What are these "notes" that I keep hearing about?
When you think of essential oils being used in perfumery, think of the notes as a musical scale of scents. Each fragrance is either a top, middle, or base note. Once in a while, there will be fragrances that can be classified in more than one note category. This can be expressed as "middle to top" or "base to middle" etc. When you mix your notes, it is common practice to take scents from each note and blend them together. This is definitely not a requirement, but a good starting point for formulations, especially for beginners. It is possible that two base notes will work well together without a top note, or a top note and a base note will work together without a middle note, but common practice is to combine fragrances from each of the three notes together. However, if you feel that you have a good combination without conforming to that practice, by all means keep it! The main idea is to find a pleasant and unique fragrance.
Top note essential oils are usually very light, and fresh scented. This usually includes essential oils such as orange, peppermint, tea tree, etc. Top notes evaporate very fast, and are not long lasting. They are also usually the least expensive of the essential oils.
Middle note essential oils are balancing to a blend. They are very stable and give body to a blend. Middle note essential oils have a very warm scent, and can sometimes take a few minutes to get the full effect of the scent. Some examples of middle notes are lavender, pine, and rosemary.
Base notes are the strongest and heavy fragrances. Their scents are present for a very long time and also slow down the evaporation of other oils. Some examples of base notes are ylang ylang, vanilla, rose, and jasmine. In addition, base note essential oils are usually the most expensive.
When mixing your essential oils and testing your blends, try picking any fragrances from each of the notes that you think will blend well together, and mix 1-3 drops of each. One way of doing this is to use a clean cotton Q-tip or add a few drops to a cotton ball or absorbent piece of paper, using one fragrance for each. Then, put all of your cotton balls into a sealed jar and set aside. In a few minutes, open up the container and smell it. Try to smell all of the different notes that you added, and jot downyour findings. Put the lid back on your container and let it mature for a bit longer, about 1-2 hours, and smell again while writing notes. Lastly, put the lid on again and put aside to let the fragrance fully mature and mellow. This can take 1-2 days. Smell again, and take notes.
The fun part of blending essential oils is all of the experimenting. Maybe you need another drop or two of a top note, or less of the base note. Maybe you want to add a different middle note. The possibilities are endless, so have fun testing
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