Vanilla

What it is

Cured pods from a climbing orchid, hand pollinated, and among the most expensive agricultural crops in the world. Most of what you smell is vanillin, which is made from wood pulp or petrochemicals and costs a fraction of the pod.

What it smells like

Sweet and creamy with a faint boozy depth the synthetic lacks. Real vanilla absolute has a smoky, almost leathery undertone, and the gap between that and plain vanillin is the difference between a vanilla fragrance smelling expensive or smelling like a cake shop.

Where it sits

Which layer of the pyramid it is listed in, across every fragrance here that carries it. A base note is one you smell for hours; a top note is usually gone within the first.

What it turns up with

How much more often than the catalogue average. 1.0x would be chance, so these are the things that genuinely travel with it rather than the things that are simply common.

When it is worn

Against the average fragrance here. The line marks that average, so a bar past it means this is worn in that season or setting more than most.

Houses that use it most

Counted across the fragrances here, which reflects what we cover as much as what a house makes.

Xerjoff (28), Lattafa (26), Giorgio Armani (24), Jean Paul Gaultier (24), Kilian (23), Valentino (23).