Unlike flowers, which fade and chocolate, which disappears quickly, perfume lasts—and makes for an excellent gift. If you’re stumped about what to get for that someone special in your life for a birthday, holiday or any other occasion, consider giving a bottle of fragrance. Perfume is a mixture of fragrant essential oils or aroma compounds, fixatives and solvents in liquid form that gives the human body, animals, food, objects and living spaces an agreeable scent.
Throughout history, humans have used fragrant plants, woods and even animal secretions to create scented oil. These materials are extracted, mixed, aged and quality-controlled to produce a perfume. The ingredients can include a variety of plants, fruits, herbs, flowers, woods and even mosses. They may also include alcoholic extracts like alcohol and a variety of oils such as olive, jojoba and almond. Other natural resources such as coal tars and petrochemicals can also be used.
Some people use scent as a way to express their personality and mood. For example, some people may choose to wear floral or fruity fragrances while others prefer musky, earthy or exotic scents. The choice of a scent can be influenced by an individual’s gender, culture, climate and age. Perfume production techniques have changed over the years, but many of the same methods from ancient times are still used today.
Fragrance is a complex combination of thousands of molecules, each with a different effect on the senses. The olfactory system can detect up to ten million different scents. In order to create a unique and desirable smell, these molecules must be combined in the right ratios. For this reason, perfume is not made from one single ingredient.
There are five main perfume families: Floral, Oriental, Woody, Amber and Chypre, grouped into sub-groups according to their olfactory characteristics. For example, Chanel No. 5 falls under the Floral family, while Hermes Rouge is an example of a Chypre.
The best way to know which perfume suits you is to experiment. Try different bottles of the same scent and observe how it reacts on your skin. A person’s hormone levels and the temperature of their skin can alter the intensity or how long a perfume will last on them.
Aside from a person’s personal preferences, a person’s scent can also change the way other people perceive a perfume. This is because certain molecules amplify or deamplify depending on a person’s genetic makeup, hormones and environment.
In addition, some individuals’ bodies are more sensitive to particular scents than others. This can make certain perfumes seem overpowering or dull to some people. For this reason, some people choose to apply perfume less often than others. Keep in mind that storing your perfume in a cool, dark place can help prevent its chemical breakdown. This will make the scent last longer.