The notes glossary

What do fragrance notes smell like?

Notes are the building blocks of every perfume — the raw materials a perfumer stacks into top, heart and base layers. Tap any note to learn what it actually smells like, its role in a composition, and the fragrances in our collection built around it.

Top notes

The first impression

Heart notes

The character

Base notes

The lasting trail

Musk

3798 scents

Soft, warm and skin-like — clean and powdery in white musks, sensual and animalic in deeper ones.

Vanilla

3634 scents

Sweet, creamy and warm, with a soft balsamic, almost boozy depth — comfort in a bottle.

Amber

Amber

2591 scents

Soft, golden warmth — sweet resin, powder and a honeyed glow that hugs the skin.

Amber

Patchouli

2546 scents

Dark, earthy and damp — woody and a little sweet, with a chocolatey, head-shop richness when used heavily.

Woody

Sandalwood

2430 scents

Creamy, smooth and milky-woody, soft and a little sweet — the most luxurious of the woods.

Woody

Cedar

2078 scents

Dry, clean and pencil-shaving woody, with a faintly sharp, aromatic crispness.

Woody

Vetiver

1467 scents

Earthy, smoky and green-rooty — dry grass and damp soil with a cool, mineral edge.

Woody

Tonka Bean

1395 scents

Warm and sweet like vanilla crossed with almond, hay and a whisper of cinnamon and tobacco.

Amber

Incense

1120 scents

Smoky, resinous and meditative — dry, cool church-smoke with a peppery, lemony lift.

Oriental

Leather

1009 scents

Smoky, dry and animalic — from soft, sweet suede to tarry, smoke-cured hide.

Leather

Oud

965 scents

Deep, dense and complex — woody, smoky, leathery and faintly animalic, the most opulent of woods.

Woody

Oakmoss

662 scents

Deep, damp forest-floor green — earthy, slightly inky and bittersweet, like a rain-soaked wood.

Chypre

Tobacco

536 scents

Warm, dry and sweet — like a pipe pouch and honeyed pipe-smoke, with hay, leather and spice.

Leather

Ambroxan

390 scents

Dry, warm and ambery-woody with a clean, mineral, almost salty radiance.

Woody

Your nose, organized

Scan any bottle and N.O.S.E. learns which notes you love — then finds you more of them.

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