Scent Profiles

Smell. It's a complicated scents (sense, get it? 😂).

For real though, smell is complicated! It can evoke all sorts of feelings, trigger memories, or make you scrunch up your nose in disgust. And your preferences and interpretations are personal.

So, we've created SCENT PROFILES to help you better understand which of our scents you might prefer. In each candle description, you'll see two fragrance families listed. You'll also see the scent notes are split out into top, middle and base notes.

Understanding Fragrance Families

Fragrance families can help you find scents that suit your style and preferences. These families are usually organized into a fragrance wheel to help you find new or complementary scents to those that you already enjoy. There are established traditional and modern fragrance wheels that show the different families, but we find they don’t fully cover what we want out of a fragrance wheel. We have created our own set of fragrance families to help you to better understand what to expect out of our scents and to help you choose your new favourites.

For each of our scents, we list two fragrance families that the scent fits under. The first family listed is usually the most prominent. When you find a scent you like, you can look for other scents that fall under the same categories, and if you are looking for something new or complementary, try scents that are from fragrance families adjacent to your favourites.

Onset & Rime Fragrance Wheel
Onset & Rime Fragrance Families

 

Understanding Top, Middle, and Base Notes

Scent notes are often classified as top, middle, or base notes. This tells you about how long it takes for these notes to be sensed and it is based on the ‘volatility’ of the scent. Scents that have more volatility are usually the first to be sensed and the first to dissipate. Scents with less volatility take longer to be noticed but hang around a lot longer. By combining notes of different volatility, a complex and layered scent can be created, where the different notes play off of each other to build something new.

Top notes make up the initial impression of a scent. They are the most volatile notes and will dissipate more quickly. They are often fresh or sharp smelling notes, like citrus, ginger, and green notes.

Middle notes make up the main body of a scent. These notes take a bit longer to develop than the top notes but are often the most prominent. They are complex, well-rounded notes and are usually floral, fruit, or spice notes.

Base notes are the last notes to develop and are meant to give a lasting impression. These notes make up most of the lingering scent in a room after your candle has been extinguished. They are rich and deep scents, like sweet, musky, or woodsy notes.

Keep in mind that these notes overlap, and as more wax is melted in your candle the scent released in the air from the newly melted wax will cycle again and again through these notes until your candle is blown out.

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Use these concepts when looking for your next candle. Is the fragrance family the same or similar to one you know you like? Does the base note match the type of smell you want people to notice when they visit?