Heart Notes: The Curves and Floral Signature of the Perfume
Perfumes often reveal emotions and tend to evoke art and beauty rather than being assimilated into scientific notions. However, the creation of a fragrance relies on logic and very technical orchestration.
The perfumer-creator builds their perfume according to different elements, some of which are called “notes” and are chosen for their scientific characteristics. It is these notes that will give the perfume all its beauty.
In perfumery, we distinguish three different types of notes: top notes, base notes, and heart notes.
The latter are essential to the perfume: they develop over several hours and allow the fragrance to densify and round out.
Heart Notes in the Olfactory Pyramid
A perfume is often represented in the form of what is called an “olfactory pyramid”. This construction organizes the different notes as follows:
- At the top: top notes
- In the middle part: heart notes
- At the base: base notes
This model, widely used by brands to describe their perfumes, illustrates how notes are organized. But you should know that these will interlock and interact with each other, and reveal themselves in an order that will not always be the same.
This construction allows the fragrance to be harmonized and progressively releases the evaporation of the different olfactory facets and scents.
What is a Heart Note?
Heart notes escape after the flight of the top notes. They are also called the “curves” or “roundness” of the perfume. Of medium tenacity, heart notes are carried along by the top notes.
Once applied to the skin or a blotter (strip of paper used to test a perfume), you will have to wait at least 15 to 20 minutes to truly discover these notes, which may already begin to be felt in the top notes.
Note that top notes will not have the same result depending on the support or the type of skin on which the fragrance is applied.
The Heart Note: An Important Transitional Note
The Curves of the Perfume
Certain other notes, or olfactory facets, can intervene in the heart notes, because all scents are ultimately intertwined with each other and carry each other along.
If well orchestrated, heart notes can bring softness and comfort to the perfume, and make you want to discover the evolution of the perfume. However, the final result, determining if the fragrance is suitable, will be given by the base note.
The Importance of Heart Notes
These heart notes are very important in a fragrance because they only last a few minutes. However, customers are often in a hurry to discover a fragrance, so perfumes are organized so that the heart notes lead to the base notes.
A fragrance with an unbalanced architecture would then risk creating an impression of emptiness that could harm the beauty of the perfume.
The Origin of Heart Notes
The concept of top notes, heart notes, and base notes, allowing understanding the construction of a fragrance, was created by Jean Carles, formerly a perfumer at Roure (a company now renamed Givaudan).
Creator of Ma Griffe by Carven and Miss Dior, this great perfumer founded and directed the Roure Perfumery School around 1940. It is therefore to him that we owe this method of learning and organizing raw materials in perfumery.
Heart Notes and Raw Materials
Indeed, Jean Carles grouped all natural and synthetic raw materials according to base notes, heart notes, and top notes.
Flowers in Heart Notes
Thus, flowers will essentially provide heart notes, apart from spring floral notes which act rather in top notes. Here are some flowers acting in heart notes:
- White flowers: jasmine, tuberose, ylang-ylang, orange blossom absolute, lily, frangipani
- Powdery flowers: iris, violet, heliotrope, mimosa, and broom
- Spicy flowers: carnation, immortelle
- Flowers of the rose family: rose, geranium, and peony
Fruits in Heart Notes
Fruits act, for the most part, as a heart note (with the exception of some watery and juicy fruity notes). Here are some fruits providing heart notes:
- Red fruits: strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, blackberry, redcurrant, blackcurrant
- Yellow fruits: peach, plum, apricot
- Exotic fruits: mango, pineapple, banana, passion fruit
- Watery fruits: melon and watermelon
- Juicy fruits: pear, apple, kiwi
Natural Materials and Synthetic Products
The choice between natural raw materials or synthetic products in the composition of a perfume will impact the fragrance quality.
Indeed, the more natural materials the fragrance contains, the more evolving, lively, and rich it will be. Conversely, a perfume containing mostly synthetic materials will be straighter, more stable, and linear in its evolution.
For a perfume to be balanced and evolve pleasantly, it is best if it is composed of a larger percentage of natural notes that will give the fragrance its soul, while synthetic products will be mainly used to bring technicality, power, and hold to the perfume, or to replace materials that could not be used naturally (such as lily of the valley, violet, and certain dried fruits).
The Heart Note and Choosing a Perfume
Above all, you must know how to take your time when buying a perfume, to leave the notes the possibility to reveal themselves and evolve entirely.
For this, do not hesitate to let the perfume act for a few hours, or even a whole night, before buying it. This will allow you to become aware of all its notes, and to appreciate it in its entirety.
If you still like it just as much the next day, find it just as comfortable, and receive compliments around you, it will surely mean that you have found your fragrance.
Conclusion
Heart notes are essential in a perfume. They allow it to round out and densify.
Thanks to heart notes, the fragrance takes shape and volume.
One could compare heart notes to a first conversation between two people, which would follow the introductions or the exchange of the first smile.
