Scent Word Families: Perfume Stages
Breaking Down the Stages of Perfumery
Stage: What Does it Mean in Perfumery?
To date, I’ve covered two scent word families(TM): Performance and Composition.
If you are new to Stories of Scent, you might be wondering: What are scent word families(TM)? Scent word families (TM) are those scent words which relate to each other and belong to the same scent word family. This is my own interpretation and grouping of scent words and shouldn’t be confused with fragrance families. I think it makes it easier to understand some of the scent language that we use in fragrance when we can see how they go together. This is the writer in me merging with the perfumer in me!
This week I’m introducing you to perfume stages. Perfume stages are the different steps or process in the development of a fragrance. In this particular scent word family(TM), I’m going to introduce you to the words aging, dry down, decant, and throw.
Learning scent language is key to understanding the perfume process. By grouping related words into similar groups, you can see both how they interact with each other and how they ultimately work together to create a beautiful fragrance. Perfumers borrow language from music to describe the various processes, so you might have come across some of these words before, but in a different context.
Perfume formulation is a puzzle - but it doesn’t have to be! By subscribing to and reading my short FREE articles each week, you’ll get nugget-sized pieces of information to grow your scent language. Upgrade to paid to take that learning deeper, including scent prompts for perfume creation.
What did you learn from this article? Drop me your thoughts in the comments below.
“The performances that you have in your head are always much better than the performances on stage.”
Maggie Smith (1934-2024), British actress