The scent dictionary

This grid once had empty cells. The Citrus / Base cell stayed empty for a long time because we could not find any reference point in that family that survived to the base stage — squeezed peel flies off, and within minutes it is gone. Salted preserved lime and candied pomelo peel filled that cell, and both got there by the same road: time. Lime steeped for six months and pomelo peel boiled and then candied have both lost all their light part, leaving only the heaviest group. In other words, the citrus family has no base stage by nature — people have to make one.

The cells are still very uneven, and that unevenness is information, not a gap. The woody-resinous family crowds into the base stage: seven of its thirteen entries stay for hours. The household-objects family is the reverse, with eight of thirteen in the top stage — mostly solvents evaporating from new materials, gone within days. Two families, two shapes, and the shape says something about their nature. Reading down a column helps too. The “top” column gathers things that open and leave at once; the “base” column gathers what you can still smell on a shirt the next day.

This grid holds only smells with a reference point you can smell directly. Amber, leather and sea breeze are accords — things a perfumer builds from many substances — so they belong with formulas rather than in this grid.