Top, Middle, Base Notes — Blending Essential Oils

By Caryn Gelhmann

First impressions are important. Your senses tell you if you’re comfortable with or uneasy about an individual or situation you’re meeting for the first time. The same is true in how you react to essential oil blends. Your first impression of an essential oil blend is usually an immediate reaction to the top note, but the longer you sniff, the more complexity you’ll notice from the middle and base notes.

As a quick overview, this is how the top, middle, and base notes of essential oils work:

Top notes, also known as head notes or peak notes, have tiny, light molecules that evaporate quickly. They are characterized by smelling citrusy, green, cheerful, bright, light, refreshing, or clean. Most of the time, they are obtained from the top of the plants. They generally constitute about 10 to 30% of your blend.

Middle notes are scents that emerge from a blend right after the top notes have evaporated away and give scents their main body, their “heart,” which is why we begin blending with a middle note. They linger a little longer, but not nearly as long as a base note.

Base notes have heavy molecules that take longer to evaporate. They’re deeper and richer and they often act as fixatives.

Here’s a partial list of Top Note essential oils that e3 carries… 

Top notes: Bay Laurel, Grapefruit, Lemon, Lemongrass, Lime, Mandarin Nova, Mandarin Red, Melissa, Niaouli, Orange Sweet, Orange Wild, Ravensara, Ravintsara, Saro, Spearmint, Tangerine, Wintergreen.

Top to middle aroma note: Basil, Bergamot, Eucalyptus, Peppermint, Neroli.

If you’d like a fairly comprehensive top, middle, and base note essential oil list, wikibooks has one.

A balanced blend takes volatility and intensity into account. It’s good to wait thirty minutes or more before deciding if you like your new blend. The scent you apply in the first few minutes will not be the same one you smell half an hour later. So let’s get blending!

3 DIY Recipes with Top, Middle, Base Note Essential Oils

Top O’ the Morning Blend

• 10 drops of a citrus essential oil (Orange Sweet, Bergamot, Lemon)
• 10 drops of either Peppermint or Spearmint

Meet You in the Middle Blend

• 5 drops of Pine
• 5 drops of Eucalyptus
• 5 drops of Ravensara
• 5 drops of Lavender Spike

Playing All the Notes Blend

• 10 drops of Eucalyptus
• 5 drops of Thyme
• 5 drops of Tangerine
• 1 drop of Vetiver

For more blending recommendations, including worksheets to track your experiments, make sure you download our free workbook, The Art & Science of Blending Essential Oils. 

(Psst…you’ll also get a coupon you can use for your next order. Plus we’re working on something special… if you want to be in the know, check the DIY box to sign up for the DIY newsletter.)

Now that you’re aware that each essential oil has a different scent note, will that change the way you smell and blend them? Has it made the blending process seem more manageable? We’d love to hear your opinion. Please share your feedback with us, so we can keep bringing you the most helpful aromatherapy information that we can.