Exploring Fragrance Families: Finding Your Signature Scent

There are four main fragrance families: floral, oriental, woody, and fresh. Each family has its own distinctive characteristics, and individuals will often gravitate towards one family over another when choosing a personal fragrance. To find your favourite fragrance family, you can use the fragrance wheel, which makes it easier to identify the scents you like. You can also select three fragrance sub-families that create a triangle on the fragrance wheel, which will complement each other nicely. For example, if you know you like floral oriental notes, look for a scent that contains mossy and water notes.

Common fragrance families

There are four main fragrance families: floral, oriental, woody and fresh. Each of these has its own subfamilies and distinctive characteristics. For example, floral scents often feature notes of rose, jasmine or lily, while woody fragrances may incorporate cedar, sandalwood or patchouli.

Understanding these families and their typical characteristics will help you identify the types of scents you're naturally drawn to. You can then use this knowledge to guide your fragrance sampling process.

Some more modern and sophisticated fragrance families include chypre, gourmand and fougère. Other fragrance houses group their fragrances into families such as citrus, fruity, green/herbal and fresh.

Once you've discovered which fragrance family you want to wear, the fragrance wheel makes it easier to identify the scents you like so you can source your next favourite fragrance.

How to identify your favourite fragrance family

There are several fragrance families, including floral, oriental, woody, fresh, citrus, and aromatic. Each family has a distinct set of factors that helps to tell them apart. For example, floral scents often feature notes of rose, jasmine, or lily, while woody fragrances may incorporate cedar, sandalwood, or patchouli. Understanding these families and their typical characteristics will help you identify the types of scents you're naturally drawn to.

You can use a fragrance wheel to help you identify the scents you like. The four main types are warm, woody, oriental, and fresh, with each effect brought out by different combinations of fragrances. Fresh scents, like Davidoff Cool Water, generally rely on aquatic and citrus notes, whereas warm scents like DKNY’s Be Delicious use more florals and juicy fruit scents.

You can also take a perfume quiz to help narrow down your fragrance options. These can be a fun and helpful way to learn about the key notes associated with each fragrance family.

How to distinguish between different fragrance families

There are several fragrance families, including floral, oriental, woody, fresh, citrus, and aromatic. Each family has a distinct set of factors that helps to tell them apart. For example, floral scents often feature notes of rose, jasmine, or lily, while woody fragrances may incorporate cedar, sandalwood, or patchouli.

To distinguish between different fragrance families, it is important to understand the different scent families that every scent is based on. The four main types are warm, woody, oriental, and fresh, with each effect brought out by different combinations of fragrances. Fresh scents, like Davidoff Cool Water, generally rely on aquatic and citrus notes, whereas warm scents like DKNY’s Be Delicious use more florals and juicy fruit scents.

Once you have discovered which fragrance family you want to wear, you can use a fragrance wheel to identify the scents you like. You can also take a perfume quiz to help narrow down your fragrance options.

Another way to distinguish between fragrance families is to learn about the key notes associated with each family. This will help you identify the types of scents you are naturally drawn to and guide your fragrance sampling process.

How to discover new fragrance families

Discovering new fragrance families is a great way to find your favourite scent. Fragrance families are a way of classifying scents into olfactory groups, with each family having a distinct set of factors that helps to tell them apart.

The first step to discovering new fragrance families is to understand the different scent families that every scent is based on. The four main types are warm, woody, oriental and fresh, with each effect brought out by different combinations of fragrances. For example, fresh scents generally rely on aquatic and citrus notes, whereas warm scents use more florals and juicy fruit scents.

Once you've identified the fragrance family you want to wear, a fragrance wheel can make it easier to identify the scents you like so you can source your next favourite fragrance. You can also take a perfume quiz to help narrow down your fragrance options.

To discover new fragrance families, it's helpful to know which family you are attracted to. While most products aren't labelled with the scent family, you should be able to find out which perfume ingredients make up the fragrance. You can also learn about the key notes associated with each fragrance family. For example, floral scents often feature notes of rose, jasmine, or lily, while woody fragrances may incorporate cedar, sandalwood, or patchouli. Understanding these families and their typical characteristics will help you identify the types of scents you're naturally drawn to and guide your fragrance sampling process.

How to find your signature scent

Finding your signature scent can be a tricky business, but fragrance families can help you distinguish between different scents, discover new ones and pin down your favourites.

A fragrance family is a way of classifying scents into olfactory groups. Each family has a distinct set of factors that help to tell them apart and make it easier for perfumers to layer scents. Common fragrance families include floral, oriental, woody, fresh, citrus, and aromatic, among others. Understanding these families and their typical characteristics will help you identify the types of scents you're naturally drawn to and guide your fragrance sampling process.

For example, floral scents often feature notes of rose, jasmine, or lily, while woody fragrances may incorporate cedar, sandalwood, or patchouli. Fresh scents, like Davidoff Cool Water, generally rely on aquatic and citrus notes, whereas warm scents like DKNY’s Be Delicious use more florals and juicy fruit scents.

Once you’ve discovered which fragrance family you want to wear, the fragrance wheel makes it easier to identify the scents you like so you can source your next favourite fragrance. You can also take a perfume quiz to help narrow down your fragrance options.

Frequently asked questions