A magazine about scent and what the label says
Regulation (EU) 2023/1545 added 56 fragrance allergens to the labelling list. After 31 July 2026, products that do not meet the new rules may no longer be placed on the market. What that means when you read a pack.
Read: Fragrance allergens: what Regulation 2023/1545 changed
Updated 12 October 2026.
There is no “best perfume”. There is a fragrance that suits you, your skin and the occasion. Here is how to find it without leaving it to chance.
The ingredient list on a cosmetics pack is not random. It follows fixed rules for order and naming – once you know them, you can read a cream or a shampoo in thirty seconds.
The smell of freshly washed laundry is one of the scents we wear most often – even though we never chose it at a perfume counter. Labelling rules apply to it too.
A fragrance family is an aid to orientation, not a law of nature.
From the Fragrances section: why fragrance classifications differ
Eight directions, eight blotters. Pick the one that pulls you and the Scent Compass breaks it down into shades, notes and a family.
The Lab The Scent Compass recommends nothing to buy. It shows a profile: the family, the notes and the archive fragrances that have them in their pyramid. Open the Compass
Fifteen materials that pyramids are built from. For each: where it comes from, where it sits in the pyramid and how it shows up on a label.
Four tools that run in your browser: the Scent Compass from mood to note, the Note Atlas with a filter by impression, concentrations from eau fraîche to extrait, and the decoder for ingredient lists.