A know-it-all musician came up with the naming of essential oil fragrance weights: top notes, middle notes, and base notes. Top notes are the fleeting scents you smell immediately – and then they pretty quickly fade away. Citrus and mints are a couple of loud-mouth top notes that scream, “HERE I AM” and then quickly leave by the backdoor. The middle notes are noticed next but also fade fairly quickly. Herbs and flowers such as Rosemary, Lavender, Palmarosa, Pettitgrain, Rose, and Geranium are examples of middle notes. The lingering scents you notice the longest are the base notes. They tend to be woodsy, musky scents like Patchouli, Vetiver, Frankincense, Cedarwood, and Sandalwood. Sort of the full-figured fragrances that lounge around after everyone else has left the building. And then there are the oils that bridge the blend of fragrances. Instead of acting as a top, middle or base note, these bridge notes blend all of the other notes; they sort of act like the peace makers and work to make everybody get along. Litsea cubeba, lemongrass, lavender and ylang ylang are examples of those easy-to-get-along with bridge notes. And that's what a musician of long ago decided was the best way to dissect a fragrance.
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