Fragrance Wheel

When people think of perfume they just think of the smelly stuff that some women and men wear in order to make them smell nice. I suppose that is what it is but there is a lot more to it. Not only was it first used hundreds of years ago in Egypt, the different fragrances of perfumes are divided into different groups, then sub-divided and put on a 'fragrance wheel.'

The Fragrance wheel is a new method of classifying a perfume. It is widely used in the retail and the fragrance industry. This method of classification was invented by Michael Edwards in 1983, and he designed it in order to make it easier to determine the fragrance and the naming scheme of perfumes. It also showed the relationships between all the different classes of perfumes.

There are five classes/families of perfumes in the fragrance wheel, they are Floral, Oriental, Woody,  and Fresh. The first three classes of perfumes are the original classes and the 'Fresh' class is a newer class, consisting of clean oceanic and citrus fragrances. This new class of fragrance was added to the fragrance wheel because of the new improvements in fragrance technology. Each of the classes is divided up into different groups again which are then placed of the wheel according to their similarities to the five main groups.
The fragrance wheel has changed over time in order to encompass and include new fragrances coming onto the market over time. 
The fragrance wheel was established to incorporate all the unique and common smells that are produced in perfume. Each smell comes from the oils from different flowers sourced from around the world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragrance_wheel (link for picture)