The Scent of Celebrity Success

Stars by day, perfume designers by night: Paris Hilton, Sean 'Diddy' Combs and Mary J. Blige celebrate their elegant fragrances at the 37th annual Fifi Fragrance Awards.

Bombshell Beauties Launch New Scent

Victoria's Secret Angels, Adriana Lima, Candice Swanepoel, Lily Aldridge and Erin Heatherton, launch new Bombshell fragrance.

Sugababes Launch Perfume Trio

The group have launched Tempt, Tease and Touch through the Perfume Shop.

Smells Like Jennifer Aniston

Launching her first fragrance at British department store Harrods, Jennifer Aniston talks shopping, fitness and dealing with the press.

Flower Power Boosts Local Economy In Morocco

Morocco may be well known for its stunning architecture and its mint tea less so, perhaps, for its roses. The flowers are distilled to make rose water an important ingredient for making women's perfume and other beauty products.

Momsen's 'Gossip' About Victoria's Secret

'Gossip Girl' actress Taylor Momsen hosts the launch of Love Rocks fragrance by Victoria's Secret Beauty in New York City.

Perfume - Concentrations, Intensities & Differences

Perfume is made from about 78% to 95% of specially denatured ethyl alcohol and a remainder of essential oils.

The different concentrations of oils and alcohol are how we get the different classifications of perfume.

More recently very low concentrations of oils have been coming onto the market including Homeopathic compounds said to care for the skin.

• Perfume is made with 22% of essential oils. It is the costliest form of fragrance.
  
  
• Eau de Parfum (EDP), ranges between 15 and 22% essential oils.
  
  
• Eau de Toilette (EDT) as between 8 to 15% oils.
  
  
• Eau de Cologne has just 4% essential oils.
  
  
• Eau Fraiche with 1 to 3% essential oils, is the weakest dilution of fragrance.
  
  

Dilution
Perfume oil is necessarily diluted with a solvent because undiluted oils (natural or synthetic) contain high concentrations of chemical components (natural or otherwise) that will likely result in allergic reactions and possibly injury when applied directly to skin or clothing. As well, the scents in pure perfume oils are far too concentrated to smell pleasant. By far the most common solvent for perfume oil dilution is ethanol or a mixture of ethanol and water. Perfume oil can also be diluted by means of neutral-smelling liquid oils such as fractionated coconut oil, or liquid waxes such as jojoba oil.

Intensity & Longevity
The intensity and longevity of a perfume bases on the concentration, intensity and longevity of the used aromatic compounds (natural essential oils / perfume oils): As the percentage of aromatic compounds increases, so does the intensity and longevity of the scent created. Different perfumeries or perfume houses assign different amounts of oils to each of their perfumes. Therefore, although the oil concentration of a perfume in Eau de Parfum (EdP) dilution will necessarily be higher than the same perfume in Eau de Toilette (EdT) from within the same range, the actual amounts can vary between perfume houses. An EdT from one house may be stronger than an EdP from another.

EdP
Men's fragrances are rarely as EdP or perfume extracts. As well, women's fragrances are rarely sold in EdC concentrations. Although this gender specific naming trend is common for assigning fragrance concentrations, it does not directly have anything to do with whether a fragrance was intended for men or women.

Differences
Furthermore, some fragrances with the same product name but having a different concentration name may not only differ in their dilutions, but actually use different perfume oil mixtures altogether. For instance, in order to make the EdT version of a fragrance brighter and fresher than its EdP, the EdT oil may be "tweaked" to contain slightly more top notes or fewer base notes. In some cases, words such as "extrême", "intense" or "concentrée", that might indicate aromatic concentration are sometimes completely different fragrances that relates only because of a similar perfume accord. An example of this would be Chanel‘s Pour Monsieur and Pour Monsieur Concentrée.

Eau de Cologne
Eau de Cologne (EdC) since 1706 in Cologne, Germany is originally a specific fragrance and trademark. However outside of Germany the term has become generic for Chypre citrus perfumes (without fond notes).

Homeopathic
Since 1994 in Germany are produced more than 100 different perfumes basing on natural sources with the feature to be skin protecting: They have ~1% aromatic compounds and are useful as scent with hoemostatic (homeopathic) effects; and ad Jojoba as perfumes, as (herpes-protecting) lip-gloss and as skin-care.

Published under the GNU Free Documentation License

The History of Perfume

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 (left) 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.

First Chemist
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.

Perfume Factory
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.

Book
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.

Extracting Oils
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.

Perfume in Europe

Hungary
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.

Italy
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
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.

Germany
Eau de Cologne and many modern homeopathic concentrations were developed in Germany.

Published under the GNU Free Documentation License

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