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.

Cassis

Citrusy-sweet, brightly acidic orange oil adds a happy Vitamin C overload to any fragrance. Orange is also the ultimate team player in perfume: it will go with anything as its many different forms can blend well. Mandarin orange, green mandarin, bitter orange, blood orange, Sicilian orange are all variations on this juicy, joyous note. Sweeter notes like mandarin and blood orange work best with florals and spices, while bitter orange, green mandarin, and Sicilian orange are fantastic with aromatics like basil, nutmeg, etc. Orange’s cheerful energy, no matter if it’s sweet, bitter, or spicy, is wearable year-round without hesitation.

The bedrock of perfumery, roses are inextricably linked to the fragrances we’ve come to know and love. In fact, rose comprises more than 400 known constituents, with a variety of reconstructions across every price point. Its scent is powerful and rich, with floral and fruity facets of contrast: sweet yet spicy, green yet honeyed. Rose is often described as a feminine note with floral, powdery facets. Roses in perfume - it gets no more classic, no more romantic, and no more legendary than this. Rose notes are THE most versatile, and paradoxically, the hardest notes in perfume to obtain. It takes nearly a warehouse full of rose petals to distill enough oil to add their hypnotic scent to a perfume.Rose can be icy, full, velvety, silky, candy-sweet, dark, airy - there’s a rose scent for any mood you’ll ever experience. Rose notes go with any other note, style, and texture of fragrance - they blend in a scent better than any other material. And of course, a rose perfume is NEVER out of style, or season - her majesty is welcomed everywhere. If you have only one perfume in your collection, make it a rose fragrance.