Scent as Craft: The First Materials to Buy
and Where to Find Them (EU, UK, USA)
I always return to the same question: What should someone smell first if they want to train their nose properly? What teaches clarity, proportion, brightness, and structure? What materials should one have in their kit? As I promised, this month I launched an online training program for my paid subscribers who are interested in sharpening their sense of smell, improving their understanding of perfumery and enjoying scents deeper. My program is based on my professional perfumery training at IFF and my own ISIPCA methodology.
This article sets out the first materials you should buy for Perfume Class 101 and explains where to obtain them reliably in Europe, the UK, and the United States. These materials will be used repeatedly in exercises designed to train perception—whether you are a beginner, an experienced fragrance lover, or someone who wants to sharpen their judgment as a connoisseur.
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Perfume 101: your first lesson (for paid subscribers)
The First Materials to Buy: Citrus & Fresh
These are the core materials we will use to train ourselves. They are the foundation materials and I have already showed how to use them in my first installment of Perfume Class 101.
Citrus & Fresh Core Set
Naturals
Bergamot oil
Lemon oil
Sweet orange oil
Grapefruit oil
Mandarin oil
Petitgrain oil
Neroli oil — a 5–10% dilution is sufficient for study
Synthetics / Isolates
Limonene
Citronellal
Dihydromyrcenol
Why These Materials Matter
At IFF, citrus and fresh materials belong to what students often call “Box 1 and Box 2”—the earliest building blocks of perfumery language. They are used early, because they form the top notes and learning to build the beautiful intro to a perfume is a key skill.
Limonene deserves particular attention. Although it is chemically simple and ubiquitous in citrus oils, studying it on its own teaches you what “citrus freshness” actually consists of. It helps you see why naturals feel richer than isolates. It’s easy to use to make a citrus accord sparkle.
How We Will Use These Materials
These materials will be used to smell in isolation and in comparison, train discrimination through contrast, practice dilution as a perceptual tool, build simple accords, learn dominance through ratio shifts, and to observe evolution and diffusion over time
You do not need more materials at this stage. It’s better to use fewer materials, but to study them with precision and repetition.
Where to Obtain Materials
Below are reliable suppliers suitable for olfactory training. These are places I recommend to students and readers who want quality, transparency, and small quantities.
European Union
Excellent quality naturals, especially citrus. Located in Italy and ships all over the EU.
More technical, but excellent for structured learning. A good selection of all foundational materials. Supplies like blotters, bottles and pipettes are also available.
Highly accessible across Europe. Their citrus oils are fairly good. You can also buy bottles and other necessities for blending and perfumery work.
Important note
Aroma-Zone is oriented toward aromatherapy and cosmetics rather than perfumery. This is perfectly acceptable for olfactory training, but expect some batch variability.
United Kingdom
An excellent educational resource. A limited selection of raw materials, with some interesting choices.
United States
An industry standard used by perfumery schools. Industry-standard materials and a big choices. Small quantities are available. They also offer kits, but I find that many of them contain blends, rather than raw materials, which limits their use.
Widely trusted and easy to access. Clear on sourcing and origin.
Worldwide
An exceptional catalogue. Based in NZ, but has free shipping for many locations worldwide.
A very accessible starting point for students. Based in Thailand and ships all over the world, but the prices end up higher than the other sources.
How Much to Buy
You need very little:
Citrus oils: 10-30 ml each
Petitgrain: 10 ml
Neroli: 5-10 ml (diluted)
Aroma chemicals: 10 ml
Alcohol: 200–300 ml
Plastic pipettes, small glass bottles for mixing accords, paper blotters
This is enough for months of exercises. You don’t need a perfumer’s scale at this point, but if you have a jeweler’s scale, it will suffice for the quantities we use. For ease, I will list everything in drops/parts.
How to Prepare 30 ml of a 10% Dilution
For each material:
3 ml aromatic material
27 ml alcohol
Combine gently. Label clearly. Citrus oils oxidize easily, so store them in a cool, dark place.
If You Prefer Drops (Approximate)
Assuming ~30 drops = 1 ml (drop size varies, but consistency matters more than precision):
90 drops material
810 drops alcohol
A Final Word
Training your nose is not about acquiring rare materials. It is about learning how familiar materials behave under sustained attention.
Citrus materials are strict teachers. If you can smell them well, you will smell everything else better.
In the next installment, we will return to the bench and begin:
Building structured citrus accords
Learning clarity vs muddiness
Identifying notes in a commercial perfume
Understanding why some perfumes feel radiant and others collapse
For now: buy carefully, dilute patiently, and smell with intention.
If you have a favorite source for raw materials, please let me know in the comments.
Hello Victoria. You write "Aroma-Zone is oriented toward aromatherapy and cosmetics rather than perfumery. This is perfectly acceptable for olfactory training, but expect some batch variability." Is there a difference in the production of essential oils for perfumery and aromatherapy?
Love your resources Victoria - can I also add to the list for worldwide & specifically for us Antipodeans - Fraterworks in NZ supply exceptional naturals, bases and aroma chemicals - as low as 1gm weights, which is fabulous for beginners & small trials.