Jasmine, the ever-popular heart note, is highly desired and extensively used in perfumery. A fragrance chameleon, jasmine is delightfully versatile: transparent and luminous as a top note, and surprisingly animalistic and sensual as a smooth base note. Its suave, heady characteristics combine in an intoxicating wave of rich tenacity. Perfectly balancing femininity and masculinity, jasmine emits an unmistakably powerful scent that is both floral and fruity.

Patchouli is a deeply spiced, thickly herbal and immediately recognizable note - it’s “dirty hippie” reputation doesn’t do it justice. Patchouli’s scent lies somewhere between cumin’s sharp and acrid tang and nutmeg’s smooth, sweet warmth, and it can carry a fragrance or blend easily with other, spicier notes. It is ideal in heated, spicy perfumes that feature leather, smoke, resins, and lighter aromatic notes like lavender and geranium. Patchouli’s exotic strength can be an acquired taste in perfume, but it’s many moods and blends make it an endlessly fascinating note to explore in the spicy end of the scent spectrum.

A versatile note of many facets, ambrette seed is musky and animalic, slightly fruity pear and floral powdery, iris-like. It is considered the best natural/non-synthetic alternative to musk. However, this note comes with a rather lavish price tag—relegating its usage to fine perfumery.

Fiercely bewitching and ever-narcotic, the scent of narcissus is renowned for a reason. Its heady, honeyed facets are both animalic and sweet. Rich, floral notes melt into fruity, green facets: the scent of spring liquefied.