notes and materials

Perfume Classification: Fougère

by Aubrey Allison
fern illustration
Autumn ferns (1887) chromolithograph art by Ellen T. Fisher. Original public domain image from the Library of Congress. Digitally enhanced.

Fougères are a category of perfume that, for a long time, I found hard to wrap my head around. The name means “fern,” but ferns are not an aromatic scent material and fougère perfumes are not, exactly, leafy green scents. I associate the fougère smell with traditionally masculine scents like shaving cream, men’s deodorant, and barbershop products.

The original fougère, Houbigant’s Fougère Royale (1882) revolutionized modern perfumery because it was the first perfume to use a synthetic molecule: coumarin, synthesized from tonka beans. Coumarin is soft and powdery-sweet, somewhat vanillic, but with a grassy-herby undertone like mown hay.

Fougère Royale centered on coumarin, lavender, and oakmoss. It’s powder-fresh and dewy-sweet, with a grassy-herby quality like freshly cut hay.

The duo of coumarin and lavender is generally considered to be the signature of a fougère. They often also contain geranium, oakmoss, vetiver, bergamot, and other woody, spicy, or herby notes.

five perfume samples

Some of my favorite fougères include:

Mousse Illuminee, Rogue Perfumery
Bitter, soapy, green. Treemoss is the star, with laurel leaf, cedar, and cypress. A great “masculine” scent, and a categorical example of a fougère.

Noisette, Maison d’Etto
A lavender orris fougère. The addition of orris adds a gentle earthiness. This scent is fresh, peaceful, and grounded. Its personality is calm and quiet, with a rich inner life.

Caron Pour un Homme, Caron
Is this a fougère? It centers on coumarin and lavender, but is less green-woody and more vanilla-lavender. Sweet and soft. I sometimes find it to smell a little oily, but that doesn’t keep me from loving it.

Sleight of Fern, Masque Milano
A darker fougère, richer and deeper. A fougère for the night.

Natural vs. Synthetic Perfumery: How to Make a Rose

by Aubrey Allison
yellow roses among leaves

What is the difference between “natural perfumes” and “synthetic perfumes”? Let’s use rose as an example.

For a rose note in their perfume, a natural perfumer will use rose essential oil, distilled directly from roses. In the bottle, that rose essential oil contains all the different aromatic molecules that came from the particular roses distilled in that batch. It’s one essential oil, but it contains a multitude of molecules — around 300-450 different aromatic molecules. Different rose essential oils vary in quality, and can have different characteristics.

For a rose note in their perfume, a perfumer working with synthetics will use the individual molecules as building blocks to craft the precise rose they want. A generally rosy note can be created with just the 3 main aromatic molecules of roses: geraniol, citronellol, and phenyl ethyl alcohol (PEA). For more rosiness, adding rose oxide, beta-damascenone, and beta-ionone goes a long way. From there, they can build their rose to be green, or fruity, or a tea rose. They have more control over how their rose molecules will overlap and interact with the other notes in their perfume, because they are in control of each molecule and its ratio.

Natural perfumery, to me, is more about sourcing high-quality materials, then blending them with restraint. A formula for a natural perfume is generally a lot shorter than a perfume formula built with synthetics. With synthetic materials, however, there’s so much more you can build and create (and more consistency you can achieve) than with a naturals-only palette.

Counter to a lot of misinformation out there, synthetic perfume materials have many environmental and health advantages over natural materials. Because the aromatic molecules present in roses are not only present in roses, many synthetic molecules can be produced in “upcycled” ways, like getting linalool from wood pulp, or vanillin from the “waste” of the paper industry. It’s also easier to control potential allergens or irritants when working with the isolated molecules of synthetics. So don’t get taken in by fear-based marketing implying that natural is always safer.

Perfume Materials from the Bitter Orange Tree

by Aubrey Allison

The bitter orange tree gives us several different perfume materials. 

Petitgrain is made from its leaves (and often twigs, too). Its smell is leafy, woody, green, and bitter, with undertones of sweet orange and light florals.

The flowers can be made into neroli or orange blossom depending on how they are processed: neroli is made when the flowers are distilled as an essential oil, and orange blossom absolute is made when the flowers are solvent-extracted. Distillation also produces hydrosol, which is what’s left behind after the oil is skimmed off following steam distillation, and often that hydrosol is then processed into an absolute called orange flower water absolute. 

Neroli smells floral, but more green and woody than orange blossom, which has a higher indole content and a honeyed, heady floral character.

Orange essential oil is pressed from the peel of the fruit, and can come from the fruit of the bitter orange tree (Citrus aurantium) as well as other orange trees, usually Citrus sinensis.

Perfume Note: Tonka Bean

by Aubrey Allison

Tonka bean. Soft and powdery-sweet, it smells a little bit caramelized, a gourmand note like vanilla, but with a grassy-herby undertone like mown hay or tobacco. Its scent is primarily made up of the molecule coumarin: the first synthesized molecule to be used in a major perfume. Coumarin was first synthesized in 1868 and debuted in Houbigant’s Fougère Royale in 1882. The molecule coumarin is also found in cassia, vanilla, sweet clover, strawberries, lavender, licorice, and apricots.

