Base Notes

Raw materials and bases that contribute to the most persistent part of a composition and to the character of the drydown: musks, woods, ambers, resins, balsams, leather and gourmand or vanilla materials.

Base notes can provide depth, structure, texture and longevity, but they are not simply synonymous with “fixatives”. A persistent material can also have a strong impact in earlier phases, while its function depends on how it is used within the formula.

How to choose base-note materials

When building the base, first decide what kind of trail should remain: clean and musky, dry and woody, mineral and ambered, resinous, creamy, leathery or gourmand. Combining materials with different profiles and levels of substantivity helps create continuity without making the formula heavy.

Here too, the pyramid is a perceptual guide rather than an absolute classification. Product pages include olfactory profile, function in the formula and available technical data.