Fragrance is a mixture of more than 3,500 chemicals that gives perfume, cologne and other scents their distinct aroma. It is also the substance that makes scented lotions and soaps smell so pleasant. A fragrance can be natural or synthetic, and it can smell sweet or sour. It can also smell like flowers, pine trees or other plants, or it may smell of a person who has been wearing perfume. Fragrance ingredients can be toxic and exposure to them can cause a variety of health harms. Glance at the label of nearly any personal care or cleaning product, and it likely contains one or more fragrance chemicals. Fragrance chemicals are often linked to skin rashes, asthma and allergies.
Perfume and colognes are made of a combination of natural or synthetic fragrance ingredients, some of which are derived from petroleum. Companies that manufacture perfume and cologne purchase “fragrance mixtures” from fragrance houses (companies that specialize in developing scents). Perfume and cologne also contain various stabilizers, odor-control agents, UV absorbers, preservatives and dyes.
The history of perfume goes back thousands of years, with ancient texts and archaeological excavations revealing the use of scented oils to mask body odor and enhance attractiveness. Modern perfumery began in the late 19th century, when the commercial synthesis of aroma compounds such as vanillin and coumarin allowed for the composition of fragrances that could not be formulated solely from natural aromatics. Other substances that give perfumes lasting power, such as ambergris from the sperm whale, castor oil from the beaver and musk from the civet cat, are also used in perfumes.
In addition to natural perfume oils, modern perfumes contain synthetic perfume ingredients and diluents. Perfumes can be grouped by their main odor, with perfumes for women being generally based on the odours of flowers such as jasmine, rose and gardenia. Other odours that can be used as a basis for perfume include citrus, spices and woody scents. Some perfumes are designed to be based on certain materials such as leather, fern or tobacco.
To compose a perfume, a perfumer first selects and blends fragrance base ingredients. These are a closer scent approximations of things that cannot be extracted from nature such as the freshness or sourness of grass, the sweetness of apple or the woody smell of cedarwood. Perfumers then combine these with other perfume ingredients such as diluents and odor-control agents to create a complete fragrance.
The term fragance can also be used to describe any scented substance, including scented lotions and soaps. It is sometimes used in place of the word perfume or cologne, especially by people who prefer not to be labeled as such. The term fragrance is also more widely recognized outside of the perfume industry, though it is less commonly used in the United States. The terms eau de parfum, eau de toilette and eau de concentree are used to indicate different concentrations of perfume oils, but in practice EdP, EdT and EdC fragrances from the same company may be slightly or dramatically different in their oil concentrations.