first.sniffin Learning to Smell · Exeter ·
QuestionHow do I work out which scent family is mine?
Total beginner. Everyone here seems to know whether they're woody or floral or whatever. How did you work out which family you like?
first.sniffin Learning to Smell · Exeter ·
QuestionTotal beginner. Everyone here seems to know whether they're woody or floral or whatever. How did you work out which family you like?
8 comments
nell.wattle
Okay, nerd moment: there isn't one official list. The French perfumers' society uses seven families, which is what the club's Class on the seven fragrance families follows, while Michael Edwards' fragrance wheel gets by with four in its 2010 version: Floral, Amber, Woody and Fresh. Rant over.
joon.yuzu
TL;DR: smell first, sort later. My spreadsheet has a family column I fill in after the three words, and after a few weeks one family had twice the rows of any other. That's my two cents.
ingrid_berlin
Notice what you keep going back to. For me it was orris and powder. I wore it since five years before I knew the word. /Ingrid
mel_from_adelaide
Once you've got a family in mind, this guide to choosing a perfume by scent family, with a way to test them on skin covers the next step: trying it on, by season and by budget.
first.sniff
Weirdly reassuring. So I just smell loads and see where I end up?
ash.and.ember
Pretty much. Smoke, birch, leather, in that order for me. I worked it out by noticing what I never get tired of.
aroha.rain
Mine was the bush after rain, so woody and mossy. Its usually the thing you already go looking for
first.sniff
Right, starting a page per smell and seeing which family fills up first.