Bergamot’s sheer, dry, citrusy feel is one of the most popular perfume notes, especially in mens’ cologne. It’s a Mediterranean fruit grown mainly in Calabria, Italy, and its aroma and taste is slightly between grapefruit and orange. Bergamot is a year-round pleasure to wear, and will blend well with any other note, making bergamot fragrances versatile and a sophisticated option for citrus fragrance fans.

Vetiver is a profoundly earthy note with dry, woody facets that recall a soft, smoky warmth. It is an intense, grounding scent with surprising undertones of mildew and even grapefruit. For the perfume fan that loves the earthy smell of the woods, nothing beats vetiver. Vetiver is grass whose roots create a smoky, mossy, mineral scent when distilled. It is one of the most complex ingredients found in fragrance, with over 150 separate aromatic compounds, and it also acts as one of the best fixatives available to perfumers, which accounts for its frequent presence in fragrance. There’s also nothing quite like the scent of vetiver. It’s both immediate and ancient, with a similar smell to the soft earth of virgin forests.

Fresh, airy and slightly woody, palisander rosewood has a distinctly smooth, velvety scent sometimes used as a base note in perfumery. Its unique undertones are both floral and fruity—comparable to the soft scent of freesia.