Accord- The scent that comes from combining 2 or more fragrant ingredients, often the mixture will trigger a reflection of another scent like coffee, grass, fruit, flowers, woods that was not present in the initial ingredients alone.
Amber- The historic base for Oriental perfumes, also known as ambers, that characteristically include vanilla and labdanum.
Anosmia- Absence or loss of the sense of smell.
Base- The longest lasting group in a fragrance. Everything is built on top and it is what you will smell for the full length of your fragrance.
Chypre- Pronounced sheep-rah from the French for Cyprus, is a group of perfumes named after the 1917 fragrance from Coty, Chypre. It usually contains a base of oak moss, labdanum, patchouli and bergamot.
Decant- an amount decanted from the original bottle into another vessel, can be poured or sprayed.
EdC- Eau de Cologne is the lightest amount of fragrant ingredients in the highest amount of dilution. Literally Water of, German town, Koln (Cologne in English). Percentages differ wildly.
EdP- Eau de Parfum is the highest concentrate Eau. Percentages differ wildly.
EdT- Eau de Toilette is the most common concentration of fragrance, in the middle of EdC and EdP. Percentages differ wildly.
Extrait- Extract is perfume in its most concentrated form. Often called simply Parfum.
FB/FBW- Full Bottle Worthy
FFF- Facebook Fragrance Friends a closed group of frag fanatics that chat, swap, split and generally adore fragrance.
Fougere- Pronounced Foo-J/Z-air and means “fern-like”, is one of the main families in which perfumes are classified with a basic accord of Lavender, Oakmoss and Coumarin named from Houbigant’s Fougère Royale by perfumer Paul Paquet.
Hermes- Pronounced Air-Mez, are legendary saddle makers turned luxury brand, one of the few that still stand alone from the conglomerates.
Maceration- When all the ingredients are mixed together maceration is the chemical process during maturation.
Maturation- The time it takes the finished product to blend into the perfume we smell.
Musk- From Sanskrit muṣká which means testicle. Originally to obtain musk the deer was killed and its musk pod or musk gland removed, dried and the resulting grain like substance mixed in alcohol and left to brew. Now there are synthetic musks.
Nose- The perfumer
GMO- genetically modified organisms as in GMO free.
Opoponax- brown sugary, honeyed and resinous scent ingredient
Sillage- pronounced say-yarsh meaning scent circumference, how close or far people need to be to smell you. Lots of sillage or big sillage means they can smell you across the room, or continent.
Soliflor- the smell of a single flower, be it rose, iris, lily of the valley, orange blossom, whatever. Usually much, much more goes into the composition to give the picture of that flower and sometimes it may not contain a single drop of anything from said flower. In this case it is the scent of, not derived from, although it can be both.
SOTD- Scent Of The Day
SOTE- Scent Of The Evening
SOTN- Scent Of The Night
Split- when one person buys a full bottle and decants and sends excess to other people. Usually in 5ml, 10ml or 20ml lots. This cuts down the cost of owning the fragrance and as collectors how many 100ml bottles do we really need?
Tonka Bean- spicy, resinous, vanilla scent ingredient
TSO- The Significant Other
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