The beginner face to face with the perfumer’s palette

The way a beginner approaches his first collection of fragrance materials is most important if he is to assimilate them properly and will have considerable influence on the way he will deal with them throughout his career.

A good method of teaching him to memorise the various fragrances is to group them in "families" or "series." In the case of the young people for whose training I was partly responsible, I restricted the number to 15 different series: Citrus, Rose, Orange, Flower, Jasmine, Violet-Iris, Anise-like, Herbal, Green, Spice, Woody, Tobacco, Fruity, Balsamic, Animal, and Leather.

The order in which I have listed them has been chosen deliberately. The list begins with the simplest, most common and most widely used families such as citrus and identifiable florals and then goes on to more specific series, ending with those that are the heaviest and the most exotic.

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