If you’ve ever shopped around for home fragrances, perfumes or colognes, you’ve probably come across the phrase ‘fragrance family’ used to describe different types of scent. What are the different fragrance families, and how do they help us find our favourite kinds of scents?
What are fragrance families?
Fragrance families are a group of categories used by the fragrance industry to label scents based on what they smell like and which fragrance notes they use.
The number of different families and their names vary based on who you ask. The Societé Française des Parfumeurs identifies seven fragrance families split into fifteen further subfamilies, however the more common categorisation is the four families and fourteen subcategories used by fragrance taxonomist Michael Edwards for his fragrance wheel.
The fragrance wheel uses four main fragrance families – Floral, Amber (alternatively called Oriental and what we called Spicy at A&B), Woody and Fresh. Each of these families then contains three or four subcategories which are used to more narrowly define the scents within them. Let’s look a little closer at each family and their subfamilies, starting with Floral fragrances.
Floral Fragrances
Florals are, as the name suggests, characterised by predominantly flower notes – a ‘note’ being one individual facet of a fragrance, like rose, lily, or violet. A popular choice for the spring and summertime, Florals typically smell like a bouquet of flowers, sometimes with a sweet or powdery undertone. Florals are frequently used in women’s perfumery.
There are three subcategories in the Floral family – Floral, Soft Floral and Floral Amber.
Florals use primarily floral notes, with little more than a hint of another type of scent, in order to evoke the fragrance of fresh-cut flowers.
Soft Florals, while still using mostly floral notes, balance these with powdery, sweet or creamy notes like vanilla or musk.
Floral Ambers add subtle spice notes to floral scents for a rich, opulent or exotic feel.
Examples of Ashleigh & Burwood fragrances in the Floral fragrance family include Tea Rose, a Floral fragrance with notes of rose, geranium and narcissus, Peony, a Soft Floral fragrance with notes of apple, peony and musk, and White Petal & Amber, a Floral Amber fragrance with notes of white flowers, jasmine and amber.
Amber Fragrances
The next fragrance family is Amber, also known as Oriental or Spicy. Amber scents are opulent, seductive and exotic, full of rich spices and warm resins. There are three Amber subfamilies – Soft Amber, Amber and Woody Amber.
Soft Ambers are similar to Floral Ambers, but with more prominent spicy or resinous notes. They blend these with softer floral notes.
Ambers contain warm spicy notes like cinnamon, amber and vanilla.
Woody Ambers add earthy or woody notes like sandalwood, cedarwood or patchouli to the Amber family’s signature spicy notes.
Examples of Ashleigh & Burwood fragrances in the Amber fragrance family include Rose & White Oud, a Soft Amber fragrance with notes of rose, oud and leather, Oriental Spice, an Amber fragrance with notes of star anise, nutmeg and cinnamon, and Midnight Oud, a Woody Amber fragrance with notes of precious woods, oud and musk.
Woody Fragrances
Woody fragrances are often similar to Amber fragrances, which is why we combine the two categories into a spicy and woody group. As you might have guessed, these fragrances use earthy wood notes as their main scent. The woody family is popular in perfumery, where the majority of typically masculine scents fall into this family.
There are four subfamilies in the Woody family – Woods, Mossy Woods, Dry Woods and Aromatic Fougère.
Woods have a predominantly woody scent from notes like sandalwood, cedarwood and vetiver. While all these notes create a woody fragrance, not all of them come from wood – despite its woodsy scent, vetiver is a kind of grass!
Mossy Woods add earthier elements like moss, patchouli and amber to wood notes, creating scents reminiscent of the forest floor.
Dry Woods bring a smoky, aromatic edge to wood notes by combining them with scents of charcoal or leather.
Aromatic Fougères are green scents which are evocative of forests. Fougère means ‘fern’ in French and this category is named after the iconic perfume Fougère Royale by Houbigant, created in 1882. It combines notes of aromatic herbs, moss and lavender with woody notes. Examples of Ashleigh & Burwood fragrances in the Woody family include Grey Cedar & Sandalwood a Wood scent with notes of cedar, vetiver and sandalwood, and Enchanted Forest, an Aromatic Fougère fragrance with notes of eucalyptus, vetiver and tonka.
Fresh Fragrances
Our last fragrance family is Fresh fragrances, these are clean, bright, and natural. Fresh fragrances are very popular in home fragrance as we often want our homes to smell clean, bright and fresh, especially rooms like the bathroom.
There are four Fresh subfamilies – Citrus, Fruity, Green and Watery.
Citrus scents contain notes of citrus fruits like orange, lemon and lime.
Fruity fragrances smell of fruits like apple, berries and coconut.
Green fragrances are fresh, natural plant scents like grass or herbs.
Watery scents contain aquatic, coastal and marine notes, evoking the sea or rain.
Examples of Ashleigh & Burwood fragrances in the Fresh family include Sicilian Lemon, a Citrus scent with notes of lime, geranium and lemon, Tropical Escape, a Fruity fragrance with notes of starfruit, coconut and tonka, Green Bamboo, a Green scent of citrus, bamboo and willow, and Sea Breeze a Watery fragrance of ozone, jasmine and musk.
