Formulas, Scent Bases, and the Layering Room

This article covers the layering side of Orrique: how to build and save your own layering formulas, how to keep a separate shelf of scent bases (the oils, lotions, butters, and mists you wear under a fragrance), and how to use the Layering Room to find pairings that work together. You can do all of this on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, though the reordering method varies by platform. The Layering Room and its AI read are not available on Apple Watch.

In short

Save a layering recipe once as a formula, keep your body products on a separate bases shelf, and let the Layering Room rank the pairings worth trying from what you already own.

Formula

A saved layering recipe: the layers in order, how many sprays of each, and where to put them. Build it once, wear it any day.

Scent base

A body product you layer under a fragrance: oils, lotions, butters, mists, and plain unscented carriers. Kept on its own shelf, apart from your collection.

The Layering Room

A finder that ranks which of your own scents and bases pair well together, best first, and saves any pairing as a formula in a tap.

When to use this

Reach for this part of the app when you wear more than one thing at a time, or you want to. If you like to smooth on a vanilla body oil and then spray a woody fragrance over it, or you keep stacking two scents that smell great together, formulas let you save that recipe so you do not have to remember it. Scent bases give those body products a home that is kept apart from your fragrance collection. The Layering Room helps you discover new pairings from the things you already own.

A worked example

Say you own a vanilla body oil and a woody eau de parfum. Add the body oil as a base, then build a formula named “Cozy Woods”: layer the oil on first, the woody scent over it, set the sprays and zones, and save. Later, you can pick the woody scent in the Layering Room and Orrique will surface that same oil (and others) as partners worth trying.

How to use it

Build a formula

A formula is a saved layering recipe: the layers in order, how many sprays of each, and where to put them.

1. Open the Formulas tab.
2. Tap the plus button (New formula) in the top right.
3. Give the formula a name, for example “Spring Layering”.
4. Tap “Add a layer” and choose “Fragrance” or “Base” from the menu.
5. In the picker, tap a scent or base to add it. The picker stays open so you can add several in a row, then tap “Done”.
6. For each layer you can set the spray count (1 to 10) and pick a spray zone (Neck, Wrists, Chest, Clothing, or Hair), or leave it as “No zone”.
7. Layers are applied in order, from first to last. To reorder them on iPhone and iPad, tap the Edit button in the Layers header (this appears once you have more than one layer) and drag.
8. Optionally rate the formula with stars and add notes about how it wears or when to reach for it.
9. Turn on “Favorite” if you want it pinned to the top of your list.
10. Tap “Save”.

As you build, a small live preview shows the stacked layers and a balance ring so you can see the blend taking shape.

On a Mac

Reorder layers by dragging them, and remove a layer by right-clicking it and choosing “Remove layer”.

Wear a formula

Open the Formulas tab and tap a formula to see its detail. You have two ways to wear it:

• “Wear this today” logs every fragrance layer to your diary right now.
• “Wear & track” starts one timed wear session for the whole blend, with a single dry-down timer (you will see it in the Dynamic Island on iPhone). Ending the session logs the layers.

Which one do I pick?

Pick “Wear this today” when you just want it logged. Pick “Wear & track” when you want a live dry-down timer (and the Dynamic Island on iPhone) for the whole blend.

You can also wear a formula straight from the list: swipe a row from the left edge and tap “Wear”.

Favorite or delete a formula

In the Formulas list, swipe a row from the right edge to favorite or unfavorite it, or to delete it. You can also tap a formula and use the heart button in its detail view to favorite it, or the Edit button to change it.

Add and manage scent bases

Scent bases are the scented (or unscented) body products you layer with: body oils, perfume oils, lotions, body butters, shower gels, hair mists, deodorants, and plain unscented carriers.

1. In the Formulas tab, open the toolbar and tap “Bases”.
2. Tap the plus button (Add a base) and pick one of two options:
   • “From the catalog”: browse a built-in catalog of recognizable bases, grouped by brand, and tap one to add it in a tap.
   • “Add by hand”: fill in the details yourself.
3. To add by hand, enter a name (required) and an optional brand, then choose a type from the list.
4. If it is a plain carrier with no scent of its own, turn on “Unscented carrier”. An unscented base extends a fragrance without changing how it smells.
5. For a scented base, add a few scent words separated by commas (for example “vanilla, coconut, musk”), and optionally a family, a strength (Subtle, Moderate, or Bold), and a texture word.
6. Optionally mark it a favorite and add your own notes.
7. Tap “Save”.

To edit a base later, tap its row. Swipe a row from the left edge to favorite it, or from the right edge to delete it.

Layer a base into a formula

When you build or edit a formula, tap “Add a layer” and choose “Base” to pull one of your bases into the recipe.

Find pairings in the Layering Room

The Layering Room suggests which of your own scents and bases layer well together.

Rolling out

The Layering Room is rolling out gradually. If you do not see “The Layering Room” in the Formulas toolbar yet, it is not turned on for your app, but formulas and bases still work fully without it.

