Violet

What it is

The flower cannot be extracted, so the note exists because of ionones, isolated in 1893. The leaves can be extracted and smell nothing like the flower.

What it smells like

Sweet and powdery with a green edge, close to violet sweets. Ionones temporarily saturate the receptors that detect them, so violet appears to fade and return on the skin, which is your nose resetting rather than the fragrance changing.

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.

Mancera (11), Byredo (9), Rasasi (8), Guerlain (7), Versace (7), Burberry (6).