Amber

Amber is the family the industry long called oriental and has largely renamed. Its materials run warm and sweet rather than floral or green: vanilla, benzoin, labdanum, tonka bean, cinnamon and clove, usually over a resinous base. Gourmand is the branch that pushes into edible notes with caramel, chocolate and praline, a style that traces to Thierry Mugler's Angel in 1992.

Projection is the family's defining behavior. Sillage, the trail a fragrance leaves behind you, runs largest here, and six to ten hours of wear is ordinary. One or two sprays is a full dose, and the usual mistake is dosing an amber the way you would dose a citrus. Applying to moisturized pulse points and leaving the wrists unrubbed helps, since rubbing crushes the top notes and pushes the opening past you faster.

Heat is the complication. Warm rooms and warm skin amplify resins and vanilla. A bottle that reads cozy on a January evening can become overwhelming on a summer commute or in a heated restaurant. These are also the scents most likely to draw complaints in fragrance-free workplaces, hospitals and small meeting rooms. Coumarin, the material behind tonka and much of the vanilla-hay effect, is a restricted allergen, worth knowing if sweet scents specifically give you trouble. Try one in the season you plan to wear it.