Scent Word Families: Scent Culture
Exploring the World of Perfumery
Scent Culture: What Does it Mean in Perfumery?
We are now onto our sixth scent word family(TM)! Here’s what we’ve covered so far:
Scent Noses and the previous scent word family(TM) was
If you are just joining us at 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 scent culture. I’ve taken a bit of artistic license with my interpretation of this particular scent word family (TM). I’ve defined Scent Culture as “the knowledge, beliefs and art of perfume aromas and trends employed by the perfumer in their creations.” I wanted to explain the meaning behind words such as soapy, powdery, clean, metallic, and dirty in a perfumery sense. Are these trend words? Yes. But they also - to me - build and explain some of the concepts at the heart of perfumery work, beyond more familiar terms such as amber, herbaceous, and green. In other words, perfume culture.
In fact, we already looked at a scent culture word here
In the next few weeks, we’ll be taking a look at some of those other scent culture words that make up the fabric of a perfumer’s palette, beyond the obvious.
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 (or against) to help you to create a beautiful fragrance.
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. Please drop a heart below if you like this article as it increases visibility ad allows more people to see it and learn! Thank you :)
What did you learn from this article? Drop me your thoughts in the comments below.
“Culture is the widening of the mind and the spirit.”
Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964), former prime minister of India