Animals have been used for making perfumes since people first began to use scents. You would be surprised at the wide variety of perfumes that owe their delicious and seductive aromas to the contributions of animals!

The most commonly known scent derived from animal resources is musk, a basic ingredient in many perfumes. Because of its intensely earthy odor, it makes an excellent base that accentuates other notes in a perfume. In the hundreds of years it has been used in human manufactured scents, it has always been popular because of its subtle aphrodisiac properties. Originally, people got musk from the musk sacs of the Asian Musk deer which, unfortunately, demanded the life of the animal. Modern musk is synthetic due not only to protected status of the formerly over-hunted deer but to enlightened perfume manufacturers that are increasingly more concerned about preserving wildlife as well as the environment.

Civets, a relative of the Mongoose, also produce musk that can be harvested without harm to the animal. The North American Beaver also contributes musk to perfume called Castoreum. Luckily, we can harvest the musk from both these animals without causing them harm or upsetting their glandular balance thanks to advanced and humane harvesting techniques.

Even honeybees contribute to the olfactory enjoyment of fine perfume! Their honeycombs, when distilled, produce a unique scent that has been used by perfumers for centuries. Ambergris, a digestive excretion of the Sperm Whale, is also used for cologne and perfume, particularly in amber-based scents. Rendered animal fat is used less often in solid perfumes than it was in centuries past

Tim Walt

Before the creation of perfumes it is essential to obtain odorants to be used in the various process of its composition. Odorants can be obtained through synthetic as well as natural methods. While synthetically, odorants are produced through organic synthesis and purification, natural methods of extraction vary according to the type of plant as well as the type of oil that is produced. Every method adopted does not give equal results and the degree and quality of the essential oil obtained out of the different processes will differ. It should be remembered that as the difficulty of the process increases, the purity of the oil will be more and so will the expense. The cheaper methods employed may sometimes cause allergies in the skin.

Maceration is one of the most frequently used technique in the extraction of essential oils and it is also considered economical too. As a result this technique is widely used for extraction in the perfume industry today. Also known as solvent extraction, the process employed in this method is quite simple. Maceration makes use of a solvent which has the power to dissolve the desired aromatic compounds. The required raw materials are submerged in this solvent to obtain the desired results.

The duration of dissolving the raw materials in the solvent and extraction of aromatic compounds may take anywhere from a couple of hours to months together. It depends upon the material that is immersed and the quality of the essential oil that has to be extracted. Some of the main oils extracted this way are those obtained from woody and fibrous plant materials as well as those obtained from animal sources.

The method of maceration or solvent extraction is also employed in such cases where the odorants are extremely volatile or highly denatured due to heat. The process of maceration is gentle enough then to deliver high quality aromatic oil safely.

The process of maceration makes use of several suitable solvents for achieving the purpose. The most common among the solvents used in this process are hexane, ethanol, and di methyl ether. The name given for the product obtained after the process of maceration is ‘Concrete’.

Tim Walt