Water lilies infuse a fragrance with a limpid, dewy, and pale green halo that’s airy and mysterious. Water lilies are one of the lightest floral notes in perfume, and they shine brightest when featured with other light, dewy, florals like lotus flower, muguet, peonies, and lily-of-the-valley. Water lilies also blend nicely with violet, freesia, and other powdery soft notes. To get the most from a water lily scent, wear them in spring, right after a downpour, and let their watery, fairy-tale essence transport you to a hidden, blooming garden.

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.

Woods

A paragon of freshness: Violet leaves give to fragrances a watery freshness likened to cucumbers or cut grass. Quite dissimilar to the scent of violet flowers, violet leaves possess intensely green nuances with subtler floral notes.