Smell - Think - Write
Putting Words to Scent
Putting language to scent, writing about & describing scent materials is incredibly important. These questions below are meant to inspire the self-taught perfumer. To encourage the self-taught perfumer to be more exact with their thoughts and craft a unique, personal relationship with their materials.
TEXTURE
What is the texture of this scent material? Thick and round, or think and sharp?
● Fatty oil round, bright and sharp
● waxy or sharp waxy, fatty transparent
● Thin or sharp thin powerful
● soapy clean, bright bubbly champagne
● Texture middle, not sharp and not waxy
● Dry woody texture
● Sandy, dusty texture
THICK, THIN, TRANSPARENT
How transparent is this material?
● transparent fatty transparent gummy sweet transparent woody warm
● Transparent oily sweet, semi-transparent woody
BRIGHTNESS
How is the brightness?
Is this material bright or dark?
● Bright and sharp like lemon or mint
● Bright and sharp, sweet
● Bright and diffusive - powerful like aldehydes
● Bright and spicy or bright and herbal
● Bright and woody
● Or Dark and deep and resinous like oud or vetiver
● Dark and sweet
● Dark and bitter
● Dark and sulphur/animal (cumin)
● Dark and smokey
● Dark and woody
TEMPERATURE
How hot or cold is this material?
● Cool like mint cool herbs (lavender or rosemary)
● cool aquatic cool ozone
● cool citrus floral (ylang) cool green grass, plant materials
● Cool bitter tea cool powdery green
● Cool earthy cool rooty
● Hot and spicy warm spicy woody
● Spicy floral (carnation) spicy edible sweet
WET OR DRY?
Is this material Wet or Dry?
● water fishy or seaweed
● ozone wet earth + rooty
● wet earth smells like rain
POWDERS?
Does this material smell powdery in its texture?
● powdery tiny molecules powdery, woody-spicy
● powdery large molecules, granular (little pieces of sand?)
● powdery and floral powdery and sweet
● powdery and woody
SWEET
Is this material sweet?
● Slightly sweet Extremely sweet
● Sweet citrus, sweet fruity
● Sweet smoky sweet, buttery
● Sweet candy sweet jammy and berries
● Sweet powdery dry sweet resinous
● Sweet spicy resin thick sweet deep honey balsamic
DRY (As in opposite to sweet)
Is this material dry and not sweet at all?
● Slightly dry, Or extremely dry
● Dry woody tart citrus
● Dry cedar
● Dry, not waxy and milky at all
● Dry powdery or sandy in texture
● Dry tart green
● Sweet spicy resin thick sweet deep honey balsamic
WAXY
Is this material waxy, powdery or oily at all?
● Waxy oily
● Waxy buttery
● Waxy, fatty animalic leather
● Waxy milky
● Waxy smooth woody
● Waxy plant like, green waxy
● Waxy sweet, plastic like
● Waxy, citrus smoky
FLORAL
Is this material floral?
● Floral fruity
● Floral rose
● Floral jasmine
● Floral lychee, appricot or peach
● Floral milky fruity
● Floral spicy warm
● Floral balsamic
● Floral vanilla
● Floral powdery
FRUITY
Is this material fruity?
● fruity citrus fruity apple green
● Fruity apple red fruity pear
● Fruity lychee rose, fruity waxy rose
● fruity sharp nail polish Fruity floral (like jasmine)
● fruity green aquatic melon, fruity waxy melon
● fruity tropical fruity dry leather fruits and tobacco
● Fruity cassis - dark berries, bitter fruity leathery (like osmanthus)
SOUR
Is this material sour?
● Sour citrus? Sour bitter pithy? (like grapefruit)
● Sour lemon or lime? Sour watery, delicious mouth watering
● Sour citric? Scratchy and unpleasant like lemon grass or bug repellent?
CITRUS
Is this material citrus-like?
● Bright, lemon-like citrus, bitter, stemmy woody
● Green conifer and limes bitter/sweet citrus peppery
● Sweet orange or blood orange candy-like citrus lavender
● Citrus and flowers citrus aquatic transparent
● Citrus and sweet citrus transparent
● Citrus bitter, tart citrus waxy green
● Citrus green grass citrus green soft
COOL
Is this material cool?
● Green pepper green cut grass
● Citrus pithy grapefruit citrus bright citrus sweet
● Cool minty herb cool green aquatic cold ozone
fresh
● Pine fresh green pine cedary pine sweet
● Light bright herbal light herbal chemical herbal grapes
Herbal salty herbal floral (like lavender) herbal lemon
GREEN
Is this material green?
● Green-like cut grass, sharp soft round green, soft waxy
● Green sharp cut bell peppers conifer pine tree green
● Green stems green powdery violets
● Green tart rhubarb green sweet
● Green transparent waxy soft green aquatics florals
● green fruity tropical pear green salty spicy-like cardamom
● Green bitter citrus green fresh aquatic
● Green dry tart green sweet resin
PINE FOREST
Is this material conifer forest or pine-like?
● Evergreen resinous thin pine, bright and sharp
● Bright pine, thick pine, round and sweet
● Sweet pine, green pine, and cedar wood clear, bright wood
● Lemon and pine sharp boozy, peppery
● Limes and pine and aquatics, dark waters forest floor
● Peppers and pine earthy piney
● Piney medicinal (like myrrh)
ANIMAL MUSK
Is this material musky?
● like poop ouddy, animal woody
● like urine sweet urine or honey
● Like wet animal hair like dirty bird cages
● Fishy blue cheese
● Human sweat like farm animals, horses and goats
WOODY
Is this material woody?
● A bright, clean fresh wood a bright terpenic wood - piney
● woody musky animalic woody, buttery, like sandalwood
● Woody butter smoky (guaiac wood) woody leather
● Woody rooty clean woody rooty smoky (Java vetiver)
HONEY
Is this material honey-like?
● Honey medicine bitter honey balsamic dark honey figs
● Honey tobacco honey suede/leather honey dark woody
● Medicinal myrrh bright dusty medicinal
EARTHY
Is this material earthy?
● Earthy spicy, earthy musky animal
● Earthy woody, earthy spicy animal
● Earthy leather, earthy and sweet
● Earthy suede earthy and bitter
● Searthy smokey, earthy sweet bbq
● Earthy green earthy chocolate
● Earthy wet earthy damp forest
● Earthy aquatic/fishy earthy mushroom
● Mushroom earthy cool earthy spicy sweet complex