Somewhere between a blackberry, a strawberry, and a blackcurrant: the raspberry note has a decidedly berry-like nuance. It’s sweet as candy, and yet has a rather soft effect. This fruity note is most often found in feminine fragrances. Raspberry’s bright red, sugary smile is best in feminine scents, where it’s vivid juiciness can play off against heavy, full florals or warm spices like pink pepper, basil, etc. Raspberry is also a fantastic note in gourmand perfumes, as it naturally heightens anything with chocolate, caramel, vanilla, or coffee notes. Raspberry blends in best with other berry fruits like blackberry, strawberry, etc, but it can also shine as a contrast to green, dewy notes and earthier vetiver and oakmoss. Raspberry fragrances are just the ticket for spring and summer, and if they’re blended with aromatic spices, a lovely fall option as well.

Strawberry

Alluring, sensual, enticing… Musk is well-known for its aphrodisiac powers. Perfumers play with a myriad of synthetic musks to fix, blend and mold ingredients in a number of intoxicating accords. These notes are clean and transparent—lending a velvety, skinny effect. Musk notes in perfume used to be processed from the actual musk glands of animals to impart a gamey, warm, and sensual texture. But this practice is illegal in modern times, and nowadays musk notes in fragrance are entirely synthetic. Musk’s tangy aroma can range from sheer, metallic and bright to very animalic and even as intimate as the scent of warm, damp, human skin. Musk adds a sultry, sensual feel to demure feminine scents, as well as making masculine notes like tobacco and leather vividly expressive in cologne. For perfume fans who enjoy the alluring scent of warm, clean, skin - musk is a must-have note in fragrance.

Grapefruit’s juicy, zesty, and tart effervescence instantly refreshes any fragrance. It’s lip-smacking energy is a staple of both men’s and women’s perfumes, and it pairs well with nearly any other note in a scent, but is best blended with cedar, lilies, roses, oranges, limes, black or pink pepper and lotus flower. Grapefruit is naturally exuberant and will always leap out at first spray, inviting the wearer to experience its enthusiastic and playful personality. It’s also one of the most versatile notes in perfumery, and appropriate to wear in any season as a standalone scent or blended into citrus or floral fragrances.