Fragrance Notes A to Z

When a candle or perfume lists its "notes," it is telling you the smells it was built from. This guide explains what each common note actually smells like, where it comes from, and what it pairs well with. Each name below opens a full page.

Top, heart and base notes

Perfumers sort notes by how quickly they fade.

  • Top notes are light and bright, like citrus and mint. You smell them first, and they fade first.
  • Heart notes (also called middle notes), like flowers and spices, form the main character of a scent.
  • Base notes, like woods, resins, vanilla and musk, are heavy and long-lasting. They anchor everything else.

In a candle the layers blend more than they do on skin, but a good candle still has a bright opening, a clear heart and a warm base that lingers in the room.

Woods

  • Cedarwood: dry, clean pencil shavings
  • Juniper: crisp, piney and peppery, the flavor of gin
  • Oud: dark, smoky, leathery and rare
  • Pine: crisp, green and resinous
  • Sandalwood: soft, creamy and warm
  • Teakwood: smooth, dark polished wood

Find these in our Woody & Earthy candles.

Earth and moss

  • Oakmoss: a damp, shady forest floor
  • Patchouli: rich, dark, damp soil
  • Vetiver: smoky, earthy roots with a green edge

For the smell of rain on dry ground, see our Petrichor candle.

Resins, leather and smoke

  • Amber: warm, sweet and resinous
  • Frankincense: bright, clean church incense
  • Leather: a worn saddle or old armchair
  • Myrrh: warm, bitter and ancient
  • Smoke: a campfire or woodstove

These warm, atmospheric notes are the heart of our fantasy candles.

Sweet and soft

  • Musk: soft, clean skin and fresh laundry
  • Tonka bean: vanilla, almond and warm hay
  • Vanilla: sweet, creamy and warm

Spices

  • Cardamom: fresh, warm and elegant
  • Cinnamon: sweet, warm baking spice
  • Clove: sharp, festive and spicy
  • Saffron: leathery, honeyed and golden

Find sweet and spiced scents in our Food & Drink candles.

Flowers

Find these in our Floral candles.

Fruit

Find these in our Fruity candles.

Fresh, herbal, citrus and sea

  • Bergamot: bright citrus with a tea-like edge
  • Eucalyptus: cool, sharp and green
  • Ozone: cool, electric air before a storm
  • Peppermint: cool and candy-cane bright
  • Sage: green, herbal and grounded
  • Sea salt: a clean, breezy shoreline

Find these in our Fresh & Clean and Green & Herbal candles.

How to read a candle's notes

A note list describes the impression a scent gives, not a list of raw ingredients. Most candle makers, including us, use fragrance oils designed to recreate each note, because many natural materials are rare, unstable or unsafe to burn. Some notes, like amber, cherry blossom, lilac and lily of the valley, can only be made this way.

We add new notes to this guide regularly. To find a candle by the way it smells, start with all of our candles.