Properties of Perfume
Although people have anointed themselves with pleasant smelling perfumes and oils for centuries, it has only been since the 1900s that perfumes were mass-produced in laboratories. Chanel No. 5 was one of the first mass-produced perfumes. Does this Spark an idea?
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Evolution of Perfume
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Modern-day perfumes are the result of advances in chemistry in the mid-19th century. Once it became possible to isolate specific fragrance molecules, then replicate them in a laboratory, perfumes could be mass-produced.
Perfume Strengths
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Perfume, or parfum in French, contains between 20 percent and 50 percent perfume compound and is the most expensive. Less concentrated and therefore less expensive forms are eau de parfum (10 percent to 20 percent compound), eau de toilette (8 percent to 10 percent compound) and cologne (3 percent to 5 percent compound).
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Perfume Families
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There are more than a dozen perfume families that give a scent its distinctive personality, including citrus, herbal, green, floral, coniferous, fruity, amber, woody, leather and aromatic, according to perfumeandfragrances.com.
Perfume Notes
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Perfumes are generally acknowledged to have three layers or "notes". The top notes are the first impression of the scent that fade soon after contact with the skin; the heart notes, the essence of the fragrance, last four to five hours; the base notes are the foundation of the scent and last seven to eight hours.
Creation of Perfume
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Corinne Marie-Tosello, a graduate of perfumery school in Grasse, France, says that a good perfume contains anywhere between 50 and 150 aromatic substances, which are carefully combined to make an appealing scent.
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- Photo Credit Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of Josh Pesavento
