Perfume

 What makes Perfume?

Perfume is made up of vegetable oils, the odors of certain animals and chemical additives. Perfume-making, like cookery, is done from a recipe, a formula. The perfumer takes his list of ingredients and blends them together in a special way. One of the expensive perfumes worn by women on their throats and wrist (the heat from the throbbing at these pulse points brings out the smell) may contain up to 200 ingredients.

The first smell that reaches you when you open the bottle and dab on the scent is the vegetable oil, a blend of the oils of flowers and herbs varying from lavender, jasmine and rose, to clove and rosemary and even carrot and onion oils. They are extracted by squeezing, or by the use of solvents.

The second category consists of animal odors which give the scent persistence. These include ambergris, which is phlegm coughed up by the sperm whale, a gland secretion of the civet cat, musk from the musk deer and castoreum resin from beaver.

The third set of ingredients , the chemical ones, are used to set off and fill out the flower and animal products. They are much cheaper.

The blending of these ingredients calls for great skill, and a perfumer takes many years to learn his art.

Not all perfumes are sold in bottles or even in cosmetic products. One of the perfumer’s main tasks is to disguise the bad smells in products such as detergents and plastics, and to provide the smells which people have come to associate with certain products. Plastic car seats are given the smell of leather. Restaurants can buy a bottle of bacon and hamburger essence for an appetizing aroma.

For sci-fi movies or mystery about how perfume was discovered and made you may want to ake a look at the movie entitled: PERFUME: (2006)