20 Jun 2026 · 3 min read
The scent pyramid, and why the base note matters most in a lobby
Top notes sell the bottle. Base notes are what your guests actually experience.
Perfumery describes a scent in three stages: top, heart, base. It is not marketing language — it is a description of how fast different molecules evaporate, and it has direct consequences for which accord belongs in which room.
## The three stages
**Top notes** are the small, volatile molecules. Citrus, light herbs, aldehydes. They hit first and they are gone in fifteen minutes. This is what you smell when you open a bottle and it is the reason people buy the wrong scent — you make the decision on a stage that lasts a quarter of an hour.
**Heart notes** carry the middle hours. Florals, spices, most of what gives a scent its character. Two to four hours, typically.
**Base notes** are the heavy molecules. Woods, resins, musks, amber. They evaporate slowly, they anchor the lighter notes, and in a continuously diffused space they are effectively the permanent state of the room.
## What this means for a commercial space
In a room where the diffuser has been running since 9am, you are not smelling the top notes. Those burned off before the doors opened. Your guest at 2pm is experiencing the base, plus whatever heart notes are still hanging on.
Which is why a bright citrus accord — gorgeous in the bottle, terrible in a lobby — collapses into its base within an hour and you spend the rest of the day smelling whatever was underneath the lemon. If the base is thin, that is nothing. If it is cheap, that is worse.
And it is why our lobby accords lead with amber, vetiver and labdanum. The top notes exist to make the first impression at the door. The base is what the room is.
## Reading the strip
On every oil page there is a note strip showing the three stages as bars, sized by how long each one lingers. It is not decoration. Look at the base bar before you buy for a commercial space — that is the one you are actually purchasing.
## The three stages
**Top notes** are the small, volatile molecules. Citrus, light herbs, aldehydes. They hit first and they are gone in fifteen minutes. This is what you smell when you open a bottle and it is the reason people buy the wrong scent — you make the decision on a stage that lasts a quarter of an hour.
**Heart notes** carry the middle hours. Florals, spices, most of what gives a scent its character. Two to four hours, typically.
**Base notes** are the heavy molecules. Woods, resins, musks, amber. They evaporate slowly, they anchor the lighter notes, and in a continuously diffused space they are effectively the permanent state of the room.
## What this means for a commercial space
In a room where the diffuser has been running since 9am, you are not smelling the top notes. Those burned off before the doors opened. Your guest at 2pm is experiencing the base, plus whatever heart notes are still hanging on.
Which is why a bright citrus accord — gorgeous in the bottle, terrible in a lobby — collapses into its base within an hour and you spend the rest of the day smelling whatever was underneath the lemon. If the base is thin, that is nothing. If it is cheap, that is worse.
And it is why our lobby accords lead with amber, vetiver and labdanum. The top notes exist to make the first impression at the door. The base is what the room is.
## Reading the strip
On every oil page there is a note strip showing the three stages as bars, sized by how long each one lingers. It is not decoration. Look at the base bar before you buy for a commercial space — that is the one you are actually purchasing.