How is Perfume Made?

How Is My Perfume Made?

 

This is such an interesting topic. I could talk about it for hours. Hopefully, by the time you have finished reading this page, you have a better understanding of how perfume is made.

 

We are also taking a look at how ingredients for perfume are sourced and where they come from. A common note in perfume is vetiver. You have probably heard it mentioned in perfume descriptions. Vetiver is a grass.

 

It grows in warmer countries including Thailand and Egypt. Vetiver makes an excellent houseplant as it helps to clean the air. It is no fuss and will even grow in water. If you come across one, you should snap it up.

 

Cheap Perfumes vs Expensive Perfumes

 

How are expensive perfumes made? The main ingredients in high-end perfumes including Dior and Chanel are natural essential oils. Other ingredients including alcohol are added to blend the essential oil and help to preserve them. You can say perfumes are distilled.

 

Cheap perfumes are made from synthetic ingredients. We are going to use lavender as an example as it is an essential oil you can easily extract yourself.

 

Natural essential lavender oil is expensive, especially the quality oil which is used in top brands. It is derived only from lavender flowers to give the oil a more subtle note.

 

Cheap perfumes may also contain lavender oil to give them depth. But, to keep the price point lower, a synthetic essential oil is used. In other words, it is a manmade copy of the molecule chain you find in natural lavender.

 

The Perfume Experience

 

This explains why the scent from better quality perfumes last longer. Synthetic oils oxidise faster. Once this happens, they lose their fragrance.

 

You have probably tried a cheaper generic brand of perfume and found you have to use more to get the desired effect. You have to top it up more often to notice the fragrance.

 

Many say that it is the branding and packaging which make branded perfumes more expensive. Yes, they are packaged better. But, at the end of the day, the reason they cost more is down to what they contain. Top perfumes contain better raw ingredients.

 

What Other Ingredients Are Used?

 

Your perfume bottle is almost a chemistry lesson. Not only does it contain essential oils. As mentioned, it also contains alcohol to preserve the oils.

 

Alcohol also helps to keep the mixture stable. If essential oils were left to their own devices, they would not keep their balance. If you have read about perfumes or heard a perfumer speak, you have probably heard about the concept of balance.

 

Balance is what gives a perfume its bouquet. When you get good at “smelling” perfumes, you learn to separate the different notes.

 

Natural Ingredients in Perfume

 

You can learn how to separate notes by smelling essential oils, fruits, and other natural materials such as moss and bark from trees.

 

Bark from trees is often used in perfumes in the form of charcoal. If you have an open fireplace, you will know that different woods give off their own unique smells. For instance, wood from apple trees smells of apples. The essential oil found in an apple is also found in the trunk of the tree and subsequently in the bark of the tree.

 

I burn wood from orange trees in my home. My home always smells of oranges.

 

That brings me to the subject of citrus essential oils in perfume. If your perfume contains some kind of citrus fruit oil, you probably recognise it from orange, grapefruit and mandarin fruits.

 

Does that mean your perfume is made from orange peel? No, it is not made from orange peel. The essential oil is derived from the flowers. There are many different types of oranges, grapefruits and mandarins. Believe it or not, they all smell slightly differently.

Is Whale Oil Used to Make Perfume?

 

This is a complete misnomer. Whale oil is not used to make perfume.

 

But, I am going to be honest, and say that whale regurgitations are used in a few sweet-smelling perfumes. No whale is hurt in the process as whale regurgitations are found on beaches.

 

The scientific name for this is ambergris. Whales like to dine on large quantities of cuttlefish which are hard to digest. The parts of the cuttlefish the whale can’t digest are regurgitated and float up on beaches.

 

So no, if someone tells you that whales are killed to produce your bottle of Marc Jacobs Daisy or Jimmy Choo Blossom, they are wrong.

 

Does My Perfume Contain Parabens?

 

What are parabens? Parabens are derivatives of the petrochemical industry. They were commonly used in skincare from 1930 onwards.

 

One of the biggest users was Clinique. Today, the industry has changed its attitude when it comes to parabens. Far fewer parabens are used. Clinique have done a complete 180 and their new products are a serious game changer, I am a big fan.

 

The most common paraben you find in skincare and perfumes these days is hydroxybenzoic acid. It is found in fruits and vegetables. Berries are very rich in this natural paraben - especially strawberries.

 

Where Are Raw Ingredients Sourced From?

 

Essential oils and other raw ingredients are sourced from all over the world. But buyers in the industry have a secret that they are not keen to share.

 

Many of the best essential oils are found in Egypt. Aswan in southern Egypt is one of the top locations in the world to buy essential oils.

 

The Ancient Egyptians were experts at producing essential oils and used crystals as part of the process. The craft is still alive and kicking in Egypt today and crystal filtration is still used.

 

India also produces essential oils and raw ingredients which are often shipped to Egypt for processing. Grasse in France is the home of the French perfume industry. Lavender, jasmine and roses are grown almost exclusively for the perfume industry in Grasse.

