The accords worth knowing by name

Seven words, one honest line each

Open a fragrance page anywhere (ours included) and you'll meet a short list of accord names sitting above the note pyramid: fougère, chypre, amber, gourmand, aquatic, woody-aromatic, floral-musk. None of them are explained. But they don't need paragraphs. They need one honest line each, and then you'll never squint at a product page again.

The seven

• Fougère: built on lavender, coumarin (a hay-like sweetness) and oakmoss. The backbone of most "classic" masculine perfumery; the word is French for fern, though nothing in it actually smells like one.
• Chypre: citrus laid over mossy, woody depth. Named for Cyprus, where the style is said to have first come together. Reads sharp and dry, in a good way.
• Amber: warm, resinous, sweet without being edible. Built from labdanum, vanilla and resins rather than any single plant or animal source. The accord most people mean when they call a perfume "cosy."
• Gourmand: edible-smelling: vanilla, coffee, caramel, cocoa. The accord behind every perfume someone has ever described as "I want to eat it."
• Aquatic / marine: clean, airy, faintly salty. Built to evoke open water and sea air rather than to copy any real ocean smell, which (if you've stood on an actual beach) doesn't smell like this at all.
• Woody-aromatic: dry woods (cedar, vetiver, sandalwood) lifted by herbal or citrus top notes. Reads composed and quiet rather than loud.
• Floral-musk: flowers set against a soft, skin-warm musk base. The accord that makes a floral perfume feel worn close to the body instead of sprayed into a room.

Why the list is short on purpose

There are more accord names in circulation than these seven, but most of what you'll meet on any given day traces back to one of them, or a blend of two. Once you can tell a chypre from a fougère on sight (chypre reads sharper and drier, fougère reads herbal and soapier), a page full of unfamiliar words stops being unfamiliar. You're not learning seven new smells. You're learning seven names for smells you already know from a lifetime of walking past them.

Next: Accord or note? The confusion, cleared.