Modern Perfume

As technology expands there are always new and inventive approaches to creating modern and fresh ideas for perfumes. The art of synthesis and the design of compounds has drastically altered the landscape of perfumes since their inceptions post world war two. This has lead to whole new categories of perfumes, listed below,

1. Citrus
2. Gourmand
3. Green
4. Oceanic

To help the retail industry classify the new categories of scents a 'fragrance wheel' was developed in the 1980's by Michael Edwards. This greatly simplified the widespread confusion amongst customers and the assistants whose job it was to sell the scents. The wheel itself breaks down perfumes into four main categories, which are listed in the page title of this document as floral, oriental, woody and fresh. There are then subgroups in each of these categories.

The wheel begins with overall centre.

Below are the four main categories, and the sub groups designated for each.

Floral: floral, soft floral, floral oriental

Oriental: floral oriental, soft oriental, oriental, woody oriental

Woody: woody oriental, mossy woods, dry woods

Fresh: citrus, green, water

As you can see, only the 'fresh' category does not mix with another category. Whereas floral, oriental and woody all have one subgroup which mixes with another category.