Accord- The scent that comes from combining 2 or more fragrant ingredients, often the mixture will trigger a reflection of another scent like coffee, grass, fruit, flowers, woods that was not present in the initial ingredients alone.

Amber- The historic base for Oriental perfumes, also known as ambers, that characteristically include vanilla and labdanum.

Anosmia- Absence or loss of the sense of smell.

Base- The longest lasting group in a fragrance. Everything is built on top and it is what you will smell for the full length of your fragrance.

Chypre- Pronounced sheep-reh from the French for Cyprus, is a group of perfumes named after the 1917 fragrance from Coty, Chypre. It usuallyopens with citrus (particularly begamot) and contains a base of oak moss, labdanum and patchouli. I read somewhere that classically Chypre has no flowers, apparently like the isle of Cyprus.

Decant- an amount decanted from the original bottle into another vessel, can be poured or sprayed.

EdC- Eau de Cologne is the lightest amount of fragrant ingredients in the highest amount of dilution. Literally Water of, German town, Koln (Cologne in English). Percentages differ wildly.

EdP- Eau de Parfum is the highest concentrate Eau. Percentages differ wildly.

EdT- Eau de Toilette is the most common concentration of fragrance, in the middle of EdC and EdP. Percentages differ wildly.

Extrait- Extract is perfume in its most concentrated form. Often called simply Parfum.

FB/FBW- Full Bottle Worthy

FFF- Facebook Fragrance Friends a closed group of frag fanatics that chat, swap, split and generally adore fragrance on Facebook, open 24 hours and always someone willing to chat fragrance.

Fougere- Pronounced Foo-J/Z-air and means “fern-like”, is one of the main families in which perfumes are classified with a basic accord of Lavender, Oakmoss and Coumarin named from Houbigant’s Fougère Royale by perfumer Paul Paquet.

GWP- Gift With Purchase

Hermes- Pronounced Air-Mez, are legendary saddle makers turned luxury brand, one of the few that still stand alone from the conglomerates.

Maceration- When all the ingredients are mixed together maceration is the chemical process during maturation.

Maturation- The time it takes the finished product to blend into the perfume we smell.

Musk- From Sanskrit muṣká which means testicle. Originally to obtain musk the deer was killed and its musk pod or musk gland removed, dried and the resulting grain like substance mixed in alcohol and left to brew. Now there are synthetic musks and often the fruit musk mallow is used.

Nose- The perfumer

GMO- genetically modified organisms as in GMO free.

Opoponax- brown sugary, honeyed and resinous scent ingredient

Petrichor: The smell of rain hitting pavement

Projection: How far your scent projects from your body. Big projection can cause problems in work or eating environments and is frowned upon in the 21st century as being Olfactory Pollution. Projection means how far the scent can be smelled from your body and how quickly it will fill the space around you.

RAOK: Random Act Of Kindness

Sillage- pronounced say-yarsh meaning scent wake. Lots of sillage or big sillage means they can smell you as you walk past across the room, or continent. Sillage means wake in French. Like the water disturbed by a boat going through it. Speed boats make a huge wake sometimes, like perfume does. So when you are moving, sillage is your fragrant wake or how much you can smell you after you’ve walked past.

Soliflor- the smell of a single flower, be it rose, iris, lily of the valley, orange blossom, whatever. Usually much, much more goes into the composition to give the picture of that flower and sometimes it may not contain a single drop of anything from said flower. In this case it is the scent of, not derived from, although it can be both.

SOTD- Scent Of The Day

SOTE- Scent Of The Evening

SOTN- Scent Of The Night

Split- when one person buys a full bottle and decants and sends excess to other people. Usually in 5ml, 10ml or 20ml lots. This cuts down the cost of owning the fragrance and as collectors how many 100ml bottles do we really need?

Tonka Bean- spicy, resinous, vanilla scent ingredient

TSO- The Significant Other