From "Dry Down" to "Sillage": Your Intro to Fragrance Language
You're in a perfume boutique. The sales associate asks if you prefer something with strong sillage or subtle projection. You nod like you totally know what that means. You don't.
Or maybe you're reading a fragrance review online and it mentions "the dry down reveals a beautiful leather accord." Sounds poetic. Also sounds like gibberish.
Here's the thing: perfumery has its own language, a blend of romance, chemistry, and artistry. And while you don't need a degree in it to enjoy wearing perfume, knowing a few key terms can completely transform how you shop for scents and talk about what you love.
Think of this as your cheat sheet. Five essential words that'll make you feel like you actually know what's happening when you spray something on your wrist.
1. Accord
The soul of a scent blend
An accord isn't a single ingredient. It's a harmonious blend of multiple notes that come together to create something entirely new. Like a chord in music, where individual notes combine into one beautiful sound.
Some accords try to replicate things from nature. "Musk" accords, for example, are now created in labs since real deer musk is banned and natural ambergris is rarer than a reasonable rent price in Manhattan.
Other accords are completely abstract. Think "First Kiss" or "Blue Shirt." These don't exist in nature, obviously, but perfumers can capture the feeling of them through creative blends.
Real examples:
- "Ginger Flower" in Ingenious Ginger
- "Salvage Shipwreck" in Whispered Myth
- "Leather" (spoiler: no actual leather, just birch tar and synthetic molecules doing their best impression)
This is the magic of modern perfumery. Bottling things that can't actually be distilled.
2. Dry Down
The final chapter of a perfume's story
Dry down is what a perfume smells like in its final stage, after all the bright, sparkly top notes have faded and the deeper base notes take over. This phase can last for hours and it's where your skin chemistry really shows up to the party.
It's why the same perfume can smell totally different on you versus your best friend. And why you should always test on skin instead of just sniffing a paper strip and calling it a day.
Think of it as the perfume's lasting memory. The scent that clings to your scarf or your pillowcase long after you've left the room.
3. Projection
How far your fragrance travels
Projection is your scent bubble. It's the radius around your body where people can smell your perfume.
High projection fragrances announce your arrival. You walk into a room and people notice. Examples: Island Lush by Goldfield & Banks, or Vanexstasy by Maison Tahité, which is basically the olfactory equivalent of wearing a sequined jacket.
Low projection is more intimate. Someone has to lean in close to catch it. Perfect for the office or anywhere you don't want to be that person in the elevator.
4. Sillage (pronounced "see-yazh")
The invisible trail you leave behind
Sillage is French for "wake," like the trail a boat leaves in water. In perfume terms, it's the scent trail you leave when you walk through a space.
Here's how it's different from projection:
Projection is how far the scent travels around you right now.
Sillage is how long it lingers in the air after you've left.
You walk into a room and everyone smells you? That's projection.
You leave the room and your scent stays behind like a ghost? That's sillage.
Both are influenced by the perfume's concentration, the specific notes, the weather, and your own skin chemistry. Which is why fragrance is endlessly fascinating and occasionally frustrating.
5. Olfactory Family
The personality groups of perfume
Olfactory families are how perfumes get categorized based on their dominant characteristics. It's like sorting music into genres so you can find more of what you like.
The major families:
- Floral (roses, jasmine, tuberose)
- Amber (vanilla, spices, resins)
- Fresh (citrus, green notes, aquatic)
- Woods (cedar, vetiver, sandalwood)
Knowing which family speaks to you makes shopping so much easier. Instead of smelling 47 random bottles, you can zero in on what actually matches your taste.
It's the difference between wandering aimlessly and walking in with a plan.
The Bottom Line
Understanding these five terms won't make you a perfume expert overnight. But it will make you a more confident shopper, a more informed wearer, and honestly, just someone who gets more enjoyment out of the whole experience.
Because fragrance is personal. And the better you can articulate what you love (or don't), the faster you'll find the scents that feel like you.
Now go forth and casually drop "sillage" into conversation. You've earned it.
