How to read a note pyramid

A note pyramid is not a recipe. It is a weather report: a description of what a scent will do over time, written in the order you are likely to notice it. The three lines on our labels — top, heart, base — are there to help you choose, not to tell you what you are smelling.

The top notes are the first few minutes. They are made of small, volatile molecules: citrus peel, pink pepper, crushed green leaves. They evaporate quickly, which is why a candle can smell one way when it is lit and another way an hour later.

The heart is the room

The heart notes arrive as the top notes leave. They are the middle of the composition and usually the part we remember: cedar smoke, tobacco leaf, fig milk, dried hay. If you are choosing between two candles, smell them after twenty minutes rather than at the moment of opening the lid.

A heart can be floral, but it does not have to be. Ours tend toward resins, woods, and the dry edges of herbs. This is deliberate. A room that smells like a bouquet can be lovely; a room that smells like a room is more useful.

If you are choosing between two candles, smell them after twenty minutes rather than at the moment of opening the lid.

The base stays after you leave

Base notes are heavy and slow: vetiver, labdanum, oakmoss, soft leather. They are what remains on the curtains the next morning. In a candle, the base is also what determines whether the scent feels thin or whole.

When a label lists a base note you do not recognise, treat it as a texture rather than a flavour. Labdanum is not a thing you have eaten; it is the smell of warm resin, close to amber. Oakmoss is the shaded side of a forest floor. Knowing the name is less important than noticing whether the room feels finished.

• Top notes: the first ten minutes, bright and volatile.
• Heart notes: the body of the scent, present for hours.
• Base notes: the residue, warm and slow, lasting into the next day.

A note on percentages

We scent our candles at 8% fragrance load. That is higher than a typical mass-market candle and lower than a perfume. The point is not intensity but legibility: enough material for the heart and base to read, not so much that the top notes shout over them.

The same logic applies to our diffusers. Eight reeds, turned once a week, will scent a hallway for four months. Adding more reeds makes the scent louder and the bottle shorter-lived. Neither is an improvement.