Perfumes: How Are They Made?
Applying your fragrance is a daily routine. For scent enthusiasts, these musky, fruity, or woody fragrances represent a second skin. But do you really know the manufacturing secrets of your perfume bottle? The perfume industry constantly innovates to surprise our olfactory senses. Let's learn together about the perfume manufacturing process in this article.
Raw Materials
Just like cosmetic products, raw materials are at the origin of a perfume's composition. The raw materials used by perfumers notably include fruits and flowers.
Perfumery uses a wide variety of floral species. Some flowers require specific treatment due to their fragility. This is the case, for example, with jasmine and rose.
Fruits also play a significant role. Citrus fruits are among the most sought-after. Perfumers primarily use their peel.
In addition to flowers and fruits, some perfumes also use woody and spicy materials. These come from the exploitation of tree bark and spices like cinnamon and ginger.
Raw materials of animal origin also go into the composition of a perfume. They are used for base notes. Perfumers notably use musk, an odorous secretion found in masculine perfumes.
Furthermore, synthetic raw materials compose some perfumes. The scents come from chemical molecules concocted in laboratories. Synthetic scents can be a reproduction of natural odors or an invention of a novel scent. Currently, a perfume can contain up to 90% synthetic scents.
Methods of Perfume Manufacturing
In the case of natural perfume, the exploitation of raw materials is carried out in two ways: extraction and distillation.
Distillation refers to a perfume extraction process using steam in an alembic. Imagine the alembic as a giant steel tank equipped with coil-shaped pipes. This vessel holds the plant material along with a large quantity of water: 5 to 10 times its volume.
The alembic is then subjected to pressure to boil the water and produce steam, which carries the scent of the plant material with it. The steam then passes through the coil. When it cools, this steam becomes an essential oil. This process is notably used for extracting ylang-ylang.
Extraction is defined as the infusion of raw materials in a mixture of water and solvent. The process takes place at 60°C. Previously, perfumers used oil as a solvent. Currently, they prefer volatile solvents such as carbon dioxide, methanol, or ethanol.
The infusion produces an evaporation that leads to the obtaining of "concrete." The concrete is then mixed with alcohol to remove the oily part. At the end of this process, we obtain the absolute.
The choice of solvent depends on the plant used. Thus, carbon dioxide is preferred for the extraction of less fragrant materials such as spices and barks.
The absolute is often used in perfumery as a base note, while essential oils serve as top notes.
The Nose
Despite technological advancements, perfumery cannot separate itself from human expertise. Indeed, all great perfumes are the result of the hard work and inventiveness of great "noses." The term "nose" here refers to the professional whose mission is to invent a new fragrance.
These experts possess an extraordinary sense of smell. To practice this profession, a great nose must memorize thousands of scents. Your family scent games seem quite trivial compared to their profession.
Did you know that a nose has four times the ability to identify a scent than a normal person? This unique ability makes them true conductors in the creation and composition of the greatest perfumes like Thé Vert.
The Major Notes
The perfumer creates a perfume much like a musician composes notes. However, perfumery only identifies three types of notes: the top note, the heart note, and finally the base note.
That delicate scent you perceive with the first spray is the top note. This ephemeral scent is then strengthened so that the sense of smell can detect it for four to six hours. You owe your perfume's tenacity to the heart note. These notes generally come from floral essences like lily of the valley.
Finally, the base note represents the foundation of your perfume. It is responsible for that scent that permeates the skin, the one that enhances your sensual side, etc. The base note has a persistence of about 24 hours. It often involves the use of more powerful scents like musk or sandalwood. Some perfumers use very distinct aromas such as vanilla or mint.
Industrial Scale Manufacturing
Once the raw material is transformed into perfume, industrial manufacturing begins. This step involves mixing the essence with alcohol. This component determines the type of product manufactured.
Perfume belongs to the range with the lowest alcohol content. Then there is eau de parfum and eau de toilette. Both have a concentration rate between 10 and 20%. Finally, eau de Cologne has the lowest concentration rate of perfume. However, it is also composed of water.
Perfumes are obtained by mixing essential oils and alcohol in stainless steel tanks. Once the "juice" is macerated, you can find them in your usual bottles.
Some Interesting Facts About Perfume Manufacturing
Did you know that to obtain one kilogram of essential oil, you need at least 3 tons of rose petals? For one kilogram of lavender oil, you need 200 kg of flowers.
Furthermore, lily of the valley is one of the rare flowers that are impossible to extract. The scent of lily of the valley you smell in your perfumes is of synthetic origin. Conversely, laboratories have not yet found the recipe to reproduce the scent of patchouli.
35% of perfumes in perfumeries contain musk. This scent is notably present in masculine perfumes. In the past, musk was of animal origin, meaning from the male deer. Today, perfumers are able to reproduce the scent in laboratories.
Perfumers have a vast repertoire of natural ingredients, over 400, and synthetic molecules, over 3,000.
