Ok! So you love yummy smelling things: candles, incense, room fresheners, you'll take them all! Buying candles online can be a daunting experience! How can you tell from an online description that you'll love the fragrance once you get it home?
Fragrance Notes are your friend
Most candle makers invest a good deal of time and pay careful attention to presenting their candle descriptions in a way to give you the best sense of what will greet you in the box when you do unpack it. Some of us do it by setting the mood the candle is designed to elicit. Others offer evaluations using industry standard terms.
Let's focus on the language used to describe fragrance:
Top notes, Middle notes and Base notes.
When we talk about notes, we're basically talking about the volatility of the note, or how quickly a particular compound evaporates vs how long it lingers.
Top (or head) Note: The most volatile oils and therefore the quickest to evaporate, these notes are the ones you first smell the candle
Middle (or heart) Note: The middle notes take a while to develop while burning the candle. These are the notes that are at the forefront, the top notes give way to the heart notes
Base Note: The base note come together with the middle note, giving the candle depth and providing the lingering impression of the fragrance. These notes are often the richest, longest longing notes.