Perfume glossary

Disclosure: We may earn a commission if you buy through links on this page. It does not change what we recommend. Affiliate Disclosure

Strength and format

• Parfum / extrait de parfum. The most concentrated common format.
• Eau de parfum (EDP). Usually less concentrated than parfum and more than eau de toilette.
• Eau de toilette (EDT). A lighter strength than eau de parfum.
• Eau de cologne (EDC). One of the lightest strengths.
• Eau fraîche / body mist. A very light format.
• Perfume oil. Fragrance in an oil carrier instead of alcohol, usually applied by roller or dab.
• Solid perfume. Fragrance in a wax or balm base.
• Tester. A bottle intended for in-store trial, sometimes sold without the retail box.
• Decant. A smaller amount poured from a full bottle into a sample vial or atomizer.

Strength names have no legal standard and vary by brand. See perfume concentrations.

Structure

• Note. A smell you can pick out, named after something familiar.
• Top, heart, and base notes. The first, middle, and longest-lasting layers.
• Accord. Several materials blended to create one new impression, like a chord in music.
• Dry down. How a perfume smells once the top notes have faded.
• Linear. A perfume that changes little from start to finish.
• Flanker. A new version of an existing perfume, often with "intense" or a season in the name.

How it wears

• Longevity. How long a scent remains noticeable on skin.
• Sillage. French for "wake". How far the scent travels around you.
• Projection. How strongly a scent radiates from your skin, especially early on.
• Skin scent. A perfume that sits very close to the body.
• Olfactory fatigue. When your nose stops noticing a smell it has been exposed to for a while.

Families and styles

• Floral, amber, woody, fresh. The four broad families.
• Chypre. Citrus top, floral heart, mossy woody base.
• Fougère. Lavender, coumarin, and moss.
• Gourmand. Edible-smelling notes such as vanilla, caramel, and coffee.
• Aldehydic. Featuring aldehydes, materials that can add a sparkling, soapy, or waxy lift.
• Powdery. Soft, dry, cosmetic-like, often from iris, violet, or certain musks.

Ingredients and labels

• Absolute. A concentrated plant extract made with solvents.
• Essential oil. A plant extract usually made by steam distillation or, for citrus, pressing.
• Synthetic (aroma chemical). A fragrance material made in a lab. Many modern perfumes rely on them.
• IFRA. The International Fragrance Association, which publishes industry safety Standards for fragrance materials.
• Parfum (on an ingredient list). The EU label term for the fragrance blend. In the US, the label usually says "fragrance".
• PAO symbol. An open jar with a number of months, used on EU labels to show how long a product keeps after opening.