator of the beauty line Sebastian Signs. The base notes "are...what ultimately matters about a scent," Sebastian says. And the middle notes? They're what you smell along the way from the top to base notes.

If you're one to spritz, smell and buy, then you might want to restrain yourself. Don't judge a scent until it's cycled through all three phases, each of which take about 15 minutes to transform. Notes found in the final phase, known as the "dry down," are the longest lasting and remain apparent throughout the day.

Take alcohol-to-fragrance concentrate percentages into consideration as well. Eau de cologne (3 to 5 percent fragrance) is the least potent and least expensive. Concentration levels go up from there; eau de toilette has 3 to 8 percent and eau de parfum has 10 to 15 percent. Parfum has the highest concentrate—20 to 50 percent—and should be applied on pulse points only.

—Kendah El-Ali