What’s that in the air? Why, it’s a breeze wafting towards me the scent of The Fragrance Foundation’s Fragrance Directory, which contains information on hundreds of different perfumes and such and information on fragrances in general. You can get it at http://www.fragrancedirectory.info/usadirectory/ .

Did you know there was a “Fragrance Wheel”, that divides smells into Floral Notes, Oriental Notes, Woody Notes, and Fresh Notes? And each section has subsections; the woody notes has “dry woods”, and “mossy woods”? I clicked on the Fragrance Wheel first when I got to this site to get educated on smells. Mousing over each section on the wheel gives you details about that aspect of fragrance; its history and how it’s used.

Once I was a little more acquainted with the lingo I went on to the directory. I’m not sure how many fragrances are listed here; I would guess thousands as just the 2008 releases section has over 200 listings. That’s just one of the ways you can browse the directory. You can look for scents for men or women, look at niche fragrances, or even browse the hall of fame scents (which includes things like Chanel No. 5, Polo, Obsession, and, hey, Old Spice.) Fragrances are listed by year, by country, and by family (the fragrance wheel again.)

I took a look at the limited edition fragrances, which numbered something over 200. The overview page for the fragrances has a picture of the item, an icon indicating whether it’s for males, females, or unisex, and a note indicating the fragrance type (floral, woody — that wheel of fragrances again.) When you click on the picture of a fragrance the page refreshes and, on the right side of the overview page, you’ll get information about the company which makes the fragrance as well as a description. For example, the description of David Beckham’s Intense Instinct (brought to you by Coty Beauty US) is as follows: “A powerful take on the iconic David Beckham Instinct fragrance: Intense Instinct. An intense, vibrant and unforgettable Limited Edition. Seize the moment, because it’s now or never!”

You can do keyword searching in this directory but I found it a little difficult. It seemed like I always had to enter the keyword twice before I got any results listed or the “No Fragrances Found” message. I don’t know if this was weird page design or what.

This directory was so out of my sphere that I found it fascinating. Go visit, and read the fragrance descriptions. They’re awesome.