Community guidelines

Version 1.4 · Last updated 2026-10-30

Topnote is a place to share layering recipes other people can actually follow. These guidelines keep it useful. They apply to recipe titles and notes, comments, handles, and anything else you write here, and they form part of the terms of service.

Keep it about the scent

• Publish recipes you have actually worn. A rating on Topnote means "I followed these instructions and got this result", so an invented recipe wastes everyone's time.
• Rate honestly, and only combinations you have tried.
• Comments should help the next person: what worked, what you changed, what to watch for.

Be decent

• No harassment, insults, threats or hate. Disagree with a recipe, not with the person.
• No impersonation — of another user, a person, a brand, or Topnote.
• Do not post anyone's personal details, including your own contact details.

No selling, no spam

• No offers to sell, swap or decant, and no links to sellers. Recommending a bottle is fine; commerce is not.
• No advertising, referral links, repeated posting or off-topic content.
• Do not post on behalf of a brand without saying so.

Keep application advice safe

This is the one that matters most, because people follow these recipes.

• Fragrance goes on healthy, unbroken skin, or on clothing. Never suggest applying it to eyes, lips, broken or irritated skin, or anywhere it is not meant to go.
• Do not present a combination as treating, curing or relieving anything. Perfume is not medicine.
• Do not claim a combination is safe for people with allergies or sensitive skin. You cannot know that, and notes are not an ingredient list.
• Never suggest drinking, swallowing or deliberately inhaling fragrance, or spraying it at anyone's face. Perfume is mostly alcohol and is not made to go inside the body.
• If a recipe carries a real risk — very high spray counts on skin, materials known to irritate — say so in the recipe rather than leaving someone to find out.

Nothing unlawful

No content that is illegal where you are or where we operate, including material that infringes copyright, incites violence or hatred, or sexualises children. This is reported to the authorities, not just removed.

Topnote has no private messages, no photo or video uploads and no clickable links, which closes the main ways illegal content spreads on other services. What remains is text: recipes, comments, handles and the short phrases about how a recipe felt. This is how we deal with illegal content in it:

• Child sexual exploitation and abuse. Content that sexualises a child, or an adult trying to make contact with a child, goes to the front of the queue. We take it down as soon as a moderator sees it, suspend the account, keep the evidence the law requires us to keep, and report it to the National Crime Agency.
• Terrorism. Content that encourages or supports terrorism is taken down as soon as a moderator sees it. An account run by or for a proscribed organisation is removed.
• Other illegal content, such as threats, harassment, hate, fraud, encouraging self-harm, or selling drugs or weapons, is taken down as soon as we decide it is illegal or breaks these guidelines. Serious or repeated cases suspend the account, and where someone is at risk we tell the authorities.

Nothing harmful

Topnote is for anyone aged 16 or over, so some of the people reading it are under 18. These rules apply to everything on Topnote, for everyone, and we remove anything that breaks them whoever posted it. Do not post anything that:

• is pornographic or sexually explicit;
• encourages, promotes or gives instructions for suicide;
• encourages, promotes or gives instructions for self-harm;
• encourages, promotes or gives instructions for an eating disorder, such as starving yourself, purging or extreme dieting, including a claim that a scent stops you feeling hungry;
• is abusive about people, or stirs up hatred against them, because of their race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, disability or being transgender;
• bullies anyone;
• encourages serious violence against anyone, or describes real serious violence or injury to a person or an animal in graphic detail;
• encourages a dangerous stunt or challenge, such as setting fragrance alight;
• encourages anyone to drink, swallow or inhale fragrance or any other substance in a way that could harm them;
• shames anyone's body, skin or the way they smell;
• promotes depression, hopelessness or despair.

Talking about a hard time is not against these rules. Saying a scent reminds you of someone you have lost, or got you through a bad week, is fine. If you are struggling, you can talk to someone now: Samaritans on 116 123 in the UK, or call or text 988 in the US. Both are free and open all day and night.

