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.

Plum adds a velvety-smooth facet to both masculine and feminine fragrances. Often found delighting the olfactory palette of fine compositions, plum is deliciously floral and fruity, with a curious liqueur nuance. A note of sweet “cooked plum” is found in some fragrances, including interior fragrances. It's dark, silky sweetness is an excellent choice for night-time fragrance wear. It’s sensual, unusual, and very sophisticated - plus it pairs well with either light floral notes or deep spices, resins, and leather to make an intense olfactory statement. It’s rich, spicy-sweet juice is best with pears, pineapple, strawberry, raspberry, and blackberry fruit to maximize it’s dark appeal. It is also very good with fig, ginger, green notes, and full, buttery jasmine scents. Plum perfumes are best for evening scents during the winter and fall.

Jasmine is the ultimate aphrodisiac in perfume. It is the most intimate, sexy, gorgeous, and sensually appetizing of all the major white floral notes. Jasmine’s buttery, silky, vanilla-and-heated skin aroma is found everywhere in perfume, in both men’s and women’s scents. It’s incredible versatility is hard to match: it can soar on its own, or be artfully blended into the background, to provide a dangerous growl to an simple, demure floral bouquet. It’s also one of the most popular notes, especially in women’s perfume, so if you enjoy jasmine’s torrid sensuality, you can build a devastating fragrance collection in no time.

Orchid notes in a fragrance are sweet and powdery, and have the classic feel of iris. Heavier than peonies, and not as candy-sweet as freesia, orchids provide a floral complexity to bouquet fragrances, and are excellent companions for rose, freesia, jasmine, peony, and lily notes. Orchid is a scent that’s ideal for fall, winter and spring, but perhaps too intense for lighter summer wear. If throwback drama and classic sophistication are an important part of your style profile, orchid fragrances are an excellent option.