Basenotes is a

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

-based online

fragrance An aroma compound, also known as an odorant, aroma, fragrance, flavoring or flavor, is a chemical compound that has a smell or odor. For an individual chemical or class of chemical compounds to impart a smell or fragrance, it must be sufficien ...

resource which includes a fragrance database, message boards and editorial. The site was launched in August 2000 by Grant Osborne as an information site for men's fragrance and grooming. In 2004, the site expanded to include feminine fragrances.

Basenotes Fragrance Directory

The Basenotes Fragrance Directory contains over 20,000 fragrances and over 90,000 fragrance reviews by the site's visitors. Users of the site can search for fragrances by name, house, year of launch, gender, notes (ingredients),

perfumer A perfumer is an expert on creating perfume compositions, sometimes referred to affectionately as a ''nose'' () due to their fine sense of smell and skill in producing olfactory compositions. The perfumer is effectively an artist who is trained i ...

or bottle designer. Visitors to the site can submit information to be included in the directory. The consumer reviews on the site have been described as "admirably prosaic" by

Alexis Petridis Alexis Petridis (born 13 September 1971) is an English journalist. He is the head Rock music, rock and pop music critic for ''The Guardian'', and a regular contributor for ''GQ''. In addition to his music journalism for the paper, he has written ...

in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''.

Basenotes Fragrance Awards

Each year, Basenotes asks visitors to the site to vote for their favorite fragrances that year. Regular winners include

Old Spice Old Spice is an American brand offering male grooming products including aftershaves, deodorants and antiperspirants, shampoos, body washes, shaving cream, and soaps. It is manufactured by Procter & Gamble. Old Spice was launched as Early Amer ...

, Shalimar,

Vetiver ''Chrysopogon zizanioides'', commonly known as vetiver and khus, is a perennial bunchgrass of the family Poaceae. Vetiver is most closely related to sorghum while sharing many morphological characteristics with other fragrant grasses, such as ...

Guerlain Guerlain () is a French perfume, cosmetics, and skincare house which is among the oldest in the world. Many traditional Guerlain fragrances are characterized by a common olfactory accord known as the "". The house was founded in Paris in 1828 b ...

, Chanel No.5, YSL M7
Green Irish Tweed
and A*Men. There are also categories for the best new fragrance and best celebrity fragrance.

Awards and recognition

Basenotes has won five awards for its editorial content, written by Marian Bendeth, at The Canadian Fragrance Awards in 2007, 2008 and 2009. In 2009, the website won a prize for Best Web Editorial at the Jasmine Awards for an article by the writer, Liz Upton. The following year, the same prize was won by the Basenotes writer, Walker Minton. In 2018, Claire Vukcevic won the Best Practical Guide Award for her guide to summer fragrances on Basenotes.

Controversy

Much suspicion surrounds the censorship process on the site, whereby opinions which differ from the orthodoxy as presented by the site moderators are removed. Frequently, this results in the banning of members who express non-compliant views. It has been suggested that there are commercial motives behind this censorship. Fragrance house O'Driu, who apparently suffered as a result of this perceived bias, famously responded by releasing a fragrance called "Kiss My Ass Basenotes", which won an award at the Cafleurebon 2015 fragrance awards.

References

{{Perfume Internet properties established in 2000 Perfumery