Perfume Note: Vanilla

by Aubrey Allison

Vanilla: the foundational gourmand note. The characteristic volatile molecule of vanilla is vanillin, which is often used on its own to inexpensively impart a vanilla note. Vanillin is also present in other materials such as benzoin resin, wheat, and oak wood (especially after it has been heat-treated to barrel spirits like whiskey).

Vanillin is distinctively sweet and creamy, and vanilla can have aspects that are fruity, floral, smoky, medicinal, almondy, anisic, caramellic, animalic or leathery.

M. Micallef Note Vanillee walks the line between vanilla’s light and dark sides: honey-floral jasmine notes, boozy cognac, juicy mandarin, and a hint of anise. Inviting and mischievous.

Jovoy Fire at Will is a delicious brown sugar vanilla. Mimosa lightens with a slight powderiness, for a scent that is playful and seductive.

Perris Monte Carlo Vanille de Tahiti’s vanilla is rich and almondy. Ylang ylang and champaca bring a ripe fruity-floral character, and sandalwood adds to vanilla’s creaminess and depth.

Les Indemodables Vanille Havane focuses on vanilla’s dark side: notes of leather, rum, tobacco, spices, dried fruits, and even cocoa. Still absolutely a gourmand, and very much centered around vanilla, but in an unusually rich way.

 Jeroboam Insulo uses clean musk notes and airy jasmine to render this vanilla sheer, a “skin scent” vanilla.

Profumum Roma Vanitas is sugary sweet. Delicate orange blossom and soft myrrh keep this vanilla from becoming overly candied or childish, yet it’s still as delightful as a marshmallow.

Essential Parfums Divine Vanille is the perfume that I always want “wood vanilla” or “incense vanilla” scents to be. Every note blends with and modifies the other notes, for an overall effect like a smooth color ombre. Tonka softens vanilla, becoming like suede with osmanthus. Cinnamon bark’s spice brings out subtle fruit notes, and locks in with the woodiness of cedar, patchouli, and clary sage. Benzoin bridges these notes back into the central vanilla and brings out their incense aspects. A hint of black pepper adds earthy, bitter balance to vanilla’s sweetness, and silky-sheer musks smooth over it all.

Perfume Pairings for Pantone’s 2024 Color of the Year: Peach Fuzz

by Aubrey Allison

These perfumes feature prominent peach notes and fit Pantone’s characterization of the color, which includes words such as gentle, tenderness, sanctuary, warm and cozy, wellbeing, sweet and airy, quietly sophisticated, clean, and nurturing.

The soothing peach priestess, Frassai Tian Di is a peach pit carved from ivory wood, tendrils of incense smoke rising. self-assured and calming.


L’Artisan Parfumeur À Fleur de Pêche is the gentle scent of peach skin with airy jasmine and a soft, subtly earthy wood base.


Keiko Mecheri Peau de Pêche clean and soft, this perfume is like rubbing your nose on the fuzzy skin of an underripe peach. orris gives it an earthy-clean powdery texture.


In Les Bains Guerbois 2013 Residence d’Artistes, peach, mandarin, jasmine, and violet combine for a heart that is both a juicy fruity-floral but also restrained and sophisticated. cardamom and cumin bring a smooth spiced aspect, while a subtle patchouli-leather accord adds depth and richness. the scent is rounded out with clean musks, soft sandalwood, and a papyrus note that blends the texture into something more smooth and dry than the sum of its notes. lovely.


Shay & Blue White Peaches is the most straightforwardly sweet of this set. clean, cool, peachy sweetness, like ice granita. birch wood tempers the sweetness with gentle structure.

Perfume Note: Ginger

by Aubrey Allison

The smell of ginger is bold and complex. It has a bright, lemony facet; a warm, zesty spice facet; and a deep woody/earthy facet.

Filigree and Shadow Incurable is a superlative ginger perfume, warm, zesty, deep yet powdery, accented with saffron, coriander, clove, green pepper, earthy patchouli, and a woody, oakmossy base.

Perris Monte Carlo Cedro di Diamante is a bright, lemon-lime ginger scent.

Monsillage Pays Dogon is fresh-cut flower stems, fruity-tart hibiscus, with ginger and pepper for spice and a light, vetiver and guaiacwood base.

Etat Libre d’Orange Fils de Dieu du Riz et des Agrumes is green shiso leaf and citrusy ginger, with a soft sweetness that emerges with its rice-and-coconut-milk dry down.

Pierre Guillaume Intrigant Patchouli is a honeyed patchouli with sweet ginger and smooth sandalwood.

Stora Skuggan Silphium is black pepper-forward, with dry ginger and clove, smoky incense, geranium, leather, and wood.

Masque Milano Hemingway sets ginger and rhubarb atop a leathery vetiver.

And of course, ginger lends itself beautifully to warm, spicy gourmands. L’Artisan Parfumeur Tea for Two is candied ginger and cinnamon-sweet honey. Serge Lutens Five O’Clock Au Gingembre is soft and warm, ginger-spiced tea with honey and a hint of pepper. Serge Lutens Baptême du Feu is sharp and powdered, gingerbread and tanned leather, a dense fruitcake carved out of wood. Etat Libre d’Orange Noel au Balcon smells like gingerbread at a holiday party with your closest friends.

