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 process of making perfume involves collecting ingredients, extracting oils, blending, aging, and quality control. There are six methods by which oils are extracted from natural ingredients, including flowers, grasses, spices, fruit, wood, roots, resins, balsams, leaves, gums, and animal secretions, like musk and ambergis. These methods include:
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Steam distillation: This is the most common method of extracting essential oils from plants. It involves passing steam through the plant material, which causes the oil to evaporate. The steam and oil are then condensed and separated, resulting in the essential oil.
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Solvent extraction: This method is used for delicate flowers that cannot withstand the high temperatures of steam distillation. The flowers are placed in a solvent, which dissolves the essential oil. The solvent is then evaporated, leaving behind the essential oil.
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Expression: This method is used for citrus fruits, which have oil-containing glands in their peels. The peels are pressed, and the oil is collected.
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Maceration: This method is used for delicate flowers that cannot withstand the high temperatures of steam distillation. The flowers are soaked in warm oil, which absorbs the essential oil. The oil is then separated from the flowers.
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Enfleurage: This method is used for delicate flowers that cannot withstand the high temperatures of steam distillation. The flowers are placed on a layer of fat, which absorbs the essential oil. The fat is then washed with alcohol to extract the essential oil.
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Carbon dioxide extraction: This method is used for delicate flowers and other plant materials. Carbon dioxide is used as a solvent to extract the essential oil.
Today, perfumes are increasingly made using synthetic chemicals. Often, scents that occur naturally are reproduced synthetically rather than sourced and extracted. This allows the cost of producing perfume to go down. Most full perfumes are made of about 10-20% perfume oils dissolved in alcohol and a trace of water, while colognes contain approximately 3-5% oil diluted in 80-90% alcohol and water.
