How Perfume Works – The Essence of Attraction

Perfume – the essence of attraction indeed! There’s nothing like a good perfume to turn heads. And that goes for the men’s fragrances, too. But most of us don’t think about how complex these beautiful scents are. We just see them as light or heavy, or fruity or floral, and we don’t realize what’s gone into the makeup of these wonderful perfumes. So we’re going to change that with this look at how perfume works. And when we’re done, you’re going to have a whole new outlook on fragrances.

How do we detect the scent of perfume?

The whole idea of perfume is based on our sense of smell. But it isn’t just that – it goes a whole lot deeper. First of all, we need to understand how our body detects the scent, and what it does with it.

Let’s first look at out sensory system. We’ll follow the fragrance of a perfume as it enters our area of detection. Perhaps we should first mention that an actual scent is made up of molecules, so that’ll put their size into perspective – there’s no way we can see them as they enter our systems. Fragrance molecules consist of a volatile substance, volatile referring to any substance that vaporizes at a very low temperature.

So a fragrance molecule enters our noses, where it’s met by millions of smell-sensing cells. Each cell acts as a receptor, with a little pocket it uses to capture one fragrance molecule. When the molecule’s been captured, the cell sends a message to the brain, which interprets the fragrance for what it is.

It’s interesting to note here that the reason that so much emphasis is put on creating attractive smells, instead of something that looks good or feels good, is that perfumers know that there are about 1000 smell receptors in a nose, and that’s about 1% of all our genes. Compare that to our color vision, which is determined by only 3 genes. So our bodies naturally focus on smell more than sight or touch.

Perfumers understand our sense of smell

Perfumers, who spend months on research, just to develop one new fragrance, know how important it is to identify a scent that’ll stimulate a new receptor, and send a new unique message to the brain. The art – and it’s definitely an art – of designing new fragrances is taken very seriously, and perfumers go to great lengths to come up with a new scent.

Chemistry, which is an integral part of perfumery, is a science that’s constantly advancing, experimenting with combinations of chemicals to come up with new ones. Perfumers follow chemists very carefully, always on the lookout for a new chemical that they can use to make a new fragrance.

Currently, chemists develop about 3,000 new chemicals every year, and perfumers experiment with these, eliminating those that don’t work. Eventually, they’ll narrow their list of those that create the possibility of a new fragrance, to about five. That’s how much experimentation goes into the launching of a new perfume!

Every time a very unique perfume is launched, with a very unique fragrance, you can be sure it’s the result of many hours of research and development, which has produced a new natural product or chemical. And just one such ingredient can produce a wonderful new fragrance.

For fragrance researchers, the sky isn’t the limit

Fragrance researchers go to great lengths to find new scents. They travel deep into rain forests, looking for a yet-to-be-discovered flower or plant that might have a scent nobody’s ever smelled before. They’re now using what they call “headspace” technology, which allows them to actually capture and analyze the air surrounding a flower, without ever touching the flower itself.

The information they collect is actually a breakdown of the molecules in the air. That’s those fragrance molecules we were talking about earlier. And now that they have the data, they can reproduce it chemically in the lab. They’ve also used this technology to capture scents that are dissolved in water, that might come from coral, or from the vapor of a waterfall.

But they don’t stop there! As we said, the sky is not the limit. For example, in 1998, a fragrance house in New York called International Flavors & Fragrances Inc., collaborated with the NASA space program. The result of this collaboration was the launching of a miniature rose into space in the space shuttle Discovery.

They had to plant the rose in nutrient-rich water, not soil. What they learned is that, although the basic scent of the rose didn’t actually change, it did create a much purer aroma. They determined that zero-gravity hadn’t really affected the original fragrance, but that planting it in water had made it purer.

They took this information, compiled it, experimented with it, and eventually concluded it with the launch of a new perfume called Zen, which was marketed by Shiseido.

And how’s this for a recent breakthrough in technology? They’ve now invented tiny microscopic plastic capsules that are so small you can’t even see them with the naked eye. And what’s in these microcapsules? Perfume. That’s right – perfume! And these capsules will burst with a small amount of pressure, releasing the perfume in tiny explosions.

These tiny capsules are placed in a liquid, which is then sprayed on any surface you’d like to smell nice when you put pressure on it. Just spray it on, let it dry for a minute, and wait for someone to activate it. There are all kinds of possibilities for its use, like on your car seat, on your furniture, or how about in your gym shoes. Imagine putting your shoes on and activating all those perfume-filled capsules – no more smelly shoes!