 

Citrus based scents often receive a contribution of orange flowers from Spain every year in spring.

 

How Do You Create a New Scent?

 

The process of making a perfume starts long before a bottle is designed, and the packaging is branded.

 

Perfume and cosmetic brands often work together with leading perfumers. Top names of perfumers are Anne Flipo and Francis Kurkdijan.

 

Anne Flipo is the woman behind some of the world’s best scents including Fleur de Narcisse by Chloe and 212 Carolina Herrera. She also used her nose to create fragrances for Calvin Klein and Yves Saint Laurent.

 

Francis Kurkdijan is most famous for creating Le Male for Jean Paul Gaultier. In 2021, he was appointed Director of Perfume at top fashion house Christian Dior.

 

Creating a perfume is not easy. If you have ever seen the apprentice, you know that Alan Sugar’s candidates failed miserably.

 

The trick is to balance the scent. It needs to have low, middle and top notes to make sure the fragrance lasts once applied.

 

A new scent also needs to be transferable. This means it needs to work as a spray, body lotion and shower gel.

 

Perfumers work according to a brief putting together a range of combinations before the final decision is reached.

 

How Is Perfume Made Commercially?

 

The way a perfume is made commercially differs from the way you make a scent at home. But, the two processes have things in common.

 

Perfume Extraction

 

When you extract essential oils at home, you are most likely to use steam distillation or solvent extraction. Commercially, other extractions are also used including expression, maceration and enfleurage which squeezes out the oils.

 

Essential oils from orange flowers are often extracted using the enfleurage method. This method is used by top-end perfume brands as it produces high-quality essential oils. It is expensive as it is done by hand.

 

Maceration is similar to enfleurage but takes longer. Both methods use added fat to extract the essential oil found in the flowers. When the maceration method is used, alcohol is added at the end of the process to extract the essential oils.

 

Steam extraction is also popular but not suitable for heavier essential oils that we often find in perfumes. It is a better method for extracting oil from leaves than flowers.

 

The Blending Process

 

The blending process is a delicate step. This is where the scent is balanced and “fixed.”

 

You can use chemicals to fix (make the scent permanent and smell constantly the same.) Most top manufacturers like to use natural compounds.

 

Two of the most popular compounds are moss and bark. You have probably been wondering why moss is used. It is a stabiliser and fixes the scent. Depending on what essential oils are used, bark or charcoal are good alternatives.

 

Alcohol and distilled water are added during the blending process. Eau de parfum contains less water and alcohol compared to an eau de toilette. This is why an eau de parfum is more expensive.

 

The Aging Process

 

Are perfumes aged? When I spent time in Japan, I got a sneak peak into how Issey Miyake age perfume.

 

Magnolia is a popular essential oil in Japan. It is an exquisite scent but does not fully develop unless the blend is aged. Aging Issey Miyake L'Eau d'Issey Eau & Magnolia Intense takes a year.

 

When your brand perfume is delivered to Perfume Price, it has been aged for several months for up to a year. During that time, it is stored in glass containers in a dark area.

 

Issey Miyake monitors the aging process carefully. Samples are taken to make sure the blend remains fixed and there are no problems. Only when the aging process is complete, the blend is transferred to the final bottles and shipped.

 

If Issey Miyake does not think the perfume meets quality standards after aging, they simply discard the entire batch.

 

As I don’t have a personal insight into other companies, I would not like to say how they work. However, I would imagine that they work very much in the same way. Keeping up with standards in the perfume industry is very important to all top-class manufacturers.

 

Are Cheap Perfumes Aged?

 

Cheap perfumes are not aged. As they have a high artificial chemical content and alcohol content, they are bottled and packaged very quickly.

 

Sometimes they are even added to perfume bottles warm. That is why you often get condensation inside the glass bottle of cheaper perfumes.

What Do Gin and Perfume Have in Common?

 

Many people like to compare top brand perfumes to good wines. I would disagree. Wine is after all only made from one ingredient. That ingredient is grape juice. The nuances in wine come from compounds found in the grapes. Grapevines extract different soil compounds which contribute toward the flavour and bouquet of the wine.

 

Perfume has more in common with gin. Both are made using botanicals including herbs, berries and plants. A surprising number of botanicals go into making a quality gin.

 

As you have discovered on this page, botanicals form the foundation of perfumes as well. When you open a bottle of quality gin, you should be able to smell the botanical elements that went into making the gin. If not, it is not such a good gin.

 

Can I Make My Own?

 

You can try to make your own scent but you need high-quality essential oils and know how to blend them. You also need to be patient as the aging process takes time.

 

Instead of trying to make perfume at home, it is better to buy one. That way, you can concentrate on making natural household cleaning solutions at home.

 

Final Thoughts

 

Making high-quality perfumes that are going to keep on smelling good is an art form. If you enjoy perfumes and want to smell nice, it is always worth spending a little bit extra on perfume.

 

Can you copy any of the most exclusive scents? It is unlikely that you can do that. Although I have a lot of experience in the perfume and cosmetic industry, I have never been able to do it.