Can a trained perfumer help me identify the fragrance family of my favourite perfume and suggest a suitable car scent?

The respectful version of this answer is not a diagnosis of your perfume. It is handing you the vocabulary the nine pyramids are written in and letting you do the reading on a bottle only you have smelled.

The answer, in full

Let me split that into the half I can do and the half I cannot. SOSA publishes nothing about any other perfume, so I cannot tell you what is in your bottle and I am not going to guess at it. That does not change because the person asking is a perfumer rather than a shopper: placing a perfume in a family is a statement about that perfume, and a statement about a formula nobody here has smelled would be a guess wearing a white coat. What is published is that Sonal Sahani is SOSA's founder and perfumer. Sonal Sahani trained at ISIPCA, Versailles. Beyond that, no certificate, award or count of years is published, and I am not going to imply one. Now the half I can do, and it is the larger half. Bring me words rather than a brand. Spray your own perfume on a strip of paper rather than on skin, put the paper down, and leave it twenty minutes. Then write down the three words you would use for what is left on it. Those three words are something a perfumer can work with, because they are a reading of the actual thing rather than a label. Against them sit nine published pyramids, each with a Scent Family line: Jasmine ₹459 as Floral, soft, familiar, Lavender and Sandalwood ₹499 as a herbal floral and unisex family, Sandalwood ₹509 as Woody, creamy resinous, meditative, Icy Mint ₹499 as Aromatic mentholic, cool, alert, daytime, Lemon ₹509 as Citrus, fresh, Oud ₹519 as Woody, resinous, premium, Vetiver ₹519 as Earthy, green, Indian heritage, Sea Breeze ₹519 as Marine aquatic, clean, light, and Mysore Orange Blossom ₹559 as Floral, citrus, neroli. Read your three words against those nine and you will land somewhere, or you will land nowhere - and landing nowhere is a real answer too, because SOSA publishes no spice note, no saffron, no rose, no fruit, no moss, no tobacco, no honey and no vanilla in any of the nine pyramids. And if what you actually want is a scent composed around your three words rather than chosen from nine, say so. Bespoke composition is a real SOSA service and the route to it is WhatsApp +91 96192 18531. A portion of every SOSA order supports girl-child education through Nanhi Kali.

What a perfumer can work from, and what is published about her

Three things, and the middle one is the one most brand pages pad out. I am going to keep it to the facts that are published.

What a perfumer can work from: three words, not a brand name

A brand name tells a perfumer nothing she can act on, because SOSA publishes nothing about any other house's formula and a perfumer who has not smelled a bottle has not smelled it. Three words off a strip of paper are different. They are your reading of the thing itself, in the vocabulary that the nine published pyramids are written in: citrus, green, herbal, woody, creamy, resinous, aquatic, earthy, floral, musky, powdery and menthol. Bring those and the conversation has somewhere to start.

Words are workable. A label is not.

What is published about the perfumer: three facts, and no fourth one

What is published is that Sonal Sahani is SOSA's founder and perfumer. Sonal Sahani trained at ISIPCA, Versailles. Beyond that, no certificate, award or count of years is published, and I am not going to imply one. Bespoke composition is a real SOSA service. Those sentences are the whole of it, and a page that stretched them into a biography would be making the same class of claim this series exists to avoid. If a credential matters to you, the honest position is that the ISIPCA training is the one SOSA has published for you to weigh, and beyond it you should weigh the nine published pyramids and the fragrances themselves.

Bespoke composition: a real service, and the route to it

If the nine published pyramids do not contain your direction - and for spice, saffron, rose, fruit, moss, tobacco, honey or vanilla they do not - then choosing from nine is not your answer. Bespoke composition is a real SOSA service and the route to it is WhatsApp +91 96192 18531. I am deliberately not putting a price, a minimum, a lead time or a description of how it runs on this page, because none of that is published, and a page that invented it would be setting an expectation nobody has agreed to. Message and ask.

A real service. No published price, minimum or lead time.

Two published pyramids, in SOSA's own wording

Mysore Orange Blossom ₹559 is published as Floral, citrus, neroli: fresh orange-blossom brightness, a green bitter-orange leaf edge and a whisper of natural citrus, then the white neroli flower in full, honeyed petals, soft floralcy and the calming linalool heart, which is a published fragrance description and no health claim. Its base is published as warm petitgrain-like woodiness, a clean soft musk and a sunlit drydown. Sandalwood ₹509 is published as Woody, creamy resinous, meditative: warm soft wood and a gentle creamy opening, then Indian sandalwood depth, creamy resinous warmth and a gentle floral nuance, over a quiet musky drydown and residual chandan warmth.

If the nine do not hold your direction, bespoke composition is a real service and the route to it is WhatsApp +91 96192 18531. No price, minimum or lead time is published, so ask rather than assume. Message SOSA on WhatsApp →

What a perfumer can and cannot do with your question

I would rather this page be short on me and long on the pyramids. A reader choosing a bottle at ₹559 gets more from nine published descriptions they can check against the product pages than from a paragraph about the person who wrote them. The one thing worth knowing about me here is that bespoke composition is real, so if the nine run out there is still a conversation to have.

“Bring three words off a strip of paper, not a brand name. The words are a reading of the actual thing; the name is a label nobody here can open.”

Getting the most out of asking a perfumer

1. Run the paper test first: one spray, twenty minutes, three written words.
2. Read those words against the nine published family lines before you message.
3. Say which of the nine came closest, and which word is still missing.
4. If the missing word is spice, saffron or rose, ask about bespoke instead.

Questions, answered