Fragrances fit into different families according to their composition. Knowing a bit about these families will help you to decide which perfume is for you.

Most people will know that there are top, middle and base notes of fragrances. That is the initial scent of a fragrance, the settled scent and the lasting base scent which is what can be smelt after about an hour of putting on a fragrance and until the fragrance fades. Not as many people are aware that fragrances fall into one or more of five set families.

The Fragrance Families

The five main fragrance families for women's perfumes are floral, fruity, woody (or chypre), oriental and green. There are also many other families which have developed as perfumes have become more diverse and complex.

The Five Main Families

Floral: The most traditional and popular family. It can range from a linear scent of one flower such as in Yardley's English Rose or can be a veritable bouquet of flowers such as in Guerlain's Champs-Elysées. Florals are femenine and romantic and suitable for any age.

Fruity: Fruity fragrances are fresh and youthful. They can range from sweet concoctions like Yardley's Strawberry and Kiwi or fresh and cutting like the more citrus DKNY. Fruity fragrances are always more popular in summer.

Woody: Woody fragrances are more earthy and masculine and are an acquired taste. You either love them or hate them. They range from smoky to mossy and include scents such as patchouli, pine and sandalwood. An example of a floral woody fragrance is Miss Dior.

Oriental: Oriental scents are spicy, warming and exotic such as Guerlain's Mitsouko, which also sits within the floral and woody families.

Green: Green scents are those of cut grass and fresh leaves. An example is Elizabeth Arden's Fifth Avenue.

Further Families

Water or marine: Water scents are those redolent of ocean breezes or rainstorms.

Aldehydics: Aldehydics are synthetis. They first found their way into the perfume world when Coco Chanel requested that a perfume be made that was entirely synthetic. The result was Chanel No. 5

Tabacco / Leather: These fragrances smell exactly how they sound and, like woody scents, are more masculine and mature.

Fougère: This family is also quite masculine but is used in perfumes as well. The strongest notes will usually be lavender and oakmoss.

Scents will rarely fall into one family. There will usually be a cross over so you will be unlikely to find a pure fruity scent but very likely to find a floral/ fruity. Unlikely to find a woody scent but quite likely to find a woody/ oriental.

So What Was That About Top Notes?

Some scents are linear. That means that the same main scent runs all the way through the fragrance with no variations or buffers. Usual examples of linear scents are rose, lavender or magnolia perfumes. These fragrances are in the minority however and most scents have top, middle/ heart and base notes.

An example can be made of most perfumes, so to illustrate this we will look at Paris Hilton's Heiress. This is a fruity/ floral scent. The top notes of passion fruit, orange, peach granite and mimosa will be the scents smelt immediately upon spraying on the perfume. They will be the predominant scents for the first ten to 60 minutes. The middle or heart notes of jasmine, tiare flower, ylang ylang, honeysuckle, dewberry blossom and grenadine are the scents that will be most obvious after about an hour. The base notes of violet leaf, Tahitian tonka and blonde woods will be the last to be smelt and being the heaviest scents will be the ones you can still smell at the end of the day.

If you are still unsure what perfume would suit you then you may want to read this advice on choosing your signature scent.