The Seven Fragrance Families Every Man Should Know

In this article, we will be answering the question: How are fragrances classified? This goes into more advanced fragrance collecting, and the idea is that you learn which fragrances to add to your collection from the men’s perfume shop based on the notes that you like.

Obviously, there are thousands of fragrance notes out there in perfumery, but this article outlines what perfumers actually use to classify fragrances. This is their own classification system from the French Society of Perfumers, and it's based on a broad fragrance family system where the fragrance focuses on a particular set of notes to give off a certain vibe.

This article will go through the traditional seven fragrance families from the male perspective. I'll give you examples of each, and hopefully, you'll get a good impression of the vibe that each family gives off to help you out when fragrance shopping.

Family 1: Citruses

This family consists of scents such as lemons, oranges, bergamots, and yuzu. If you go into any men’s fragrance store, you'll see that most fragrances have citrus as one of their top notes. Any fragrance that's dominated by citrus notes is usually shorter-lasting, but it's going to be fresher, sharper, and invigorating.

These fragrances are usually warm-weather scents. I'm talking about citrus fragrances like the 24 Faubourg Eau de Parfum spray. This smells like you're spraying fresh orange juice on your skin. Impressively realistic, but it's short-lasting. Another one is the Acqua Di Gio Men Eau de Parfum spray, which still has a few types of citruses in it, but it's a bit longer-lasting from having some woods and amber to balance it out.

Family 2: Florals

These are a bit more creative to use in a men's perfumery. I think as a society and maybe even biologically, we associate floral scents with women and femininity. There are generally brighter, cleaner white florals that get a bit darker as you go along to the roses.

For example, neroli is a commonly used floral note in men's fragrances to keep a fragrance bright and clean. It’s highly prevalent in fragrances such as the Arpege Eau de Parfum spray, which features neroli as its main note. Azzaro Pour Homme Eau de Toilette spray also features some floral scents, but at the same time, it's still very masculine, musky.

Family 3: Fougères

The third family is Fougères, which means fern in French. Think about barbershop fragrances that traditionally use lavender and oakmoss. In the olden days, Fougères was the mainstream scent profile for men's fragrances, which were traditionally masculine, soapy fragrances.

A more modern barbershop would be something like Clive Christian V Amber Fougere. It’s bold and balances rich amber with aromatic spices to give you a seductive and confident scent. Another good one is Jean Paul Gaultier Le Male, which takes a lot of the lavender from barbershop fragrances but makes it more modern with a lot of mint. So if you want a cooling, minty fresh fragrance, check this one out the next time you’re at the men’s perfume shop

.

.

Family 4: Chypres

The Chypre family is also French, and it means Cyprus. It’s traditionally combined with oakmoss, labdanum, and patchouli. It's a bit of an old-school concept, with the most relevant note being patchouli. It’s a dark, leafy note that's a little bit sharp, a tiny bit sweet, and smells mysterious and complex.

An example of this is Baldessarini Eau de Cologne spray, which features patchouli with tangerine, mint, amber, and musk. A lot of guys like to use this as their signature because it definitely makes you stand out. But I think you should be masculine enough to balance out the femininity of this fragrance. Overall, I think patchouli-based fragrances give off a mysterious aura to yourself.

Family 5: Woods

Now we're going into the masculine territory of the woods. Although most products have some sort of woody notes in there to give longevity and some structure for the perfumers to use, woody fragrances are going to be safer for us men.

For example, ARAMIS by Aramis is a classic fragrance from Estee Lauder with a strong woody scent. It consists of notes of sage, clover, gardenia, bergamot, patchouli, orris root, and sandalwood, giving it an elegant and versatile feel.

Oud fragrances are also in this family because oud is a type of wood that's kind of rotting, very rare, and expensive. For example, the Armaf Odyssey Aoud Cologne has woody notes in there, making it very sharp and a little bit smoky. It has a nice bit of sweetness on its dry down, making it overall sexy.

.

Family 6: Leathers

While this is not a necessary fragrance type to have in your collection, I think it adds some edge and diversity. Leather fragrances are an acquired taste. They are animalic because leather is from a cow. But if you want to get into them and experience leather fragrances, I would say start off with something well-loved like Clive Christian C Woody Leather for an ultimate masculine scent. 

Instead of being the main character, some perfumers may use leather with other notes to create a sort of vibe in a perfume, such as Oscar Pour Lui Eau de Toilette Spray. It’s spicy, sweet, but also with leather in here. This smells beautiful but mature in my opinion, and creates a very suave vibe for an evening in cold weather.

Overall, the leather note can help create a bad-boy leather jacket vibe. It's a bit smoky, animalic, or it can be used to create a suave vibe for yourself.

Family 7: Orientals

Finally, the last major fragrance family are the Orientals. These are perfumes that focus on balsamic notes, which means vanilla, amber, tonka bean, myrrh, benzoin, and anything sweet. Orientals traditionally use spices to go with these sweet notes, hence the name describing the region these notes would come from.

Let's start with the classic – Givenchy Gentleman Eau de Toilette Spray. It uses a spice, cinnamon, with vanilla. It’s sweet but also masculine, perfect for everyday wear or casual restaurants.

But if you want something brighter, I suggest you check out Chris Adams Arficano. It smells adventurous with bright notes of cinnamon and pineapple. It's sweet but also woody, giving it a nice balance.

.

Final Thoughts

Overall, this classification system is very general and broad. A lot of fragrances mix and cross over in lots of different families. This article is meant to give you an idea of what kind of scents you're into or want to check out. So don't focus too much on the terminology here; instead, focus more on the vibes.

Thank you for checking out this article. You can easily find your next fragrance online. It’s a great way to find great deals on Inasbay marketplace and explore a vast selection.

Share