Fascinating world of perfumes
Interesting facts about perfumes
- Perfume is made up of alcohol, water & perfume (fragrance) oil.
- Eau de - means "water of" in French.
- Eau de cologne - used by men. Contains about 3-5% perfume oil. Aftershave lotions & splash colognes - used by men. Contains about 0.5-2% perfume oil.
- Eau de parfum - used by women. Contains about 15-18% perfume oil. Eau de toilette - used by women. Contains about 4-8% perfume oil.
- Parfum (perfume) is the strongest of them all as it contains the most perfume oil. Use sparingly.
- To test if your skin is allergic to a perfume, try this: apply a small amount on your wrist, or the inner elbow or the back of your hand/arm & if there's a reaction after 1 hour, then the perfume is probably not for you. Don't test more than 4 perfumes at a time.
- Buying a famous brand or even the latest novelty in the market doesn't conveniently mean it's the best choice. Some workplaces in Canada & the US have encouraged employees to refrain from putting on perfumes & other fragrance products. Reason? They can trigger migraine & certain health problems for people who are very allergic to them.
- It is a word that comes from Latin per fumum, which means "through smoke" (per means through, fumum means smoke).
- There are 3 major types: Oriental, floral & chypre (means "very sincere" in French). There are also many sub-variations such as woody, musky, aquatic, spicy & fruity.
- Scented ingredients added to perfumes include ginger, grapefruit, musk, peppercorns, mandarin peel, fig leaves, rose, watercress, bamboo, clementine, vanilia, honeysuckle, green tea & the list goes on. A perfume contains between 10 to more than 250 ingredients.
- A highly trained and excellent sense gifted expert (often known as a "nose" within the industry) is responsible for creating perfumes. "Noses" compare themselves to composers & each perfume is like a piece of music, divided into 3 movements; beginning, middle & end - equivalent to the different stages of perfume evaporation.
- Industrial perfumes are used to hide odours, e.g. in paints & cleaning agents.
- It's not moronic to spritz some perfume in the air & walk through it. Just be prepared to clean up the oily patch beneath you, afterall a tiny amount of perfume will definitely descend onto the floor.
- Go ahead & spritz some on your hair.
- Never spray perfume onto silk. It'll spoil it.
- Everyone has their own personal aura. Thanks to diet, skin type & perspiration. Which means, a perfume could smell differently on 2 persons.
- People with oily skin tend to have stronger fragrance as compared to those with dry skin. Since perfume scent retains longer on oily skin, apply a layer of petroleum jelly (eg. vaseline) onto your skin before putting on perfume.
- Best spots to apply perfume: the nape (back) of the neck, inner elbow, cleavage, behind the ears & along the shoulders.
- To prolong a bottle of perfume, place it in a cool dry place. Exposure to sun can lead to discoloration, smell alteration & evaporation.
- If you've fallen deeply in love with a perfume that your skin is allergic to, why not use it to scent your bags, purses, hair, jackets (or clothes that are not directly in contact with your skin). That should be some consolation!
Source: Tips of All Sorts.com
History of Perfume
Perfume was first used by the Egyptians as part of their religious rituals. The two principal methods of use at this time was the burning of incense and the application of balms and ointments. Perfumed oils were applied to the skin for either cosmetic or medicinal purposes. During the Old and Middle Kingdoms, perfumes were reserved exclusively for religious rituals such as cleansing ceremonies. Then during the New Kingdom (1580-1085 BC) they were used during festivals and Egyptian women also used perfumed creams and oils as toiletries or cosmetics and as preludes to love-making. The use of perfume then spread to Greece, Rome, and the Islamic world. And it was the Islamic community that kept the use of perfumes since the spread of Christianity led to a decline in the use of perfume. With the fall of the Roman Empire, perfume's influence dwindled. It was not until the twelfth century and the development of international trade that this decline was reversed.
Perfume enjoyed huge success during the seventeenth century. Perfumed gloves became popular in France and in 1656, the guild of glove and perfume-makers was established. The use of perfume in France grew steadily. The court of Louis XV was even named "the perfumed court" due to the scents which were applied daily not only to the skin but also to clothing, fans and furniture. The eighteenth century saw a revolutionary advance in perfumery with the invention of eau de Cologne. This refreshing blend of rosemary, neroli, bergamot and lemon was used in a multitude of different ways: diluted in bath water, mixed with wine, eaten on a sugar lump, as a mouthwash, an enema or an ingredient for a poultice, injected directly... and so on. The variety of eighteenth-century perfume containers was as wide as that of the fragrances and their uses. Sponges soaked in scented vinaigres de toilette were kept in gilded metal vinaigrettes. Liquid perfumes came in beautiful Louis XIV-style pear-shaped bottles. Glass became increasingly popular, particularly in France with the opening of the Baccarat factory in 1765.
