To evaluate a perfume material, smell it on a strip at a known dilution, sniff briefly, then write down what you remember. Repeat at set times until the smell is gone or has lost its character. Do it the same way every time and your notes become a reference library you can trust.
Evaluating raw materials is the habit that separates guessing from knowing. A perfumer who has smelled Bergamot at 10% in alcohol right away, after an hour and after a full day does not need to look up how it behaves. They remember.
You smell with your brain, not your nose
Your nose is an instrument. It picks up molecules and sends a signal. The smelling happens in your mind, which compares that signal with everything you have smelled before. This is a principle taught at PerfumersWorld, and it changes how you work.
Smell a material for too long and your nose tires fast, so the signal fades before you have understood it. The answer is to sniff quickly, then evaluate using what registered in your mind.
Before you start
- Choose the dilution. Pure materials are too strong to judge. 10% in alcohol is a common starting point. Write it down every time, because the same material smells different at 1% and at 100%.
- Label the strip with the material name, the dilution and the date. One strip per material.
- Pick a clean room. No cooking, no candles, no perfume on your skin or clothes.
- Open your notebook and write the material name and the dilution at the top, before you smell anything.
Step 1: Dip the strip and wait a few seconds
Dip the strip about a centimeter into the dilution and shake off the excess. Bend the tip so the wet end does not touch your bench. Wait about ten seconds for the alcohol to flash off, then hold the strip two or three centimeters from your nose, not against it.
Step 2: Sniff once, then put the strip down
One or two seconds is enough. Move the strip away, and do your evaluating with what stayed in your mind. Do not evaluate while the strip is under your nose. Spend your time on the memory of that sniff.
If the memory fades, sniff again, briefly. Many short sniffs beat one long one.
Step 3: Answer the same questions every time
A blank page makes ideas disappear. Questions give your memory something to hold. Ask these, in this order:
- First impression. What is the first word or thought? Write it down unedited.
- Strength. Rate it from 1 (barely there) to 5 (filling the room).
- Descriptors. Citrus, woody, green, powdery. Use the words you would use with another perfumer.
- Texture. Sharp, soft, smooth, dry, creamy, watery? Texture helps when you cannot name the material.
- Association. What do you picture? See the next section.
- Feelings. What does it make you feel: calm, energized, nostalgic, uneasy? Emotions are part of the data.
- Liking. Rate it from 1 to 5. Your taste is not a measure of quality, but record it.
- What changed. From the second sniff on: what appeared, what disappeared, what got louder?
Build an association you can recall
Perfumers remember smells by attaching them to pictures. Bergamot becomes a bergamot peel: you see the zest curling under a thumbnail. Every time you smell Bergamot after that, you recall the same picture. The picture does the remembering for you.
If nothing comes to mind, one perfumery school teaches this trick. Open a colorful magazine at a random page and use whatever you see as the association for that smell. The image does not have to make sense. What matters is that you choose one and keep it, so the smell and the picture lock together.
Step 4: Come back at set times
A material changes on the strip. Top notes leave first and the base stays. To see its whole life, return at fixed times and ask the same questions again. A common schedule is: right away, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, 8 hours, 24 hours, then daily.
Adjust it to the material. A citrus oil can be gone within the hour. A musk or an amber can last for days.
Between sniffs, leave the strip somewhere clean and uncontaminated, such as a labeled rack or an empty clean glass. Keep it away from other strips and other smells.
Reset your nose
Your nose tires, and after a while everything starts to smell the same. When that happens, reset:
- Step outside and breathe fresh air.
- Smell your own bare forearm. Unscented skin is a neutral reference.
Skip the coffee beans. They are often suggested, but coffee has a strong smell of its own, so you give your nose something new to interpret. A pause in clean air is simpler.
Know when to stop
Keep returning until one of two things happens. Either the smell is no longer perceivable, or it has lost its character: you still smell something, but it no longer resembles the material. It is flat, thin or off.
Write down the time. That is how long the material lasts on a strip at that dilution, and you measured it yourself.
Mistakes to avoid
- Evaluating with the strip at your nose.
- Smelling for too long in one go.
- Forgetting to record the dilution.
- Changing your method between materials: a different strip, a different dip depth, a different room.
- Evaluating many materials in a row on a tired nose.
- Trusting memory instead of writing it down.
Frequently asked questions
What dilution should I use to evaluate a material?
10% in alcohol is a common starting point. Very strong materials may need a lower dilution. If you can, evaluate the same material at more than one dilution and note each one.
How long should I smell the strip?
One or two seconds per sniff. Evaluate from memory after you move the strip away.
How often should I evaluate the same material?
As often as you like. Each new dilution or batch adds to what you know, and repeating a material trains your memory of it.
Do I need a notebook?
Any place works as long as you ask the same questions each time. In Inzenzo, the guided evaluation saves every sniff with its time, so you can see how a material evolved.
Try it in Inzenzo
Pick an ingredient, enter the dilution, and the guided flow walks you through each sniff, shows when the next one is due and saves everything. Keep your evaluations private or share them with the community.