How to Create Your Custom Scent


What sets anderson + joy apart from other bath and body collections is the option to customize the scent of your products. The guide below explains the three fragrance notes and how you can use them to create your own unique anderson + joy experience.


The power of scent communicates a strong message and is a key element in many of our emotions, memories, and creativity. The same way musical notes come together to create a melody, fragrance notes (top, middle, and base) are the ingredients that combine to form a pleasurable scent.


Top Notes

Top notes or “head notes” are your first impression when you smell a fragrance. As the top layer they’re the notes that draw you into a fragrance, and as the lightest notes, they generally evaporate within 5-15 minutes. Common top notes are citrus scents like lemon, mandarin, bergamot, and grapefruit, floral notes like neroli and violet, herbs such as sage, thyme, and basil, and woody scents like eucalyptus.


Middle Notes

Typically, middle notes are slightly stronger than top notes and transition smoothly to the bottom notes. Middle notes are also called “heart notes” because they make up about 70% of the fragrance and typically linger for 20-60 minutes. Middle notes retain some of the top notes’ aroma while introducing new scents to deepen the fragrance experience. Common middle notes include rose, jasmine, lavender, cinnamon, black pepper, almond, cardamom, and nutmeg.


Base Notes

Base notes are the long lasting, deep scents that linger until the very end, even after the top and middle notes have evaporated. As the longest-lasting component of a fragrance, base notes usually start to appear about 30 minutes after the fragrance is applied and can last for 6 hours (or more!). Amber, patchouli, musk, balsam pine, sandalwood, oakmoss, leather, vetiver, and vanilla are popular base notes.