Olfactive Studio Woody Mood is a delicious ginger and cocoa wood, with saffron, patchouli, and sage. On my skin, a sweet campfire smoke note emerges and crackles underneath the ginger.

Perfume Material: Benzoin

by Aubrey Allison

Benzoin is the resin from the styrax tonkinesis tree. Benzoin can be translucent or darker in color, but this one is opaque and looks like dried caramel—and it kind of smells like it, too. Benzoin absolute always reminds me of Coca Cola with its vanilla sweetness, a bit syrupy, but with a fizzy quality that gives the scent some lift and keeps it from being overly heavy. Its scent can be described as “balsamic”—not as in balsamic vinegar, but as in balsams; tree resins. Benzoin absolute smells warm, rich, resinous, with hints of cinnamon and wood. It’s a core component of classic “amber” accords, along with vanilla and labdanum.

Curated Perfume Sample Set: Rose

by Aubrey Allison
perfume samples with a vintage illustration of a rose

Recently I put together a perfume sample set for my friend, a gift for his wife as they are both now fully vaccinated and celebrating getting back out into the world. They were looking for a naturalistic rose perfume currently available in the US, with a budget limit of $190 for a full bottle. I had a lot of fun with this assignment—I don’t usually seek out rose perfumes for myself, so I discovered some beautiful perfumes in the process.

The biggest revelation for me was the house Perris Monte Carlo, which I had never tried before but found at Indigo Perfumery. Their Rose de Mai and Rose de Taif are platonic ideals of rose scents, lifelike and pitch-perfect. Rose de Mai is delicate where Rose de Taif is richer, spicier.

Masque Milano Love Kills is a bit darker in mood, inspired by the life and death of a rose stem in a vase. 

Ormonde Jayne Ta’if is a sweet rose with orange blossom, candied yet still fresh. 

Chronotope Perfume Spite EdT is a green rose garden with wings of leather and burned sugar. 

Hendley Perfume Rosenthal is a woody rose with wisps of incense. 

Essential Parfums Rose Magnetic is a light daytime rose with grapefruit, soft woods, and a whisper of mint. 

Villa des Parfums Toujours Espoir is a big floral charmer of a perfume, petally with peony and jasmine alongside rose. I was also able to include an assortment of rose materials—oils, absolutes, and accords—I had kept from an online event with Villa des Parfums through Tigerlily Perfumery, a perfect supplement to an assortment of rose perfumes.

Lastly, I like to include a perfume that’s somewhat adjacent to the actual assignment, for fun and because sometimes it opens up a whole new avenue you didn’t know you wanted to go down. So I included Arquiste ELLA, a beautiful chypre with a rose-jasmine heart. The brand story features a ‘70s disco queen, which is a fun take on the celebratory occasion for this set, but also, ELLA is a lovely, subtly earthy floral perfume that deepens into a beach-vacation skin scent. Plus I got to include its corresponding “masculine” perfume, EL, a bold fougère—in case my friends want a “his and hers” set!

What rose perfumes would you include in a sample set?

Perfume Material: Ambergris

by Aubrey Allison

Like an oyster makes a pearl to protect its insides from an irritant, a sperm whale makes ambergris to protect its insides from irritating parts of food it can’t digest, such as squid beaks. The whale excretes (ahem, poops) its brick of waxy mucus, leaving it to float in the ocean for years and decades, its scent becoming more and more refined as it “cures” in the salt water and sunlight—this is essential; ambergris fresh from the whale is no good. Eventually a sailor may scoop it up or a lucky passerby out for a beach stroll may find it washed up on the shore. Ambergris looks, basically, like a rock. Originally it was used (generally powdered and/or tinctured) as flavoring or in medicines, including the allegedly plague-dispelling “pomanders” that were filled with aromatic materials and worn around the neck—the word comes from the French “pommes d’ambre”: ambergris apples. Eventually the enchanting substance came to be used in perfume.

In her book Fragrant: The Secret Life of Scent, Mandy Aftel writes that “…ambergris remains one of the great mysteries of perfumery; a fixative of great value, it is long-lasting and mellowing. Used in small quantities, it creates an exalting and shimmering effect on the entire perfume. Sweet and dry, with stronger notes of wood, moss, and amber, it has only a slight animal aroma.” Steffen Arctander in his Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin writes of ambergris (listed as “Ambra”): “Its odor is rather subtle, reminiscent of seaweed, wood, moss, with a peculiar sweet, yet very dry undertone of unequaled tenacity.”

While ambergris from a sperm whale can in some ways be compared to pearls from an oyster, ambergris cannot be cultivated the way pearls can—which makes supply irregular and the exact qualities of scent inconsistent from one chunk or tincture to the next. Sperm whale populations are not endangered, but they are vulnerable, which means fewer mucus bricks excreted into oceans. True ambergris has been replaced by a variety of synthetic aroma molecules in most of perfumery—save, perhaps, for a few small-batch artisans dedicated to working with fine natural materials.