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fragrance pheromone

fragrance pheromone

fragrance pheromone guide

Perfume is a mixture of fragrant essential oils and aroma compounds, fixatives, and solvents used to give the human body, animals, objects, and living spaces a pleasant smell.

Angel, Thierry Mugler, 1994; Shalimar, Guerlain, 1925; Beyond Paradise, Estée Lauder, 2003; No. 5, Chanel, 1921 (Pre-1950 bottle); Cabochard, Parfums Grès, 1959 (original bottle); Bellodgia, Caron, 1927; Arpège, Lanvin, 1927 (original bottle); Nombre Noir, Shiseido, 1981; Mitsouko, Guerlain, 1919; Pour Un Homme, Caron, 1934.

History

Egyptian scene depicting the preparation of Lily perfumeEtruscan perfume vase shaped like a female head

The word perfume used today derives from the Latin "per fumum", meaning through smoke. Perfumery, or the art of making perfumes, began in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt but was developed and further refined by the Romans and Persians. Although perfume and perfumery also existed in East Asia, much of its fragrances are incense based.

The world's first recorded chemist is considered to be a person named Tapputi, a perfume maker who was mentioned in a cuneiform tablet from the second millennium BC in Mesopotamia.

Recently, archaeologists have uncovered what is believed to be the world's oldest perfumes in Pyrgos, Cyprus. The perfumes date back more than 4,000 years. The perfumes were discovered in an ancient perfumery factory. At least 60 distilling stills, mixing bowls, funnels and perfume bottles were found in the 43,000-square-foot (4,000 m²) factory. In ancient times people used herbs and spices, like almond, coriander, myrtle, conifer resin, bergamot, but not flowers.

The Arabian chemist, Al-Kindi (Alkindus), wrote in the 9th century a book on perfumes which he named ‘Book of the Chemistry of Perfume and Distillations’. It contained more than hundred recipes for fragrant oils, salves, aromatic waters and substitutes or imitations of costly drugs. The book also described one hundred and seven methods and recipes for perfume-making, and even the perfume making equipment, like the alembic, still bears its Arabic name.

The Persian Muslim doctor and chemist Avicenna (also known as Ibn Sina) introduced the process of extracting oils from flowers by means of distillation, the procedure most commonly used today. He first experimented with the rose. Until his discovery, liquid perfumes were mixtures of oil and crushed herbs, or petals which made a strong blend. Rose water was more delicate, and immediately became popular. Both of the raw ingredients and distillation technology significantly influenced western perfumery and scientific developments, particularly chemistry.

Knowledge of perfumery came to Europe as early as the 14th century due partially to the spread of Islam. But it was the Hungarians who ultimately introduced the first modern perfume. Made of scented oils blended in an alcohol solution, the first modern perfume was made in 1370 at the command of Queen Elizabeth of Hungary and was known throughout Europe as Hungary Water. The art of perfumery prospered in Renaissance Italy, and in the 16th century, Italian refinements were taken to France by Catherine de' Medici's personal perfumer, Rene le Florentin. His laboratory was connected with her apartments by a secret passageway, so that no formulas could be stolen en route. France quickly became the European center of perfume and cosmetic manufacture. Cultivation of flowers for their perfume essence, which had begun in the 14th century, grew into a major industry in the south of France. During the Renaissance period, perfumes were used primarily by royalty and the wealthy to mask body odors resulting from the sanitary practices of the day. Partly due to this patronage, the western perfumery industry was created. By the 18th century, aromatic plants were being grown in the Grasse region of France to provide the growing perfume industry with raw materials. Even today, France remains the centre of the European perfume design and trade.

Classification of Perfumes Depends on the Concentration of Active Ingredients

Perfume types reflect the concentration of active ingredients in a solvent, nearly aways ethyl alcohol. Various sources differ considerably in the definitions of perfume types. “Musk” may be an ingredient of perfume, initially derived from the musk gland of the Musk deer as well as of certain species of Civet, and now also produced in the laboratory, and is thus a fragrance description. All classes of perfume, however, descend from the highest to the lowest concentration of the active ingredients, which are mostly aromatic oils. The most costly perfumes use natural ingredients. Because each concoction contains secret ingredients (some over 100), should an allergy occur, finding the specific cause is problematic.

The ranges quoted below include the lowest to the highest percentages of many sources reviewed.

Parfum (French) or Perfume (English): may contain 10-25%, even 50%, active ingredients.

Eau de Parfum ( French )or eau de perfume (Franglais): may contain 7 to 15%.

Eau de toilette (French), also called toilet water, cologne, or eau de cologne, usually contains about 1–6% concentrates.

Eau de Cologne has also been called less concentrated than eau de toilete.

Splash (also called eau de toilette splash) and aftershaves usually contain 0.5 to 2%.

Describing a perfume

Shelves of perfumes

The precise formulae of commercial perfumes are kept secret. Even if they were widely published, they would be dominated by such complex ingredients and odorants that they would be of little use in providing a useful guide to the general consumer in description of the experience of a scent. Nonetheless, connoisseurs of perfume can become extremely skillful at identifying components and origins of scents in the same manner as wine experts .

The most practical way to start describing a perfume is according to the elements of the fragrance notes of the scent or the family it belongs to, all of which affect the overall impression of a perfume from first application to the last lingering hint of scent

Fragrance notes

Perfume is described in a musical metaphor as having three sets of 'notes', making the harmonious chord of the scent. The notes unfold over time, with the immediate impression of the top note leading to the deeper middle notes, and the base notes gradually appearing as the final stage. These notes are created carefully with knowledge of the evaporation process of the perfume.

Manufactures of perfumes usually publish perfume notes and typically they present it as fragrance pyramid, with the components listed in imaginative and abstract terms.

Olfactive families

Grouping perfumes, like any taxonomy, can never be a completely objective or final process. Many fragrances contain aspects of different families. Even a perfume designated as "single flower", however subtle, will have undertones of other aromatics. "True" unitary scents can rarely be found in perfumes as it requires the perfume to exist only as a singular aromatic material.

Classification by olfactive family is a starting point for a description of a perfume, but it cannot by itself denote the specific characteristic of that perfume.

Traditional

The traditional classification which emerged around 1900 comprised the following categories: