Scent is one of the most important of the 5 senses, mainly because it is the one most closely tied to our memories. How many times has a familiar fragrance transported you back to your childhood or other fond place?
The main challenge when shopping for scented candles online is you are not able to smell the candle for yourself, so you have no idea how appealing a candle’s fragrance is. It can truly be a shot in the dark.
Like a recipe, a fragrance can have many components inside to create a unique scent. These are commonly known as the “levels” of the scent. There are many different kinds of fragrances, which are typically categorized into families to help differentiate each type.
Floral:
These fragrances include any that closely resemble any type of flower (rose, lilac, lavender, etc.)
Woody:
Fragrances that have distinct wood and musk scents. These are generally the most powerful fragrances of all the families.
Oriental: Oriental fragrances are scents they are comprised of rich and exotic scents such as amber, sandalwood and spices.
Fresh:
These fragrances are usually bright, clean and crisp scents like citrus, ocean breeze and bergamot.
By combining fragrances from different families scents can be created in a wide array of variations and levels. This is how scent levels come into play. If you’re ever ever lit a candle and we’re hit after a few minutes with an entirely new fragrance, you’ve experienced these levels in action. The scent levels occur at different times throughout a candles burn cycle, and can change multiple times.
Top Level:
The top scent level is the first scent you smell, and is usually associated with the first impression you get when smelling an unlit or a a candle that has just had the wick lit. These scents are usually very sharp and distinct and include common bright scents like citrus, lemongrass, bergamot or herbal scents. These scents are also usually the first scents to disappear after a short amount of time to mellow out to the middle levels.
Middle Level:
Middle level fragrances are the true personality of your candle, and will start to appear almost immediately after the top notes fragrance state to disappear. Throughout the burn of your candle, these scents will stick around and then eventually subtly drift into the bottom notes.
Bottom Level:
The bottom or “base” level are usually the last scents to appear to our senses. They start to appear after the middle levels begin to evaporate into the air and tend to stick around for the longest amount of time. These scents are mostly comprised of the most rich and deep fragrances and are the most powerful of the 3 levels to help round out your candles fragrance.
These 3 levels of fragrances help give each and every candle fragrance a distinct personality and uniqueness and can help an online candle shopper get a general idea on what to expect when they light their candle for the first time at home.
All PlayerOne Candles will give a break down of the levels of scents for each of our candles to help give you an idea of the type of fragrance you’ll smell at first impression, after your candle has been lit for awhile and finally once your candle has been lit for awhile.
Although we try our best to describe the fragrance each candle will have, there is no other test better than actually trying all for yourselves, which is why we offer 15% off any purchase of 3 or more candles to help you try them all!