There seems to be a never ending vocabulary that can be used when describing fragrances. 

Sometimes there are terms used to describe foods or other items that translate into the fragrance world, sometimes it can be made up words that eventually become normal. 

Here we have another list of fragrance terminology that we use, and you can use, when talking about fragrances.

Animalic - This describes a scent that is rich and warm with a little bit of a funk to it. It can have a faint essence of an aroma of animals, such as Fir, Leather, Amber, or even sometimes something along the lines of body odor. It can be a fragrance that smells a little ‘dirty’, but sexy.

Batch - This mostly refers to a specific production run of a fragrance, similarly to food. Companies will gather all of their ingredients needed to make a certain number of fragrances, distill, blend, macerate, bottle, package and ship out to sell - this is one batch. On the bottom of each bottle of fragrance there will usually be a batch code that is oftentimes a short, random mix of letters and numbers, but some companies will have the last two digits be the year it was made, and each batch code or batch number will represent all of the bottles that were created within one batch and will all have the same batch info. The more natural the fragrance ingredients are, the more often the concept of the same fragrance smelling minutely different from batch to batch can be true, but isn’t the standard. 

Beast Mode - This describes a fragrance that is strong, powerful, long lasting and has tons of projection and sillage. It will be the fragrance that lasts, in a very noticeable way, for 12-15+ hours, in some cases even into the next day. It will be bold, feel ‘loud’ and lingers very strongly, and not always in a good way. 

Cheapie - A fragrance that is cheap, meaning inexpensive. Usually this will be a fragrance that is $50 or less. 

Classic - On one hand, a classic fragrance can be a scent that’s been around for a long time, is tried and true, everyone loves it, and while it may not have the modern profile of today’s scents it’s still popular. On the other hand, it can describe a fragrance that feels a little ‘older’, meaning it fits the vibe that was more popular at the time of its release such as spicy, soapy, florals for a feminine scent or a clean and aromatic spicy aroma for a masculine scent.

Complex - This describes a fragrance that has a lot going on. It can be a fragrance that has a lot of ingredients or is very potent, which can make a fragrance feel like it’s constantly changing and evolving, or the ingredients just make it feel kind of polarizing. 

Coniferous - This describes a woody fragrance with a crisp, fresh, aromatic, kind of Green tone to it that can sometimes be photorealistic of nature, and evokes the feeling of being in a forest/outdoors.

Creamy - This describes a scent that is soft, smooth, sweet, and can sometimes even have an aroma like actual cream, whether cosmetic-leaning or food-leaning. This can come from Milk accords, Vanilla, Iris/Orris, Lactonic notes, Tropical flowers and other dessert notes.

Discontinued - This means the fragrance is no longer being made.

Dumb/Easy Reach - This is a scent where you don’t have to think about anything when you’re deciding what to wear. It doesn’t matter where you’re going, what you’re doing, who you’re with; It’s a scent that everyone loves, goes with any outfit, fits any occasion.

Elixir or Exclusif - These terms fall under the same umbrella as an Extrait or Pure Parfum, which are all fragrances that have the highest oil concentrations in atomizer fragrances. The name used for these higher concentrations of fragrances will depend on the brand/house.

House - This is kind of another, slightly upscale, way of saying ‘brand’. For French brands, ‘Maison’ means ‘House’.

Key Note(s) - This refers to the main notes of a fragrance. The notes that are the strongest and/or that last the longest. For instance, with Creed Aventus Pineapple is the key note; with Mind Games French Defense Cherry is the key note. 

Linear - This describes a fragrance that doesn’t really change much from initial spray to the dry down, and isn’t really all that exciting. 

Mass Appealing - This refers to a fragrances that everyone loves….for the most part. This can be a fragrance with a lot of ingredients, or a style that everyone loves or finds appealing.

Polarizing - This describes a fragrance that you might have an extreme reaction to. This can be because it’s too strong, it smells bad to you, or it was just something you weren’t expecting and caught you off guard. These will usually be fragrances that are more bold and intense and will give you a physical or vocal reaction. 

Profile - This word is a way to describe the defining characteristic/essence/aroma of a fragrance. Examples of this would be Xerjoff Erba Pura having a fruity profile; Parfums de Marly Althair has a Vanilla profile; Amouage Journey Man has a spicy profile; etc.

Rotation - When you have a collection of multiple fragrances to wear you can rotate what you wear everyday, therefore you are not wearing the same scent everyday.

Scrubber - This describes a fragrance that smells so unpleasant on you that you feel the need to scrub it off your skin, and your ‘wants’ list.

Signature Scent - The one scent that you wear all the time that people know you for. On one hand this can mean that you have only one fragrance and that’s all you wear.. On the other hand you could have multiple fragrances, but you wear one more than all the others; it is the scent you reach for most often, like the most, and feel the best in.

Sharp - This describes a fragrance that has almost an astringent essence to it. It gives the nose a little bit of a tingly or prickly sensation. This can happen because a scent might be a little too bold or intense for your nose, or that it is a scent with more spices or citrus notes, and sometimes even because you just caught a whiff of the alcohol as it evaporated off the skin. 

Under The Radar - This refers to a fragrance, or sometimes an entire collection or house, that is really good but no one is talking about and/or no one has heard of. 

Vivaldi - This term was named after the composer Antonio Vivaldi, who is most famous for his classical concerto known as The Four Seasons. It essentially describes a scent that can be worn in any or all seasons/weather….a scent that can be worn in all four seasons.

Zesty - This describes a scent that is bright, fresh, kind of tart, kind of green, aromatic, sparkly, invigorating, and/or energetic with a green, woody, outdoorsy essence. For me this describes a Fougere aroma.