From Plant to Perfume: Your Guide to Fresh Fragrances
There is no doubt that there is an art to creating the perfect fragrance. A perfumer is an artist in their own right, able to mix the right notes and scents to create a perfectly balanced perfume or aftershave. After all, making a perfume isn’t just about putting a liquid in a bottle and labelling it.
There are many different fragrance families to work with, with popular ones including floral, oriental and woody. However, some of the most underrated fragrance scents are those that use fresh notes.
Fresh fragrances can be broken down further depending on the ingredients used, with notes including fruity, green, water, citrus and aromatic. In our latest blog, we take a look at how to recognise these scents.
What is a fresh fragrance?
To put it simply, fresh perfumes and aftershaves are very uplifting and often smell clean. They are perfect choices for daytime wear, and are mostly available in eau de toilette which typically last around 4-7 hours on the skin.
However, more fresh fragrances in eau de parfum are becoming more popular, with a much stronger scent that can last into the night.
Fresh fragrances can refer to a number of different scents, depending on the notes used. With so many options, here’s how to find the right one for you.
Green notes
Green notes mostly consist of herbal and leafy notes, with a crisp and uplifting scent. Sometimes with an earthy, forest-like smell to them, green notes are the freshest you can get. They may sometimes cross over with slightly woody smells but as long as they are quite fresh and not too intense, you’re on the right track.
Notes like galbanum and violet leaf are perfect examples of green notes in fragrance. product- Rodriguez For Him is a great demonstration of this, with a heart of violet leaf and patchouli for a fresh burst.
Water notes
Aquatic notes in a fragrance can be quite evasive and mysterious, and are often created by bringing different notes together. Fragrances with marine-inspired smells are often designed to represent the sea, reminiscent of invigorating, salty sea spray. There aren’t specific water-based notes as such, but more of a fragrance composition.
You can often tell an aquatic fragrance by its name; Davidoff Cool Water and Tom Ford Neroli Portofino are two such examples of this. Inspired by the Italian Rivera, Neroli Portofino captures a cool breeze and sparkling clear water, with a citrus edge.
Citrus notes
Citrus notes are incredibly popular in both men and women’s fragrances, and are often used as top notes to open a perfume or aftershave. Zesty and refreshing, citrus notes are quite self-explanatory, with scents of bergamot, lemon, Mandarin orange, lime and grapefruit. Armani’s Acqua di Gio demonstrates nearly all of these scents in one!
Clean and easy to wear, citrus fragrances can be incredibly modern and work well with other fragrance families, including woody notes. Hugo Boss Bottled Tonic highlights this, with notes of grapefruit, bitter orange and lemon alongside ginger, cinnamon and geranium.
Aromatic notes
Finally, aromatic notes also fall under fresh fragrances. Aromatic notes include beautiful smelling herbs and plants like rosemary, basil, coriander and lavender. Refreshing and clean, aromatic notes are brilliantly scented that add a punch to any fragrance.
L’Eau d’Issey Pour Homme by Issey Miyake is a great example of a fresh, green fragrance with aromatic notes; created with tarragon, coriander and sage.
