Notes for a fragrance

One of the most useful exercises when you have a fragrance formula is to cut it into pieces or to extract accords, from the different flowers to the woods or characteristic top notes. Most of the fragrances are about rose, jasmine and lily of the valley notes but words do not say anything. Extracting the rose, the jasmine and so on from a perfume will "tell" you the approximate floral idea of the perfumer. In fact it is only the perfumer who know precisely how the engine works and what are the "true" accords. If in music you can extract with almost a mathematical precision the themes, in fragrance this is not so obvious and understanding a true creation is like an "initiation". Having a formula is not enough! This approach (extracting accords) is used from time to time while promoting a new perfume or during internal trainings. When Kenzo Amour was launched I could smell from 4-5 bottles the notes that were special in the perfume - all kind of woods or incenses that are not so obvious and cannot be reduced to one precise raw material. Modern fragrances often use "exotic" terms to describe several particular notes. They are not all the time "marketing bla-bla" but refer to specific notes, sometime so "special" that I have no idea what they could be - no botanical clue nor available accord. Here you have a small list of such kind of notes, particular to several new launches that do not evoke to me any scent.
Helleborus flower (I was told they do not smell)
Chocolate Cosmos flower
Camellia
Satin almond
Cactus flower & cactus
Iced tulip
Honey blossom
Cotton wood
Sleek wood
Blonde wood
Floating wood
Acacia wood
Botanical Musk (is it just ambrette seed, or ambrettolide???)

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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art