I come across Facebook posts almost every day where someone shares, ‘Destash: Only opened to sniff.’
I’ve written before on how to properly experience fragrance oils: how to dip the blotter, let it dry down and let the notes bloom before making any judgements. Despite sharing this across fragrance oil groups and linking to it weekly, for every post I do respond to, there are hundreds of others that continue to repeat, ‘Destash: only opened to sniff.’
There’s no shame if you’ve ever posted something like this. The majority of fragrance oil review videos or posts from popular fragrance review personalities use this quick assessment method, and they’re who many of us look to for information. But it made me wonder: why do we assume that all fragrance oils are linear? And why do we limit ourselves to such brief encounters with fragrance oils when they’re such an integral part of our products?
To understand why we fall into this trap, we need to look at the history of modern perfume experiences and understand how it affects our experience with fragrance oils today.
How Did We Get Here?
In the past, perfumers had ateliers where clients would sit down, sip tea, and experience how fragrance developed on their skin over hours of wear. These fragrance blends were intricate and no one expected the same notes that greeted them on the first spray, to be what they’d experience two hours later. Perfumers created or recommended blends based on customer’s personal desires, and for those who could afford it, fine perfumery was a part of their getting ready ritual, a way to express who they were.
While traditional atelier’s like Floris in London and many niche performers still create complex blends meant to be worn with great silage, most modern mainstream perfumeries have embraced a different trend: EdT linear perfumes. These fragrances smell the same from the first spray to when they fade away, unlike traditional perfumes that evolve as you wear them.
Linear fragrances were created in the United States and became popular in the 1950s, when American consumers sought affordable fragrances without the need for a specialty store or an atelier experience.
Brands like Coty were on the forefront of this trend. They recognized that Americans wanted to feel like they were buying something luxurious but at a price they could justify. To do this, Coty sought out licensing deals with designers like Calvin Klein, Dolce and Gabbana and Gucci. They’d hire perfumers to create affordable linear fragrances, and then use the designers name via a license to help it sell.
Why linear fragrances? With the expansion of fragrance options beauty counters, many consumers were now self-guided on their fragrance journey and used blotter strips to test samples. Brands found that they needed to create clear, simple scent profiles at EdT strength (usually 5% fragrance), so aromas could be quickly experienced in their full scope. Within seconds, consumers could form an opinion on a fragrance, and that allowed for more impulsive purchases. Iconic linear EdT fragrances like Calvin Klein CK One, Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue, Gucci Bloom, Vera Wang Princess helped revolutionize not just the American fragrance market, but shaped global trends in the process.
From this point on, the consumer experience with mainstream perfumes changed, with a newfound preference for linear scents that gave an instant and consistent experience.
Current Perfume Trends & How They Impact Our FO Habits
Today, we have more EdT linear perfumes on the market than ever before. With limited time to grab a customers attention, these are almost exclusively what you’ll see offered at stores like Sephora and Ulta. While it works for finished products, it’s important to remember that smelling a finished EdT perfume at 5% concentration, is significantly different from smelling an ultra-concentrated fragrance oil. To truly experience fragrance oils, you need to stop judging them out of the bottle.
Some of our Simbi oils, like White Tea & Thyme, Lavender Haze and Pineapple treat are linear fragrances BUT they’re still concentrated far too strong as-is to be judged out of bottle. For example, Lavender Haze might come off overly lavender forward out of the bottle, but if you give the notes room to breathe either on a blotter or at a low usage in wax or perfumers alcohol, the moonflower’s presence and coziness will come through in a gorgeous way.
Then there are semi-linear fragrances like Santal and Guest House. These evolve subtly, retaining a core character while slightly adjusting over time. When you smell Santal from the bottle, it’s bold, spice forward and woody, but give it time to dry down on a blotter and it becomes creamier with hints of amber.
The most complex fragrances in our collection are evolving blends like The Gramercy, White Rabbit, Forest Realm and Summon the Spirits. These scents change significantly as the notes get room to bloom, so it’s crucial to test them properly on a blotter that you revisit over the course of multiple hours to fully appreciate their evolution.
For example, if you read 10 reviews of Guest House within our Facebook group you’ll find multiple makers share how different the scent profile became when they put it on a blotter or created a tester product with this scent. That’s because many of our fragrances aren’t based on linear fragrances, but rather complex aromas that are meant to adjust with time and space.
Understanding how a fragrance evolves not only enhances your experience but also helps you know how to best use it in your products.
How To Experience Fragrance Oil Like A Perfumer
So, how do you know if a scent is linear, semi-linear or complex? The answer is simple: test it! When you invest in a fragrance, take the time to experience it fully. Spend some time with your oils to experience how it changes on the dry down, and if possible, revisit it an hour later, a few hours later, and a day later to note if it’s continued to evolve. This will not only give you a deeper understanding of the scent but also help you form an understanding of how best to use an aroma.
If we could leave you with one thought, it’s please understand that fragrance oils aren’t finished products that have been diluted, you’re working with raw, unfinished material and how it smells out of the bottle, even on linear perfumes, isn’t an honest representation of what the oil could smell like, when given room for the notes to bloom.
If you get into the habit of properly testing fragrance oil samples, you’ll start finding aromas that smell different on the dry down than you assumed they would. After a few of these experiences, it’s really hard to go back to out of bottle assumptions, as you realize there’s more to discover.
Scent is subjective, and not all scents work for what all makers are looking for. That’s ok! There’s nothing wrong with realizing a scent isn’t for you. That said, it’s easier to realize if a scent is or isn’t what you are looking for, if you give it a few minutes of your time to smell it how it will smell in products, and not out of bottle.
For further reading, you can visit our original post on how to properly sniff fragrance oils HERE.