Some essential facts about perfumes

Some essential facts about perfumes

Here are a few facts that most people are unaware of as far as fragrances are concerned. Did you know that the chemical composition of perfume consists of 78% – 95% of denatured ethyl alcohol? Essential oils make up the remainder. And there are five fragrant variants.

These are:

• Perfume is costliest as its made of 22% essential oils.
• Eau de Parfum or EDP has 15 – 22% essential oils.
• Eau de Toilette or EDT is next with 8 to 15% essential oils.
• Eau de Cologne has only 4% essential oils in its chemical make up.
• Eau Fraiche, the lightest dilution of fragrance, has only 1 to 3% essential oils.

New introductions in the perfume market are often promoted as EDPs. Occasionally the EDT variant is not produced since there is a growing demand for Eau de Parfum as people are looking for a more long-lasting signature.

Fragrance categories:

These are:

• Floral
• Green Marine
• Fruit
• Chypre
• Oriental
• Floriental

Typical plant products include:

• bay leaf
• anise
• bergamot
• cedar wood
• eucalyptus (eucalyptus oil)
• cardamom
• gardenia
• frankincense
• iris
• geranium
• lavender
• jasmine
• lemon (lemon oil)
• lily of the valley
• lilac
• magnolia
• lily
• orris
• moss
• orange (orange oil)
• raspberry
• neroli
• patchouli
• rose
• sage
• pine
• tuberose
• sandalwood
• vanilla
• ylang-ylang
• violet
• argan (argan oil)
• peppermint (peppermint oil)

That musky scent: Animal products used in scents include ambergris drawn from sperm whales, musk derived from the musk deer (male), civet from the civet cat and a secretion of the beaver called castoreum. These are used as fixatives and at the same time add a magical, exciting and intangible mystique to the fragrance.