Basenotes

Basenotes has been running since August 2000, which makes it one of the oldest fragrance communities online. Grant Osborne founded it in London and still runs it, and it has been described as "arguably the most important" discussion forum in the perfume world.

The forum is the heart of it: more than 5.4 million posts across over 279,000 threads, and still busy every day, with a Scent of the Day thread for each date. The boards are organised the way enthusiasts actually talk: fragrances for men and for women, vintage and discontinued perfumes and how to find them, shopping online, and a whole section on making and understanding fragrance for people who blend their own.

Around the forum sit two more things worth knowing. The Basenotes Directory lists 75,530 fragrances, with member reviews still arriving. And there is real editorial: daily news, interviews and indie brand spotlights, plus a weekly newsletter, the Basenotes Bulletin. Its editorial is independent and it does not sell coverage. That work has been recognised over the years with Jasmine Awards in 2009, 2012 and 2015, and in 2026 an Art and Olfaction Award for Contribution to Scent Culture.

Reading is free, and joining is a simple registration. Its readership is mostly in the US and the UK.