What is a scent profile and why is it important?
We’re all familiar with the power of scent and how it can transform the feeling of a room, create a feeling of connection to faraway places and lift us up on even the dullest of days.
As we open up our homes to friends and family again, finding a few signature home scents seems like a great way to freshen up our spaces, but how to go about it? Understanding the notes in a fragrance is the first step, and one of the key classifications of this is its scent profile. From exploring the layered notes to identifying which scent family it belongs to, the profile is an easy way to understand a scented candle’s fragrance while considering what mood you want to create when you burn it.
Here, we’ve broken down everything you need to know when it comes to understanding the scent profiles of our candles.
So, what is a scent profile?
A scent profile is a way to categorise a fragrance into a group and discover combinations that you might not naturally put together.
At Interlude, our candles fall into four families:
Floral
Floral fragrances are one of the most popular families, and one of the broadest. Any fragrance that has a sweet and flowery scent will belong under this family, using notes such as roses, jasmine, lilies and peonies.
Oriental
Oriental fragrances are warm, sweet and even a little spicy. A more luxurious fragrance family, these Oriental fragrances vary from floral oriental, soft oriental and woody oriental.
Woody
Woody fragrances are another warm family, with a mysterious and captivating scent. Using wood-based smells like cedarwood, sandalwood, vetiver and amber, it’s a great choice for burning in the evening.
Fresh
Fresh fragrances usually comprise of citrus, water and green notes. This means they have refreshing, zesty and vibrant smells. Citrus-based fragrances are usually created with lemon, mandarin and bergamot, while water fragrances are made with aquatic notes like sea spray.
What is a fragrance note?
A note is a way to describe scents that you smell when you burn a candle. Fragrance notes fall into one of three groups, top notes, middle notes, and base notes. Every candle we make is created using a handpicked combination of top, middle, and bottom notes.
Top Notes
These are the first notes you sense when you smell a candle or perfume. These notes introduce the candle fragrance - usually fresh, light, and citrusy. In candles, these notes are the first experience of a candle when you smell it unlit, but don’t necessarily fade away over time (like a perfume on your skin would).
Middle Notes
The middle notes of a fragrance are a bit more complex and full bodied than top notes. They are often the superstar of a fragrance blend, providing balance and harmony to enhance the top or bottom notes. Some popular middle notes are classic florals, light fruits, berries, and spicy or herbaceous notes.
Base Notes
Base or bottom notes are the heavier, longer lasting notes that are often made of larger molecules. Think vanilla, woodsy, amber, or musk. These notes bring balance to a blend by weighing it down and rounding out the experience, tending to linger long after a candle has been blown out.
Explore our scent profiles and shop our range of scented candles here.