Perfume

Perfume is known for its aromatic fragrance. It is mixture of essential oils and aromatic compounds that gives a pleasing smell. Perfume is generally related with sensual and passionate aspects of one’s life. The exact chemical formula is never distributed publicly.
Perfume oil is diluted with the help of certain solvents which reduces the original concentration of volatile compounds. Volatile compound if used unaided can cause allergic reactions to skin. To dilute essential oils aromatic compounds, fixatives and solvents are used. Most commonly used solvent for perfume is ethanol. A mixture of ethanol and water is also used widely.Neutral smelling lipids such as jojoba, coconut oil and wax are less commonly used solvents. The intensity of a perfume is decided with the concentration of solvents in mixture.

There are different concentrations levels which are used to in perfume are:

* Perfume extracts which contains 20 to 40 % aromatic compounds
* Eau de parfum having 10-30 % aromatic compounds
* Eau de toilette which are having 5-20% aromatic compounds
* Eau de Cologne with 2-5% aromatic compounds

Aromatic compounds not only decide the intensity of perfumes but it also depends upon houses assign to them. Different perfumes assign different amount of oils to every perfume. So it is also possible that perfume belonging to same category may have unlike scent due to different houses.

Families of perfumes
The perfumes are categorized into several families. Fragrances contain aspect of different families. Generally a mixture of scents is used as it is difficult to found unitary scents. According to traditional classification perfume can be divided into the following categories.

Single floral
Fragrances obtained from natural flowers are called soliflore (in French) or single flower.
Floral Bouquet
If fragrance of several flowers is combined, it is known as floral bouquet.
Ambery
It is a popular class having scents of vanilla and animal along with flowers and woods is known as Ambery.
Woody
Fragrances obtained from woody material such as sandalwood and cedar. The most common scent found in woody fragrance is Patchouli.
Leather
A family of fragrances which has combined features of honey, tobacco, wood tar as base notes of it.
Chypre
It includes the fragrances that are consisted of bergamot, oakmoss, patchouli and labdanum. Chypre is a French word which means Cyprus .
Fougere
In French it means Fern. It consists of base of lavender, coumarin and oakmoss. It is sharp herbaceous woody scent. Mostly men’s perfumes use these fragrances.

After the advancement of technology scents are divided into new categories like Bright floral, green, Oceanic and fruity secants.