Fragrance Glossary: 40 Perfume Terms Every Indian Buyer Must Know

Walk into any fragrance store — online or in Kannauj's own attar bazaars — and you'll hear words like "top notes," "sillage," "majmua," or "EDP" thrown around like everyone's supposed to already know them. Most buyers don't, and that's completely normal. Fragrance has its own vocabulary, built up over centuries of perfumery in places like Kannauj, Grasse, and the Middle East.

We put this glossary together because we kept getting the same questions from customers — on WhatsApp, in comments, in DMs. So instead of answering the same question forty times, here's all forty answers in one place.

Part 1: The Basics — Attar vs. Perfume

1. Attar — A concentrated, oil-based natural fragrance made through traditional steam distillation, usually with no alcohol at all. Kannauj is considered the historical home of attar-making in India.

2. Perfume (Fragrance) — A general term for any scented product, usually referring to alcohol-based sprays in Western perfumery, as opposed to oil-based attars.

3. Attar vs. Perfume — Difference — Attars are alcohol-free, oil-based, and applied directly to skin; they tend to sit closer to the body with a warm, skin-like scent trail. Perfumes are alcohol-based sprays that project further and evaporate faster, since alcohol carries the scent into the air more quickly.

4. Ittar — Another spelling of "attar," used interchangeably across India and the Middle East. Same product, different regional pronunciation.

5. Deg-Bhapka — The traditional Kannauj distillation method: a copper "deg" (vessel) heats flowers, herbs, or roots with water, and the resulting vapor travels through a bamboo pipe into a "bhapka" (receiving vessel) containing sandalwood oil or a similar base.

6. Ruh — Meaning "soul" or "essence," a ruh is the most concentrated, undiluted extraction of a single raw material — for example, Ruh Khus (pure vetiver essence) or Ruh Gulab (pure rose essence).

7. Majmua Attar — A blended attar made from multiple individual attars mixed together, rather than distilled from a single source. "Majmua" literally means "collection" or "mixture" in Urdu/Arabic.

Part 2: Perfume Concentration Terms

8. Eau de Parfum (EDP) — A perfume concentration containing roughly 15–20% fragrance oil in an alcohol base, giving it 6–8 hours of longevity. This is the most common strength for daily-wear perfumes.

9. Eau de Toilette (EDT) — A lighter concentration, typically 5–15% fragrance oil, lasting 3–5 hours — good for casual, everyday use.

10. Eau de Cologne (EDC) — An even lighter formula, around 2–4% fragrance oil, offering a quick, fresh burst that fades within 1–2 hours.

11. Parfum (Extrait de Parfum) — The strongest and most expensive concentration, often 20–30% fragrance oil, lasting 8+ hours with minimal spraying needed.

12. Perfume Concentration — Refers to the percentage of pure fragrance oil mixed into the alcohol/water base. Higher concentration means stronger scent, longer wear, and usually higher price.

13. Longevity — Fragrance industry term for how long a scent remains noticeable on skin after application.

14. Sillage (pronounced "see-yazh") — French for "wake" or "trail" — describes how far a fragrance projects from the wearer and lingers in a room after they've left.

15. Projection — Similar to sillage; specifically how strongly a fragrance can be smelled by people standing near the wearer, as opposed to how long it lasts.

Part 3: Notes & Composition

16. Fragrance Notes — The individual scent components that make up a perfume, categorized into three layers: top, heart, and base.

17. Top Notes — The first scents you smell immediately after application; typically light and volatile (citrus, herbs) and they fade within 15–30 minutes.

18. Heart Notes (Middle Notes) — The "core" of the fragrance that emerges after the top notes fade, often floral, spicy, or fruity, lasting a few hours.

19. Base Notes — The deep, long-lasting notes (musk, wood, amber, oud) that remain on skin for hours and anchor the entire fragrance.

20. Accord — A blended combination of notes that together create a single recognizable scent impression — for example, a "fresh aquatic accord" combines marine and green notes into one identity.