How we protect younger readers

Topnote is built so that the things that carry most harm to young people on other apps are not here at all: you cannot post or send a photo, video or file, there are no private or group messages, no followers, no groups, no live streams and no clickable links. Everything anyone writes is public, so it can be seen and reported. Recipes are ranked the same way for everyone, by how they are rated, so nobody is shown more of something because they lingered on it.

For each kind of content in "Nothing harmful":

• Pornographic content. Nobody can post an image or video, so it could only be written, and sexual words are refused by the automated check below. Anything that gets through is removed as soon as we see it.
• Suicide and self-harm. The automated check refuses common phrases that encourage self-harm. A report is reviewed within 24 hours and the content removed. Serious or repeated cases suspend the account.
• Eating disorders. A report is reviewed within 24 hours, and the content is removed. Serious or repeated cases suspend the account.
• Abuse and hatred. The automated check refuses slurs and words connected with hate and violence. Reports are reviewed within 24 hours and the content removed.
• Bullying. You can block anyone from their profile, which hides each of you from the other; they are not told. Posting limits stop one account flooding a recipe with comments. Reports are reviewed within 24 hours.
• Violence, against people or animals. Words connected with violence are refused by the automated check, and nothing visual can be posted. Reports are reviewed within 24 hours and the content removed.
• Dangerous stunts and challenges, and harmful substances. A recipe's spray counts (one to six) and where it goes on (neck, wrists, chest, clothing, hair or inner elbows) can only be chosen from safe options. Anything written that encourages misuse is removed when reported, within 24 hours.
• Body shaming, and content promoting depression. Reports are reviewed within 24 hours and the content removed. Answers to "How did it make you feel?" are chosen from a fixed list of words, and the short phrases people add are shown without a name, and only once three people have answered.

These protections are the same for everyone, whatever their age. We do not ask for or know anyone's age, so we treat every reader as if they might be 16.

Who can use Topnote

You must be 16 or over to use Topnote (terms of service, section 3). We do not check ages when you sign up. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 16, from a report or from what they post, we close the account and delete its data. To tell us, report the profile, or email privacy@topnoteshelf.app.

Reporting

Every recipe, comment and profile has a ••• menu with Report. Choose a reason, add detail if it helps, and send. You can also block a person from their profile, which hides their content from you and yours from them.

If you cannot use the in-app report — or you are not a Topnote user — email support@topnoteshelf.app. Tell us what the content is, where it is, and why you think it breaks these guidelines or the law.

What happens after a report

1. We look at it. Reports of harmful or illegal content are reviewed within 24 hours. Everything else within 72 hours. 2. We decide. Content that breaks these guidelines is hidden. Repeated or serious breaches suspend the account. Illegal content is removed and may be reported to the authorities. 3. We tell you. If we act on your report, we tell you what we did. If we act on your content, we tell you what was removed, why, and which rule it broke. 4. You can appeal. Reply to that message, or email support@topnoteshelf.app within 30 days. A person looks at the decision again from the start, and we tell you the outcome within 7 days. If we got it wrong we put it back and say so.

We do not act on reports that are simply disagreements, and repeatedly filing bad-faith reports is itself a breach of these guidelines.

Automated checks

Before a recipe title or note, a comment, a handle or a phrase about how a recipe felt is published, it is checked against a list of words and phrases we do not allow: swearing, slurs, sexual terms, and words connected with violence, self-harm, children or selling drugs. The check matches whole words, whatever the capital letters, and when one is found the text is not published and you are asked to change it. It reads nothing else, learns nothing from what you write, and plays no part in ranking.

Automated checks are blunt: if yours is caught wrongly, complain and a person will look. No account is ever suspended by an automated check alone.

Complaints

You can complain to us about any of these:

• content you think is illegal or breaks these guidelines, with Report or by email;
• a decision we made about your content or your account, as an appeal within 30 days;
• the automated check stopping something it should not have;
• the way we handle any of this, if you think we are not meeting our duties under the UK Online Safety Act.

Email support@topnoteshelf.app. We reply to a complaint about how we handle safety within 14 days. The whole procedure, step by step, is at topnoteshelf.app/complaints.

Contact

Reports, appeals and complaints: support@topnoteshelf.app

This is the same text the app shows.