Perfumers describe a fragrance as a pyramid in three layers. The image is a simplification, since a fragrance evolves continuously, but it is a useful way to understand what a customer will experience, and when.
Top notes: the first minutes
The most volatile materials evaporate first: citrus such as bergamot, aromatic herbs, light fruits. They create the first impression, the one a customer meets on a blotter in a shop. They rarely last more than a few minutes.
Heart notes: the character
As the top notes fade, the heart appears, often after about twenty minutes. Florals such as rose and jasmine, spices and green notes usually live here. The heart is what the wearer lives with for the next hours, and it often decides whether a fragrance is loved.
Base notes: what stays
The least volatile materials remain the longest: woods such as sandalwood and vetiver, resins, musks, vanilla, amber notes. They give the fragrance its depth and its trail, and they can last for many hours on skin, and longer on fabric.
Why this matters for a brand
A fragrance chosen only on a blotter is chosen on its top notes. Customers, however, wear the whole pyramid. This is why professional evaluation follows a fragrance over time, on skin as well as on blotter: the same trial can be bright in the first minute and disappointing two hours later, or the opposite.
For a launch, it also shapes the experience. In-store sampling, discovery sets and online descriptions should help customers understand the heart and the base, not only the opening.
In practice
When we evaluate trials, we smell them at several moments of their evolution and compare them side by side, on blotter and on skin. The feedback we write for perfumers follows the same structure: opening, heart, drydown and performance.