21. Dry Down — The final stage of a fragrance's evolution on skin, once the top and heart notes have faded and only the base notes remain.

22. Olfactory Family — A broad category used to group fragrances by dominant character: floral, woody, oriental/amber, fresh, and fougère are the five classic families.

Part 4: Natural Ingredients & Raw Materials

23. Oud (Agarwood) — A rich, resinous wood formed inside Aquilaria trees, one of the most valuable natural perfume ingredients in the world, prized in Indian and Middle Eastern attars.

24. Musk — A warm, skin-like base note; today almost always synthetic or plant-derived (ambrette seed) rather than animal-derived, for ethical and legal reasons.

25. Amber (Ambergris/Amber Accord) — A warm, resinous, slightly sweet base note; modern "amber" in most perfumes is a lab-created accord rather than actual ambergris.

26. Sandalwood (Chandan) — A creamy, woody base note central to Indian attars; it's also the traditional carrier oil used in the Kannauj deg-bhapka process.

27. Saffron (Kesar) — A warm, slightly leathery, luxurious spice note used in premium attars and perfumes for richness and depth.

28. Vetiver (Khus) — An earthy, green, cooling root-based note, traditionally used in Indian summer fragrances for its natural cooling character.

29. Rose (Gulab) — One of the oldest and most widely used floral notes in perfumery; Kannauj has historically been famous for its rose attar distillation.

30. Jasmine (Chameli/Motia) — A rich, sweet white floral note, commonly used as a heart note in both attars and Western perfumery.

Part 5: Formats & Product Types

31. Perfume Oil — A concentrated, alcohol-free fragrance oil (like attar) meant for direct skin application rather than spraying.

32. Roll-On Attar — Attar packaged with a rollerball applicator for easy, mess-free skin application.

33. Bakhoor — Scented wood chips or a compressed fragrance block burned over charcoal, traditionally used in Middle Eastern and South Asian homes to perfume rooms and clothing.

34. Room Freshener/Spray — A fragranced product designed for scenting spaces rather than skin, usually in a water or alcohol base.

35. Combo Set — A curated bundle of multiple fragrance products (often different scents or formats) sold together, usually at a discount versus buying individually.

36. Unisex Fragrance — A scent formulated to be worn by any gender, without being marketed as specifically masculine or feminine.

Part 6: Buying & Authenticity Terms

37. Alcohol-Free — Describes fragrances (mainly attars) made without ethanol or alcohol-based carriers, often preferred for religious, skin-sensitivity, or halal reasons.

38. Batch/Distillation Date — The date a specific fragrance batch was distilled or produced; natural attars can vary slightly batch to batch since they're made from real plant material.

39. Tester — A small sample size of a fragrance offered so buyers can try the scent before committing to a full-size bottle.

40. COD (Cash on Delivery) — A payment option where the buyer pays in cash when the product is delivered, rather than paying online in advance — widely used and trusted across Indian e-commerce.

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Put This Glossary to Work

Now that you know your top notes from your base notes, and your attar from your EDP, explore fragrances crafted using these very techniques — distilled and blended in Kannauj, India's historic perfume capital:

Shop Attars: https://qaffra.com/collections/qaffra-com-collections-long-lasting-attars
Eau de Parfum: https://qaffra.com/collections/qaffra-com-collections-long-lasting-perfumes
Shop Combo Sets: https://qaffra.com/collections/combo-set

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the main difference between attar and perfume?
Attar is an alcohol-free, oil-based fragrance applied directly to skin, while perfume is typically alcohol-based and sprayed, offering different longevity and projection characteristics.

What does EDP mean in perfume?
EDP stands for Eau de Parfum, a fragrance concentration containing roughly 15–20% perfume oil, offering 6–8 hours of wear.

What is majmua attar?
Majmua attar is a blended attar made by combining multiple individual attars, rather than being distilled from one single raw material.

Is attar the same as ittar?
Yes, "attar" and "ittar" are simply different spellings of the same word, both referring to traditional oil-based natural fragrances.