Perfume & Fragrance Trivia

Perfume is chemistry dressed up as art. A single bottle can combine dozens of ingredients — natural extracts, synthetic molecules, alcohol — into a scent that changes over the hours you wear it.

This quiz covers the basics of how fragrance works, the notes that make it up, and a few of the classics that shaped the industry.

How a Scent Unfolds

Every fragrance is built in layers that reveal themselves over time.

• Top notes are the first scent you smell, and usually fade within the first 15 minutes.
• Heart notes, also called middle notes, emerge next and form the core character of the fragrance.
• Base notes, like musk or sandalwood, are the longest-lasting and anchor the whole scent.
• Perfume concentration — parfum, eau de parfum, eau de toilette — determines how strong and long-lasting a scent is.

Names That Defined an Industry

A handful of fragrances became so iconic that they changed how perfume was made and marketed.

• Chanel No. 5, launched in 1921, was one of the first perfumes to use synthetic aldehydes.
• Guerlain is one of the oldest perfume houses, founded in Paris in 1828.
• Grasse, in the south of France, is historically considered the perfume capital of the world.