Perfumes And Colognes - Balance And Notes
The fragrance of a perfume or cologne is determined by the ingredients it contains and by the balance between those ingredients.
Perfumes and colognes are created from a mixture of alcohol and essential oils. When the scent is applied to the body, the alcohol evaporates and the essential oils are absorbed by the skin. The difference between a perfume and an eau de toilette depends upon the concentration of essential oils found within them.
The main perfume categories are:
* Perfume - which is the purest form of fragrance product and is, consequently, the most expensive. The price is balanced, however, by the fact that the scent lasts the longest.
* Eau de parfum - is lighter than Perfume and has an 8-15% concentration. It is usually less expensive but still has long lasting characteristics - typically from 3 to 5 hours.
* Eau de toilette - contains around 1-6% perfume concentrates. This produces a light scent which makes a good choice for everyday wear.
* Eau de cologne - is sometimes used interchangeably with the term eau de toilette. It was made popular by Napoleon and referred to a fresh, light, fragrance mixed with citrus oils. Nowadays it refers to fragrances containing 2-5% essential oils.
Although the above are the main categories of perfume there are many other products which contain varying, though usually small amounts, of perfume concentrates. Examples include soaps, lotions, powders, creams, aftershaves, body splashes and cosmetics.
Another way to describe the differences from one perfume to another is in terms of their fragrance notes.
Fragrances consist of different notes and can be made up of hundreds of different ingredients which make every scent an individual creation. These notes are:
* Top notes - being the lightest and most volatile fragrance note, it is what the perfume initially bursts open with leading to a person’s first impression of a perfume. This makes them very important in the sale of a perfume. Top Notes are usually light and bright, fruity or citrus fragrances. They are strong in scent and evaporate quickly.
* Middle notes - these start to emerge as the top notes dissipate. They form the “heart” or main body of a perfume and can mask the often unpleasant initial impression of base notes, which become more pleasant over time. Fragrances from middle notes appear anywhere from 2 minutes to 1 hour after the application of a perfume. Typical scents in this class are lavender and rose.
* Base notes - the fragrance of a perfume that appears close to the fading away of the middle notes. Compounds of this class are often the fixatives used to hold and boost the strength of the lighter top and middle notes. The scents are typically “deep” and rich and usually take at least 30 minutes before they can be perceived. But, some base notes can still be detected more than 24 hours after the perfume has been applied to the skin.
These fragrance notes and differences in the balance between the essential oils and alcohol are what make each perfume smell differently.
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