Perfume is a mixture of fragrant essential oils or aroma compounds, fixatives, and solvents, usually in liquid form, used to give the human body, animals, food, objects, and living spaces an agreeable scent. The precise formulae of commercial perfumes are kept secret, and even if they were widely published, they would be dominated by such complex ingredients and odorants that they would be of little use in providing a guide to the general consumer in describing the experience of a scent. Nonetheless, connoisseurs of perfume can become extremely skillful at identifying components and origins of scents in the same manner as wine experts.
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is a movie directed by Tom Twyker that tells the story of a serial killer who is obsessed with creating a scent made entirely out of natural, human fragrance. Critics have praised the movie for its visual style and its ability to evoke the sense of smell in the audience.
While the precise ingredients of commercial perfumes are kept secret, it is known that they consist of manmade mixtures of aromatic chemicals and essential oils. Some fragrances may contain potentially hazardous synthetic chemicals, some of which are derived from petroleum. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics commissioned independent laboratory tests that revealed 38 secret chemicals in 17 leading fragrances, with some containing up to 24 potentially hazardous synthetic chemicals. However, the cosmetics industry is not required to disclose the ingredients of their fragrances, so consumers cannot rely on labels to know what hazards may be present.
In recent years, there has been a growing interest in producing perfumes that are made from natural and sustainable ingredients. Companies like Mane are developing products that mimic the individual materials of perfumery using natural extracts and synthetic chemicals. These products are linked to a database of safety and regulatory information on more than 3,000 materials to ensure that they are safe for use.
