sillage
see-YAHZH
/siːˈjɑːʒ/
The trail of scent left behind by a perfume wearer.
This is a highly specific perfumery term. It does not refer to how strong a perfume smells on the skin, but rather how it lingers in the air after the wearer has moved away.
The story behind the word. Sillage is a direct loanword from French, where it originally described the white, foaming wake left in the water by a sailing ship. Perfumers poetically adopted the term to describe the invisible, fragrant wake a person leaves behind as they move through a room.
Word relationships
- trail: Trail is a general term for any path left behind, while sillage specifically refers to an invisible trail of perfume in the air.
- wake: Wake usually refers to the physical disturbance in water or air left by a moving object, whereas sillage is purely olfactory.
Commonly confused with
- projection: Projection is the distance a scent travels from a stationary wearer, while sillage is the trail left behind by a moving wearer.
Collocations
- heavy sillage
- intimate sillage
- leave a sillage
- beautiful sillage
Example sentences
- "She left a beautiful sillage of jasmine and sandalwood in the hallway long after she had departed." Describing a memorable exit.
- "While the perfume has excellent longevity on the skin, its sillage is remarkably intimate and close." A fragrance review discussing performance.
Memory hook
Think of a 'silent ship' sailing through the water, leaving a long, elegant wake behind it. The wake of a scent.
When not to use
Do not confuse with 'projection', which is how far a scent radiates from a stationary person.
Fun facts
- Some heavy vintage perfumes from the 1980s had such immense sillage that they were famously banned from certain fine dining establishments in New York.
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