As with industry and the arts, perfume was to undergo profound change in the nineteenth century. Changing tastes and the development of modern chemistry laid the foundations of perfumery as we know it today. Alchemy gave way to chemistry and new fragrances were created. The French Revolution had in no way diminished the taste for perfume, there was even a fragrance called "Parfum a la Guillotine." Under the post-revolutionary government, people once again dared to express a penchant for luxury goods, including perfume. A profusion of vanity boxes containing perfumes appeared in the 19th century.
Due to its jasmine, rose and orange-growing trades, the town of Grasse in Provence established itself as the largest production center for raw materials. The statutes of the perfume-makers of Grasse were passed in 1724. Paris became the commercial counterpart to Grasse and the world center of perfume. Perfume houses such as Houbigant (produces Quelques Fleurs, still very popular today), Lubin, Roger & Gallet, and Guerlain were all based in Paris.
Soon bottling became more important. Perfume maker Francois Coty formed a partnership with Rene Lalique. Lalique then produced bottles for Guerlain, D'Orsay, Lubin, Molinard, Roger & Gallet and others. Baccarat then joined in, producing the bottle for Mitsouko (Guerlain), Shalimar (Guerlain) and others. Brosse glassworks created the memorable bottle for Jeanne Lanvin's Arpege, and the famous Chanel No.5.
In 1921 Couturier Gabrielle Chanel launches her own brand of perfume, created by Ernest Beaux, she calls it Chanel No.5 because it was the fifth in a line of fragrances Ernest Beaux presented her. Ernest Beaux was the first perfumer to use aldehydes regularly in perfumery.
The 1930's saw the arrival of the leather family of fragrances, and florals also became quite popular with the emergence of Worth's Je Reviens (1932), Caron's Fleurs de Rocaille (1933) and Jean Patou's Joy (1935). With French perfumery at it's peak in the 1950's, other designers such as Christian Dior, Jacques Fath, Nina Ricci, Pierre Balmain.. and so on, started creating their own scents.
Perfume Making & How to Make Your Own Perfume
Essential Oils, absolutes, fragrance oils and other fragrant chemicals are used to make perfume. On this site I will only provide instructions for perfume creation using essential oils, absolutes and fragrance oils. There are many other aromatic oils and chemicals available to the experienced perfumer that I do not use in these instructions.
Building you Perfume Organ
Perfumers work at a perfume organ, a unit of semi-circular stepped shelving containing hundreds of bottles of raw materials. Of course you do not need hundreds of bottles of raw ingredients to get started. You can begin with as few as 10 different oils.
Fragrance families
The first step to creating your fragrance is deciding what type of fragrance you are interested in creating. What kind of scent will define your personality? Here is a simple guide of the major fragrance families (from The Fragrance Foundation) that should help you:
- Citrus: The light, fresh character of citrus notes (bergamot, orange, lemon, petitgrain, mandarin, etc.) is often combined with more feminine scents (flowers, fruits and chypre).
- Green: Green notes are natural in character; often married with fruity and floral notes, they are modern and fashionable.
- Flowery: An accord of different floral notes. Combined with any other family, flowery perfumes are universally commercial.
- Single Floral: A composition based on the scent of one particular flower; the main examples are rose, jasmin, tuberose, lily of the valley or ylang ylang.
- Oriental: A blend of warmth and mystery. Musks and precious woods are complemented by exotic essences.
- Semi-Oriental: Semi-orientals combine oriental notes with various florals. Top notes are often fresh.
- Chypre: Based on a woody, mossy and flowery complex, sometimes with aspects of leather or fruits, chypre perfumes are rich and tenacious.
Have you figured out what family suits you? Now you must choose the ingredients in your perfume.Also.. Take a look at the notes used in commercial perfumes to get some ideas.
After choosing your ingredients you are ready to start the mixing process. I am often asked about creating "top notes" "middle notes" and "base notes". I recommend the following:
The most simple method would be to use a 3:2:1 ratio (top:mid:base) Once you are a little more experienced you may choose to alter this ratio.
Mixing Instructions
I recommend using a dropper and counting drops when making your perfume. If a precise scale is available even better. But most people do not have precise scales, therefore all of the instructions and recipes I will provide will be counted with drops.
After you have written your formula, carefully combine the oils you selected by counting drops. Begin by combining the oils. Swirl after every ingredient you add. Then add the alcohol, make sure this is the last step since alcohol is highly volatile and will evaporate quickly if the bottle is not sealed. Once the alcohol has been added shake the bottle gently. For the next 3 or 4 days shake the bottle twice a day. If you are using Vodka as the alcohol base you will notice that your perfume is forming seperate layers. Vodka does not contain the amount of alcohol needed to dissolve fragrance oils. Therefoe I recommend specially denatured ethyl alcohol.
Source: Parfums Raffy.com. You can buy all the necessary ingredients and equipment to make your own perfume from ParfumsRaffy.com.