What’s in those perfumes?

The amount of ingredients in perfume will probably blow you mind. We’ve said that perfumes are complex mixtures. Well, how about hundreds of ingredients in one perfume? Actually, the everyday ones only have between sixty and a hundred ingredients. Some of the more complex ones can have as many as three hundred. And they say that Beautiful, by Estee Lauder, probably has the most, with seven hundred ingredients!

That’ll give you some idea of what chemists and perfumers go through to create a new fragrance. And it doesn’t get any easier when they’re dealing with the natural ingredients, either. Researchers did a study of twenty varieties of flowers and found fifty-eight different chemical compounds among the twenty flowers.

Spanish jasmine has ten chemical compounds, while roses have anywhere between three and ten, depending on the variety of rose. So when chemists are “playing” with all these compounds, both natural and chemical, they’re bound to come up with something, sooner or later. And that something usually manifests itself as a new fragrance, and the launch of a new perfume.

We’ve already mentioned how many chemicals there are in perfumes. Synthetics are being used more and more these days, because their properties are easier for perfumers to manipulate into what they want. But the more expensive perfumes, like French perfume, is still made as it was a hundred years ago, and still produces the most powerful, and the most expensive perfume in the world. France has held its place as the largest producer of fine perfumes in the world, despite global competition. And if you’ve ever smelled an expensive French perfume, then you know why.

The basic ingredients are combined in such a way as to create a general fragrance theme. There are several major fragrance theme groups, for example, floral, oriental, floriental (a combination of floral and oriental), green, and fruit. Every group of fragrances has its own unique scent, but as you smell it, you’ll find other subtle scents drifting into your mind. And perfumes are specifically designed to do just that.

The ingredients in perfumes are layered, allowing them to be released one at a time. That’s why you’ll hear them described as top notes, middle notes, or bottom notes. After you apply the perfume, the top fragrance notes are released right away, and only last for about ten minutes. Then the middle notes, or what is known as the heart of the fragrance, take over. That’s the main theme of the fragrance, and it lasts about two to three hours. As the middle notes evaporate, that leaves the bottom notes that’ll linger for about another two to three hours.

How perfume can really work for you

Perfume has been used by people all throughout history to make themselves attractive. And the actual makeup of the fragrances hasn’t changed much since ancient times, except that now there are an increasing number of synthetics used. But the results are the same – all kinds of exotic or subtle scents (depending on what you like) drifting from our bodies, calling to others to notice them.

There are hundreds of varying fragrances available on the market today. And most of them come in beautiful and unique bottles. That’s another practice that’s been brought down through the ages. Most of these perfume bottles are so attractive, that collectors are now trading them on the Internet, with or without perfume.

Perfumery is now a ten billion dollar industry, with the market being flooded with new perfumes and extravagant launches every day. So if you’re looking for just the right perfume to match your personality and your body scent, then you shouldn’t have any trouble finding at least one that’ll do the job.

Check out the selection online, too. Besides getting the right one for yourself, perfumes make great gifts. And besides all the women’s perfume, there’s a great line of men’s fragrances, too, by all the top designer perfume brands. Whether you’re looking for Chanel, Christian Dior, Estee Lauder, Lancôme, Givenchy, Ralph Lauren, Giorgio, Armani – we can’t name them all here, but you’ll find them all on the Internet. There are some great discount perfume websites that’ll have your favorite fragrance delivered to your door. How cool is that!

So find your favorite perfume. Wear it. Flaunt it, if you wish. Or just let it be a subtle reminder that you’re around. But use it. Use it to identify yourself. Use it to promote yourself. Or just use it to make yourself feel confident and free – it can do that, you know.

And now you know how perfume works, you’ll have a little more insight when you’re shopping. So have fun with it. Make sense of your scents!

About the Author:

Arden Mellor is a successful home based freelance writer, one of experience and diversity. The knowledge brought to you through Arden's articles has been designed for simplicity. The world is much too complicated, and Arden’s contribution to the world is to bring the complexities of life into a simpler arena, one that anyone and everyone can understand and use. Arden writes many informative articles on such topics as beauty products, discount fragrances and dating advice and tips, and our wishes are that you benefit from the wisdom presented in these articles in making life simple.

This article on "How Perfume Works" reprinted with permission.

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