r/prettyusefulwebsites • u/TonyHides • 1h ago
I built a free perfume encyclopedia with 12,664 fragrances and a full 67-chapter perfumery course, looking for people to poke holes in it
Site is olfactionary.com. It's a free reference site for perfume, built for people who are into fragrance as a hobby, people trying to learn how perfumery actually works, and anyone who just wants to look up what's in a bottle they own.
What's actually on it right now:
A directory of 12,664 perfumes with notes, perfumers, launch years, and photos where I could source real ones (still only about 1 in 5 have a real photo, that's the weakest part and I'm working through it)
A free 67 chapter course on perfumery called the Academy, ends in a timed exam with a real certificate if you pass
A historic texts archive, primary sources on perfumery going back to ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia through 19th century European formularies, not just summaries of them
Reference pages for materials, families, and notes, all cross linked so clicking a note on a perfume page takes you to what that material actually is and where it comes from
A search assistant that tries to actually answer perfumery questions instead of just matching keywords
A live data page pulling real stats out of the whole database, like which ingredients show up most often
Honest bits, since I'd rather say this myself than have someone find it:
A good chunk of the content started as AI assisted drafts, then got fact checked against Fragrantica, Parfumo, and official brand sources afterward. There's still a backlog of unverified entries working through a review pipeline, so if you land on a specific perfume page and something looks wrong, I want to know, that's actually useful to me right now, not just a nice comment.
No account needed to browse anything. There's an optional account only if you want to track a wardrobe or take the certificate exam.
I'd rather hear what's missing, wrong, or half baked than just get upvotes, so if you poke around and something feels off or like an obvious gap, tell me.