1. In the Formulas tab, open the toolbar and tap “The Layering Room”.
2. Under “Start with”, tap “Pick a scent or a base” to choose the item you are starting with. The picker has two sections: “Your bases” and “Your scents”.
3. Once you have picked your starting scent or base, the “Make it” row lets you tap up to three effect chips: Last longer, Sweeter, Fresher, Warmer, Cleaner, or Amplify. Leave them blank for the most balanced pairings.
4. The “Layer this with” section ranks compatible partners from your collection, best first. Each one shows a short plain reason and a tier badge: Amplify, Harmonize, or Worth a try.
5. To save a pairing, tap “Save as formula” on that row. Orrique creates a formula with both items in a sensible order (the base goes on first).

What the tier badges mean

Each partner carries one of three badges so you can read the ranking at a glance:

Badge	What it means
Amplify	A strong match that should reinforce and boost the blend.
Harmonize	A balanced, complementary match that blends smoothly.
Worth a try	A looser match that may surprise you. Lower confidence, still ranked.

Empty or short partner list?

Suggestions come only from things you already own, and a base must be scented to be paired. A small collection, or only unscented carriers on your bases shelf, will give you few or no partners. Add more scents or scented bases and the list fills out.

What to expect

When you save a formula, it appears in the Formulas list, sorted favorites first, then alphabetically. Each row shows the layers, a color spine for the blend, and the layer count.

Wearing a formula logs your wear straight to the diary.

Only fragrance layers are logged

Only the fragrance layers become diary wears. A base layer is treated as the canvas you wear underneath, so it is not logged as something you wore. If a formula has only base layers and no fragrance, there is nothing to log.

In the Layering Room, suggestions update on their own as soon as you pick a starting scent or base or change the effects. The ranking is worked out on your device consistently, so the same starting scent or base and effects always give you the same order each time. If you have paired two things before (in a saved formula), that pairing gets a small nudge upward. Saving a pairing as a formula shows a brief “Saved to Formulas” message and adds it to your Formulas list.

Good to know

Rules and limits

Rule	Value
To save a formula	A name and at least one layer
Sprays per layer	1 to 10
Spray zones	Neck, Wrists, Chest, Clothing, Hair, or No zone
Effect chips in the Layering Room	Up to 3 (blank gives the most balanced pairings)
Partners shown in the Layering Room	Up to 6

A few conceptual points worth knowing:

• Scent bases are kept separate from your fragrance collection on purpose, so they never count toward your collection size, value, cost analysis, or taste insights.
• The built-in base catalog is read-only. When you add a base from it, Orrique makes your own editable copy.
• An unscented carrier has no scent shape of its own, so the Layering Room leaves it out of pairing suggestions. It still works as a layer in a formula, where it mainly helps a scent last and stay close.
• In the Layering Room, when your starting item is a base, you get fragrance partners to wear over it. When your starting item is a fragrance, you get both other fragrances and your scented bases as partners.
• If you delete a fragrance or base that a formula uses, that layer no longer has anything to point to, so build your formulas from items you plan to keep.

”Why this works” Pro Apple Intelligence

In the Layering Room, each partner can show a short “Why this works” read that explains the pairing in plain words and flags anything to watch for. This is written on your device. If you do not have both requirements below, the button does not appear, and the plain reason on each row still tells you why it was suggested. This read is not available on Apple Watch.

What you need

Orrique Pro, and an Apple Intelligence capable device running iOS 26 or macOS 26 or later.

Sharing across your devices (iCloud)

Your formulas and your scent bases sync across your devices through iCloud when you have iCloud Sync turned on in Settings. With Local Only, they stay on the one device. The built-in base catalog is always available, even offline.

On a new device, your formulas and bases appear as your iCloud data finishes syncing down. If a list looks empty at first while a sync is still in progress, Orrique shows a loading message rather than telling you the list is empty, and gives you a way to start adding right away. Give it a moment to finish.

Contributing a base to the shared catalog

If you have turned on “Help improve the shared catalog” in Settings, a scented base you add by hand can be submitted to the shared catalog for a curator to review before anyone else sees it. Unscented carriers are never submitted. This is optional and off unless you turn it on. See Community and Contributions for how this works.

Device differences

Feature	Where it works
Formulas, scent bases, and the Layering Room	iPhone, iPad, and Mac
Remove a formula layer by right-clicking it and choosing “Remove layer”	Mac
”Log Formula” menu bar shortcut for logging a formula quickly	Mac
The “Wear & track” dry-down timer and Dynamic Island	iPhone
The Layering Room and its AI read	Not available on Apple Watch

Related articles

Common Tasks The quick recipe for building and wearing a layering formula.

Free vs Orrique Pro See what the AI read and other Pro features unlock.

What Works on Each Device The full matrix of where every feature is available.

AI Features How the on-device 'Why this works' read is written.

iCloud and Sync How your formulas and bases move between devices.