One would think that flowers would have been one of the first ingredients that would be used to make perfume but in fact, flowers weren’t used for that purpose until the 9th century. Before that, perfumers as far back as four thousand years ago used herbs, spices, resins and bark. Extracting the oils from flowers by distillation was first introduced by a Persian chemist named Avicenna and his procedure is still in wide use today. Until Avicenna’s discovery, it was a laborious process to use flowers in perfume, requiring hours of effort to pulverize the petals finely enough to extract some of the oils. Years later, the Hungarians would be the first to make modern perfume from flower oils blended in a solution of alcohol.

Most flowers are fragrant but some are exceptional enough to be used in perfumes. The best known and one of the most popular throughout perfume history is the rose, generally known as the queen of flowers. Perfumes made of roses were favorites in Greece and Rome. By gathering the flowers at night they would be at their best since they begin losing their scent after sunrise. Cristalle by Chanel uses roses as the chief ingredient along with aldehydes to enhance the bouquet, amber and patchouli.

Jasmine is another flower used in perfumes, also harvested just before dawn. Processed immediately before their fragrance fades, special care must be taken to keep the fragile petals from bruising and affecting the balance of the bouquet. Special baskets for just this purpose are kept for transporting them. Jasmine is used with vanilla and bergamot by Guerlain in the manufacture of Shalimar Light perfume, a refreshing feminine fragrance that is airy, pleasant and light.

Violets are also favorites but produce so little essential oil that they’re rarely used these days. Instead a synthetic replacement is used, usually combined with oils that resemble that of the violet.

Flower of fruit are also used in many perfumes. Those who know the heavenly scent of orange and lemon blossoms will understand why they are a popular ingredient in many floral perfumes. Jasmine, mimosa and lily blossoms as well as lily of the valley are also quite common in perfumes. Unopened flower buds of clove add spice to perfume concoctions and a member or the orchid family, vanilla, also is a favorite ingredient.

A few terms may come in handy for understanding floral perfume descriptions. When you hear a perfume referred to as a “single floral” it means that the fragrance is dominated by one particular flower such as rose or lily. “Floral Bouquet” means it contains the scent of several flowers and “bright floral” is a combination of the two.

Tim Walt

Creating a perfume can actually be described as an art. It can be said that the job of a creator is to portray the current social motion and attitude in an extremely precise manner and highlight each personality types with related scents. A perfumer has to make use of smells to induce mental imagery and has to make the wearer feel confident.

It is the perfumer or ‘Nez’ as they are fondly called who are responsible for creation of fine scents. The customer or fashion house or corporate house who wants to create a perfume relies upon the perfumer’s fine sense of smell and composition skills to bring out a product. According to the client’s requirements, the perfumer blends the required smells and composes a version which may be approved for further manufacture.

It must be said that there are no hard and fast rule in the creation of perfumes. The general pattern followed is to go by some guidelines which could help in formulating the end product. A perfume is generally born out of a concept and the ultimate product may be achieved out of mixture of many ingredients along with the required coloring, anti-oxidants, etc to add to the shelf life of the perfume.

The first step in the conception of a perfume starts with the creation of perfume oils which can either be from a plant source like flowers, barks, fruits, leaves, etc., animal source like civet, honeycomb, musk, etc., other natural sources like lichens or seaweeds, or synthetic sources. Perfume oils are made up of a variety of ingredients which can be grouped roughly into four: Primary scents, modifiers, blenders, and fixatives. One or a few chief ingredients can be combined to form a primary scent such as ‘rose’ or ‘jasmine’. Sometimes a blend of primary scents can give rise to an abstract primary scent too. Modifiers give character to the primary scent like bringing about a change in its behavior. For example, the cherry scent in cherry cola can be considered as a modifier. Blenders are responsible for the effective blending between different layers or bases. Linalool and hydroxycitronellal are commonly used as blenders. Fixatives have the responsibility of strengthening the primary scent. Common fixatives that are in use are wood scents, amber bases, resins, etc.

Ethyl alcohol and water are blended in with the perfume oils and are stored in tanks for aging. After a minimum of fourteen days, they are processed and filtered in suitable equipments to remove any impurities or sediments and particles. The perfume is now ready for filling into perfume bottles.

Tim Walt

Amber is well known for its rich, earthy and exotic fragrance.
Popular due to it being natural, good alternative to diluted perfume oils
or synthetic perfumes.  Amber resin
is great to wear as a solid because the scent gets stronger as it’s heated by
the body or the sun.

Making amber perfume begins with Liquidambar Orientalis, a deciduous amber
resin tree that is native to the eastern Mediterranean region of Europe ,
sometimes called the Oriental Sweetgum.  The
most basic form of amber perfume is made by mixing it with beeswax and benzoin
gum to create a rather tacky-feeling solid that’s very easy to apply. 
This simple form of amber scent has been shown through biofeedback to
have a psychoactive effect, acting as a relaxant to the brainwaves.

PASHA
DE CARTIER BY CARTIER 
(EAU DE TOILETTE SPRAY 1 OZ) – Click to Buy

Condition:
New – Retail Box
Sale Price: $24.70

Amber perfume was distilled hundreds of years ago from ambergris, which was
commonly found floating on the oceans.  Ambergris,
believe it or not, is a digestive secretion of the sperm whale that is flammable
as well as aromatic.  It was natural
that in years past when the whale population was many times what it is today
that ambergris was easily found and used not only for perfuming but as fuel for
lamps.  Since then, of course,
perfumers have discovered amber resin which is the preferred method of producing
not only amber perfume but adding the scent to combinations of other elements.

PROVOCATIVE
BY ELIZABETH ARDEN
(EAU DE PARFUM SPRAY 1 OZ)

- Click to Buy

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Because of its woodsy nature, amber is often used in scents manufactured for
men.  Aramis by Aramis, for example,
combines amber with musk, jasmine and bergamot to produce a very masculine scent
that women love their men to wear.  Cartier
adds lavender, mint, musk and wood to amber to make their popular Pasha De
Cartier for men.

Amber’s basic and earthy properties make it ideal for so many formulas
that there is a wide variety of perfumes both masculine and feminine that
feature it.  It can enhance woodsy
scents as well as floral; Provocative by Elizabeth Arden uses subtle amber
undertones to compliment its lotus, orchid and lily features.

ARAMIS
BY ARAMIS (AFTER SHAVE 4 OZ)
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Amber perfumes have long been popular in the Middle East, Far East and
Europe , particularly because its aroma goes well with so many other scents,
drawing out subtle properties of flowers, herbs and fruits. 
Hundreds of years ago it was distilled, as most perfumes were, drawing
out the liquid from the resin in order to add it to other scents, for use by
itself or even in lamps, incense and candles. 
In India and Persia (now Iran ) it was a luxury reserved for royalty,
used to perfume the hair and clothing of kings and their favorite wives.

Amber’s woodsy fragrance is so versatile that today it is used not only in
perfumes but in shampoos and other toiletries, sachets for linens or clothing
and even air fresheners for the house or the car. 
Most scents aren’t as universally liked as amber has always been and
its appeal throughout the centuries certainly hasn’t diminished in modern
times.

Tim Walt