Guides · January 12, 2026 · 7 min read
How to choose a perfume you will actually wear
A practical method for picking a fragrance from thousands of bottles — starting with the two questions that eliminate most of them.
Read the guideThe Journal
Fragrance, explained
Practical writing about perfumery — how the families differ, what the labels mean, how to make a scent last, and how to find one that suits you. Every guide links straight through to the houses that do it best.
Fragrance 101 · 9 min
The fragrance families explained
Citrus, floral, woody, amber, gourmand, fougère, aquatic and chypre — what each family is built from, and when to wear it.
Read moreFragrance 101 · 6 min
Eau de toilette, eau de parfum, extrait: concentrations explained
What the label actually tells you about strength, longevity and price — and which concentration to buy for which use.
Read moreHow to · 5 min
How to make your perfume last longer
Longevity is mostly about skin, storage and where you spray — nine changes that work better than spraying more.
Read moreIngredients · 6 min
Oud explained: what it is and how to wear it
Agarwood is the most expensive raw material in perfumery. Here is where it comes from, why it smells the way it does, and how to start.
Read moreGuides · 6 min
Building a fragrance wardrobe on any budget
Five slots, in the order worth filling them, plus how to use testers, sets and wholesale pricing to fill them for less.
Read moreThe scent families
Every family we carry, with the raw materials behind it and when to wear it. Each brand page carries the same guides for the families that house specialises in.
Fresh Citrus
Bright, clean and immediate
Citrus fragrances open on cold-pressed peel oils — bergamot, lemon, mandarin, grapefruit, neroli — which give an instant lift the moment the spray lands. They are the most legible perfumes on skin: nobody has to work out what they are smelling.
Bergamot · Lemon · Mandarin · Grapefruit · Neroli
Floral
The widest family in perfumery
Floral covers everything from a single-note soliflore to dense bouquets. Rose and jasmine are the two pillars — rose can read jammy, green, spiced or metallic depending on the extraction, while jasmine brings an indolic, almost animalic warmth that makes a bouquet feel alive.
Rose · Jasmine · Tuberose · Iris · Peony
Woody & Oud
Resinous, dry and long-lasting
Woods are the backbone of long-wearing perfumery: sandalwood is creamy and milky, cedar is dry and pencil-sharp, vetiver is earthy and smoky, and patchouli sits between damp soil and dark chocolate. They cling to skin and fabric, so they last longer than anything else in a formula.
Oud · Sandalwood · Cedarwood · Vetiver · Patchouli
Amber & Spice
Warm, resinous, opulent
Often labelled oriental, this family is built on resins and balsams — labdanum, benzoin, myrrh, tonka — lit up by warm spices such as cinnamon, cardamom, clove and pink pepper. The effect is enveloping rather than sharp.
Amber · Labdanum · Benzoin · Tonka bean · Cinnamon
Gourmand
Edible, comforting, addictive
Gourmands borrow from the kitchen: vanilla, caramel, praline, coffee, cocoa, almond and honey. Ethyl maltol — the molecule behind cotton candy — gave the family its modern shape, and it is still the reason a gourmand can read sweet from several steps away.
Vanilla · Tonka bean · Caramel · Praline · Coffee
Aromatic & Fougère
Herbal, barbershop-clean
Fougère means fern, though no fern is involved: the accord is lavender over coumarin and mossy woods, and it has defined masculine perfumery since the 1880s. Aromatic variations add rosemary, sage, mint, basil or juniper.
Lavender · Coumarin · Rosemary · Sage · Mint
Aquatic & Fresh
Airy, saline, weightless
Aquatics were built on synthetics — calone and its relatives — that suggest sea air, wet stone and melon rind. They smell of space and light rather than of any single ingredient, which is why they feel modern and unobtrusive.
Sea salt · Calone · Melon · Cucumber · Driftwood
Chypre & Mossy
Bitter-green, elegant, structured
A chypre is an architecture, not an ingredient: citrus at the top, floral heart, and a base of oakmoss, labdanum and patchouli. The result is dry, slightly bitter and unmistakably grown-up.
Oakmoss · Patchouli · Labdanum · Bergamot · Galbanum
Signature Blends
House compositions that cross families
Some perfumes refuse a single label: a rose over coffee and oud, or a salty citrus laid on vanilla. We file these as signature blends rather than force them into one family.
Rose · Oud · Vanilla · Musk · Spice