Perfume has a lively online community with its own slang. The most common terms: SOTD (scent of the day), blind buy (buying without smelling), FBW (full-bottle worthy), beast mode (extremely strong and long-lasting), compliment getter (a perfume others often praise), clone or dupe (a cheaper smell-alike), batch (a production run, sometimes said to smell different), flanker (a variation on an existing perfume), and dry down (how a perfume smells after the opening fades). This glossary explains these and other terms, with links to fuller articles where a word hides a real concept.
Wearing and reviewing
- SOTD / FOTD — scent (or fragrance) of the day: what someone is wearing today.
- Performance — how long a perfume lasts and how far it projects. See Sillage, Projection and Longevity.
- Beast mode — very strong, very long-lasting. Not always a compliment in close quarters.
- Skin scent — a perfume that stays close to the skin. See What Is a Skin Scent Perfume?.
- Sillage monster — a perfume with a huge trail.
- Dry down — the later stages, after the top notes have gone. See What Is the Dry Down of a Perfume?.
- Opening — the first minutes after spraying.
- Nose blind — no longer noticing your own perfume. See Why Can’t I Smell My Own Perfume?.
- Compliment getter / compliment monster — a perfume that draws praise from others. Compliments depend on people, settings and luck as much as the perfume.
- Mass appealing — widely liked, easy to wear; sometimes said dismissively.
- Polarising — loved by some, disliked by others.
- Linear — a perfume that smells much the same from start to finish.
Buying and collecting
- Blind buy — buying without having smelled it. See Blind Buying Perfume.
- FBW — full-bottle worthy: good enough to buy a whole bottle, not just a sample.
- Decant / split — a small amount transferred from a full bottle; a "split" is a bottle shared among several buyers as decants. See Perfume Samples and Decants.
- Discovery set — a box of samples from one house.
- Tester — a bottle made for shops, often sold online. See Grey Market Perfume, Testers and Unboxed Bottles.
- Grey market — genuine perfume sold outside authorised channels.
- Rotation — the perfumes someone wears regularly. See Building a Fragrance Wardrobe.
- Signature — one perfume worn as a personal identity. See How to Find Your Signature Scent.
- Unicorn — a rare, hard-to-find perfume, often discontinued. See Discontinued Perfume.
- Vintage — an older bottle, often of a formula since changed. See Buying Vintage Perfume.
Slang is a shortcut. The perfume itself still has to be smelled.
Brands and releases
- Designer — a perfume from a fashion or beauty brand. Niche — from a house devoted to fragrance. See Niche vs Designer Perfume.
- Flanker — a new version under an existing name ("Intense", "Elixir"). See Elixir, Intense, Absolu.
- Clone / dupe / inspired by — a cheaper perfume made to smell like a famous one. See Perfume Dupes.
- Fake — a counterfeit, not a dupe. See How to Tell If Perfume Is Fake.
- Reformulation / reformulated — a changed formula under the same name. See Why Perfumes Are Reformulated.
- Batch — a production run. People sometimes say batches differ; small variations are possible, but much of what is reported is hard to separate from storage, age and expectation. See Why Does My Perfume Smell Different Now?.
- Juice — the perfume liquid itself, as opposed to the bottle (from the French jus). See French Perfume Terms, Translated.
- Nose — a perfumer. See What Does a Perfumer Do?.
Notes and smells
- Note — something you can smell in a perfume, not necessarily an ingredient. See Are Perfume Notes Real Ingredients?.
- Accord — a blend of materials that creates one impression. See The Architecture of a Fragrance.
- Animalic / skanky — warm, musky, faintly bodily notes.
- Soapy / clean — fresh-laundry smells. See What Does "Clean" Mean in Perfume?.
- Powdery — soft, cosmetic, iris-and-violet. See What Does Powdery Mean in Perfume?.
- Boozy — notes of rum, cognac or liqueur. See Boozy Perfumes.
A word on slang and judgement
Online terms often carry opinions: "mass appealing" can sound like a criticism, "beast mode" like praise. Neither tells you whether a perfume will suit you. Read reviews for what people smell, not only their verdicts, and test on your own skin. See How to Test a Perfume Before You Buy It.
Common questions
What does SOTD mean in perfume?
Scent of the day — the perfume someone is wearing today.
What does "beast mode" mean?
A perfume that is very strong and long-lasting.
What does FBW mean?
Full-bottle worthy — good enough to buy a full bottle.
What is the difference between a clone and a fake?
A clone or dupe is a different perfume sold under its own name; a fake pretends to be the original brand’s product.
Further reading
For the professional vocabulary of perfumers — the words used at the formulation bench — see RUŌOD Lab’s Perfumery Glossary.
