Out of all our five senses, our sense of smell has the strongest connection to our emotions. Incoming information about the scents around us is processed through our hippocampus and amygdala, two parts of our brain that trigger our feelings and memories. Because scent is so important to how we feel and remember the world around us, it’s no surprise that we’ve developed such an attachment to it. Throughout thousands of years of our existence, what was once used as a survival skill has become an integral aspect of how we shop.
Smells can comfort energize and inspire us with the inclusion of pleasant scents in our everyday lives greatly impacting our moods. There are many smells within a fragrance that come together to create the complexity of fragrance, and they can be divided into top, middle, and bottom notes.
Top notes open your mind for what’s to come and are the first thing you smell. These notes often last the shortest amount of time before transitioning into the middle notes. The middle note of a fragrance blends the top and bottom. It is where the body of the fragrance comes from and is sometimes referred to as the heart note because of its important position in the center. It’s what provides the full odor of the fragrance. Finally bottom, or base notes, last the longest. This is the scent that remains when the top and middle notes have evaporated and left the last of the fragrance to be enjoyed.
The layered notes give fragrances their complexity.
Top notes are often bright and refreshing. Common top notes include citruses, fresh herbs, and light fruits. These scents are easy to pick up on first whiff. Middle notes are slightly more robust than top notes and help round out the fragrance. Common middle notes are often cinnamon, florals, or nuts. Bottom notes feature the richest and longest lasting scents. Woods, vanilla, and musk are common bottom notes.
Michael Edwards, a leading member in the perfume industry, created a comprehensive wheel of fragrances in 1992.
Floral fragrances include any scents derived naturally or synthetically from flowers–rose, gardenia, lily, cherry blossom…you name it! Because of the huge variety in flowers in the world, this category is incredibly broad. Each floral presents their own top, middle, and bottoms notes unique to themselves, which makes it easy to use them in a wide variety of applications. This category is commonly divided into subcategories of fresh florals and soft florals. Fresh floral fragrances invoke the smells of freshly cut or picked flowers. They are bright and cheerful. Soft florals on the other hand, include florals with sparkling and powdery elements derived from chemicals with these characteristics. These fragrances are classic and romantic.
The next category of fragrances, oriental (amber), is composed of rich and/or spicy scents. The fragrances in this category are derived from resin, spices and other materials commonly found across the continent of Asia. Amber fragrances are deeply rooted in history, as many of the first perfumes in the world were made using the components that make up this category. They are often defined as sensual or warm. Frankincense, dragons’ blood, and myrrh are all resinous fragrances in this family you may be familiar with. Additionally, spiced scents such as anise and cardamom are popular fragrances that belong to the amber family. This category transitions nicely into the next, as many fragrances such as sandalwood and patchouli fall in between the two.
The next category is wood fragrances. The fragrances in this family are warm, dry, and earthy. They can invoke reminders of densely wooded forests but also dry and leathery vetiver. As with all the fragrance families, there are many subcategories that distinguish woody fragrances from one another. Some notable subcategories include dry, mossy, and aromatic woods, each of them featuring unique top, middle, and bottom notes that set them apart despite all being wood or earth based. Dry woods contain cedar and pine fragrances, whereas mossy woods represent the “greener” side of woody fragrances with notes of fern and even citrus. These fragrances are most often considered more masculine, but there’s no limit to how they can be used in your fragranced products.
The final general fragrance category is fresh fragrances. The fragrances in this category bridge the gap between woods and florals and all share notable “fresh” characteristics. It features any fragrance that is crisp and clean, which can include citruses, oceanics, and greens. The citruses in this category can be sweet or bitter, containing lemon, orange and even lime fragrances. Aquatic fragrances are another subcategory within this family that contains fragrances reminiscent of ozone, fresh rain, and the beach. Green fragrances, as we mentioned a moment ago, include leaves, freshly cut grass, and clean smelling plants that are not considered woody.
Gourmand, otherwise known as food like fragrances, include candy or dessert scents that can be sweet or milky like buttercream. This category is placed in different sections depending on the particular fragrance wheel being used but often shares notes with fresh or amber fragrances.
For thousands of years, humans have been trying to mask unpleasant smells and add a pleasing aroma to their surroundings. Historically, various perfumes, herbs and smoke were used to distribute fragrance in rooms and buildings. It wasn’t until World War II that the aerosol spray cans, we are familiar with came into public use. They were based off a pesticide delivery system developed by the military and adapted for use with fragrances and air freshening chemicals in homes after the war.
There are many ways that air fresheners can be categorized, but the broadest way they are defined is as oil-based, cut oil based, and water based.
The final type of air freshener is water based. Because most fragrances are oil based, they cannot be added to water without separating. To allow the two to emulsify, a surfactant must be added to the oil before being blended with water. This surfactant allows the oil fragrance to be mixed with water without separating and is usually 30% fragrance oil and 70% surfactant.
Individuals use air fresheners to enhance their personal space–homes, cars, and offices are all places you can use air freshener. In 2017, individual consumers accounted for the largest contribution to the air freshener market. Enterprises use air fresheners to improve the atmosphere in office spaces, retail stores, hotel chains, government buildings, hospitals, and many more. Additionally, because of the seasonal nature of different fragrances, air fresheners can be seasonally marketed. Keep in mind that certain scents will be popular during different times of the year.