Training your nose to detect scents in Perfume:

🔥

Training your nose is not just about smelling more bottles. It is about smelling with purpose.

Start with the basics first. Learn the families: citrus, woods, aromatics, florals, amber, musk, spice, green notes, incense, leather, and sweet notes. Don’t try to pick out every single note right away because that’s where people get frustrated.

The best thing I’ve found is using real-life references. Smell lemon peel, grapefruit peel, fresh basil, rosemary, coffee, cedar, leather, vanilla, incense, grass, pepper, and things like that. Then when you smell a fragrance, your brain has something real to connect it to.

Also, don’t judge a fragrance by the first spray. Smell the opening, then come back 30 minutes later, then again a few hours later. That’s how you start noticing transitions. A lot of fragrances smell one way in the opening and totally different in the drydown.

Side-by-side comparisons help a lot, too. Smell two fragrances in the same style and ask yourself which one is fresher, sweeter, woodier, cleaner, heavier, more natural, more synthetic, or smoother. You don’t have to be a master perfumer to notice differences.

And don’t overload your nose. After a few fragrances, your nose gets tired. Fresh air helps more than coffee beans, in my opinion.

The biggest thing is keeping it simple. Pick one note or one style at a time and build from there. Over time, you start recognizing patterns. You learn what real citrus smells like, what ambroxan does, what Iso E Super does, what clean musk smells like, what incense smells like, what cheap sweetness smells like, and what better blending smells like.

That’s how your nose gets better. Not by pretending you can smell 40 notes in every fragrance, but by building scent memory one piece at a time.

Buying small natural raw materials is one of the best ways to train your nose. You do not need huge bottles. Small samples are enough.

Good places to look are Eden Botanicals, The Perfumer’s Apprentice, Perfumer Supply House, Creating Perfume, and Pell Wall. The Perfumer’s Apprentice specifically notes that essential oils and absolutes are very strong and should usually be smelled diluted, often around 10% or even 1%

The best buys are small natural reference materials, not big expensive kits, safe beginner materials, and avoid putting on the skin.

Best beginner naturals

Citrus

Bergamot essential oil
Lemon essential oil
Grapefruit essential oil
Sweet orange essential oil

These teach you the difference between bright, sharp, juicy, bitter, and sparkling citrus.

Herbal/aromatic

Lavender
Rosemary
Basil
Clary sage
Peppermint or spearmint

This helps with fougères, barbershop scents, green freshies, and aromatic designer DNA.

Woods

Cedarwood
Vetiver
Patchouli
Sandalwood, but real sandalwood can be expensive

These help you understand dry woods, earthy woods, creamy woods, smoky woods, and dirty/clean patchouli.

Resins/incense

Frankincense
Myrrh
Benzoin
Labdanum

These are huge for amber, incense, churchy smoke, resinous warmth, and darker niche fragrances.

Florals

Rose absolute
Jasmine absolute
Orange blossom/neroli
Ylang-ylang

Florals matter even in men’s fragrances because they can add lift, powder, sweetness, or depth.

Vanilla / sweet

Vanilla absolute or vanilla CO2
Tonka absolute
Benzoin, again

This teaches the difference between true vanilla warmth and cheap syrupy sweetness.

For the best starter set, I’d get:

Bergamot, grapefruit, lavender, rosemary, cedarwood, vetiver, patchouli, frankincense, labdanum, benzoin, rose, jasmine, vanilla.

That gives you citrus, aromatic, woods, resin, floral, and sweet/amber references.

For training, smell them on blotters, cotton pads, or diluted in perfumer’s alcohol/DPG. The goal is learning the smell, not wearing them.

Best cheap method: buy 1 ml to 5 ml samples, label them, smell one or two per day, then compare them to perfumes you own. That will sharpen your nose fast.

I’d start with this 10-piece set:

Bergamot — citrus sparkle, Grapefruit — bitter fresh citrusLavender — aromatic/barbershop clean, Rosemary — herbal aromatic, Cedarwood — dry pencil-shaving wood, Vetiver — earthy smoky green wood, Patchouli — earthy woody dark base, Frankincense — incense/resin/church smoke, Labdanum — amber, resin, leathery sweetness, Benzoin — vanilla-like balsamic sweetness

Then add:

RoseJasmineVanilla

That gives you the backbone of a lot of men’s fragrance, niche, artisan, amber, incense, fougère, woody, and resinous scents.

Important

Do not buy “fragrance oils” for this purpose. Those are usually pre-made fantasy scents like “fresh linen,” “blue ocean,” or “designer type oil.” They can smell good, but they do not teach you what the actual raw materials smell like.

Search for:

essential oil, absolute, CO2 extract, resinoid, natural isolate, perfumery material.

For learning, use blotter strips or cotton swabs. Don’t put them directly on the skin.

The Perfumer’s Apprentice — easiest starter option

They sell a Natural Perfumery Beginner’s Kit with 15 small 4 ml bottles, including naturals like bergamot and other top/heart/base materials. This is probably the easiest “one order and start learning” option.

They also warn that these are undiluted natural essential oils/absolutes, not fragrance oils, and should often be smelled diluted to 10% or even 1% to understand them better.

1 gram natural + 9 grams perfumer’s alcohol = 10 grams total

That gives you a 10% dilution by weight. Use a scale with a tare.

Best place to start: The Perfumer’s Apprentice

They sell many raw materials, and some are already diluted to workable strength. They also explain that essential oils and absolutes are often very strong and should be evaluated at 10% or sometimes 1% dilution.

Search their site using terms like:

“10% in alcohol”“10% dilution”“diluted to 10%”“20% in alcohol”

Hope this helps. Any questions, just chat with me!!!

21 comments

Training your nose to detect scents in Perfume: