Genealogy of Perfumes - Chypre perfume

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Perfumes - just like food, music or wine - can be classified into groups, and this gives you a framework which is very useful when choosing a perfume for yourself or for others. Without it, describing fragrances is difficult. Imagine going into a shop to buy some music, and not knowing the difference between Pop, Classical and Jazz - you would have quite a problem!

Chypre. Chypre

Chypre. Chypre is the French for Cyprus and comes from when the Crusader's invaded in the 13th century and brought back a material called labdanum from the sticky buds of the Cistus bush. It has a heavy, sweet, balsamic type of odour but when blended with other base notes like sandalwood, patchouli and oakmoss, made a very popular base. You need to allow at least 10-15 minutes after application to appreciate the similarity between perfumes in this group, since "Chypre" describes the "main-theme" or "base" of the perfume which you will not appreciate until the solvent and top notes have had time to evaporate.

Chypre perfumes tend to be fairly heavy fragrances and therefore last a reasonable time on the skin. Sometimes described as evening type perfumes, or "sophisticated". Our fragrances in this group are Cymbelline for the ladies and Amber for men.