Perfume Classification and Notes
Welcome to RHR Luxury and the world of Luxury Home Fragrance.
Our Scent Collections are a practical way to organize our fragrance formulas into families of scents. These scents have an aromatic profile in common, such as the so-called White Flowers or Green perfumes.
But in classic perfumery, specifically French haute-parfumerie, perfumes are traditionally arranged according to a Fragrance Wheel. Our scents are not only arranged in families of scents, but they also follow the principles outlined in a Fragrance Wheel.
This growing list explains the profiles in a Fragrance Wheel. It is an educational and informational tool to help you pick and familiarize yourself with your favorite aromatic profiles. Over time, it will become easier to identify an aromatic profile and look for its infinite variations.
The world of Luxury Home Fragrance is vast. Luxury candles, luxury diffusers, and other functional fragrance vehicles have entered the mainstream. But what sets one candle or a diffuser apart is the fragrance's strength, diffusion, and stability over time as the product's life cycle continues. Establishing a core aromatic profile before constructing a fragrance helps define its core functional raw materials, and for that, RHR Luxury follows the principles of classical and high perfumery.
Here are the aromatic profiles found in our scents:
- Chypre: A traditional aromatic profile that is warm and dry, built around components like bergamot, oakmoss, patchouli, and labdanum or cistus. The word is French for Cyprus, an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean.
- Fougère: French for "fern," a fine perfumery aromatic profile usually built around bergamot, lavender, and oakmoss. A fougère luxury candle will smell green, mossy, and fresh.
- Leather aromatic profile: A fine perfumery composition that includes accords reminiscent of leather hides and the smell of tanneries. Usually achieved by combining synthesized materials like quinolines but sometimes also achieved by combining different materials of P&N (Pure & Natural) origin like birch tar, cadé oil, styrax, and other resins. The materials used in our leather compositions include both, although our synthesized materials are isolates of vegetable origin, like resins, seeds, and woods. It is a great scent profile for a winter luxury candle.
- Green aromatic profile: A fine perfumery classification where most ingredients are derived from herbs, trees, and flowers that render intensely leafy, grassy raw materials. Some materials that reinforce a green fragrance include galbanum, rosemary, and tomato leaves.
- White floral or white flowers: In perfumery, it is a classification for all white flowers that exude strong perfume, particularly at night. White and with reduced visibility, these flowers rely on their stronger volatile concentration to attract pollinators. Sometimes, other flowers that are not necessarily white are included in this classification due to their strong perfume, but white flowers usually mean jasmine, tuberose, orange blossoms, lilies, white roses, peonies, and freesia. It is a very popular aromatic profile in Luxury Home Fragrance.
- Narcotic: a subclassification of florals to describe heady, strong floral fragrances usually built overdosing amber and musk at the base. Narcissus, daffodil, tuberose, and some types of jasmine are all considered narcotic flowers. Particularly stronger than white flowers, sometimes not so popular as cut flowers but popular in gardens and greenhouses. Difficult to achieve in candles due to the concentration of materials needed, but RHR Luxury offers wonderful narcotic Azahares and Tuberose Mexicana that pack a punch!
Gourmand: This scent has a pleasing aromatic profile that recalls edibles. Our candle Siesta includes our in-house reconstitutions of fruit aromas and flavors paired with other ingredients of P&N (Pure & Natural) origin.
- Citrus aromatic profile: A fresh, zesty combination of different raw materials of the citrus family, usually with a significant content of essential oils and isolates derived from the peel, leaves, and young branches of lemon, lime, bergamot, orange, and clementine. Sometimes grapefruit or citron oils are included for bitter effects, or blood orange and mandarine for sweeter effects. Citrus profiles are further softened or rounded with floral or agrestic accords like jasmine, Neroli, hay, grass, and fern. It is very popular in luxury candles.
- Eau de Cologne aromatic profile: Eau de Cologne, French for the German Kölnisch Wasser, literally "Water from Cologne," was a perfumed water created in the German town of Cologne and launched for the first time in 1709 by Johann Maria Farina, at a 2% to 5% dilution of perfume oil into water and alcohol. Usually, with a high content of essential oils versus synthetics, it became a category marketed to men as "cologne." Its main components are usually citrus and lavender oil, but sometimes includes herbs and spices. Its typically fresh, crisp, aromatic profile makes it very popular and genderless, much akin to its original intended purpose when launched in the XVIII Century. Our blend remains loyal to the true aromatic profile, but the concentration in our candle oscillates between 10% and 12%.
- Amber aromatic profile: Amber is a fantasy perfumery profile that has regained popularity among niche fragrance enthusiasts. For decades, it was associated with everything "Oriental," it has evolved from a perfumery accord into a perfumery classification on its own. Inspired by the beauty of fossilized amber and the unique nuances of ambergris, amber as an accord attempts to reproduce what real amber would or could smell like. Usually built with materials like labdanum, benzoin, vanilla, and various citrus accents, a trained perfumer would develop their amber bases to use in different formulations, aiming at specific results. As such, an amber base used for a floral composition may differ from another used in a woodsy or spice formula. Most of our candle and diffuser formulas contain an amber accord, whether sourced directly from our suppliers or created in-house.