ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Fragrances of the World

Okay kiddo, imagine you love smelling nice things – like flowers, cookies baking in the oven, or your mom's perfume. Now imagine there are millions and millions of different smells in the world, and some people have worked really hard to put them into groups that smell similar to each other. This is kind of like sorting your toys into different bins based on what they look like – your dolls go in one bin, your toy cars go in another bin, and so on.

These groups of smells are called fragrances, and there are lots and lots of them. Fragrances of the world is a big list of all the different fragrances that people have figured out so far. Think of it like a giant toy box filled with all kinds of toys that smell nice. Some of these fragrances are made from ingredients that come from flowers, like lavender, rose, and jasmine. Other fragrances come from fruits, like oranges and lemons. And some fragrances come from chemicals that scientists made in a lab to smell like other things, like musk or vanilla.

When you pick a perfume or cologne to wear, it's kind of like picking out your favorite toy to play with. You get to choose which smell you like the best, and you get to wear it all day long so you can smell nice all day long too. And since there are so many different fragrances of the world to choose from, you can always try new ones and find new favorites!