Spices were discovered long ago as an aid in food preservation and flavor. Naturally, people began to think that the aromas of spices could be used to provide scents for the air and their persons. Spices began to be used for perfumes in Egypt and the Middle and Far East first, as Europe had no source for them with few exceptions, before the era of the Crusades opened up routes for trading.

Cardamom, often called “The Queen of Spices”, is grown for the most part in southern India, a fruit of the ginger family. Its cool fragrance is slightly sweet and reminiscent of oranges with a touch of ginger. It compliments other scents very well, toning down the more aggressive ones while accentuating aromas that aren’t so strong. Omnia by Bulgari uses cardamom along with saffron, black pepper (“The King of Spices”), Indian wood, mandarin and white chocolate to create a rich, light perfume with Oriental overtones that women love to wear, much to the delight of the men around them. 

Thyme is another popular spice used in perfume, usually as a top note that creates a first impression or a middle note that evolves as the perfume mellows from the warmth of the skin. Thyme’s light, fresh aroma perfectly compliments the orange blossom, vanilla and citrus in Gucci by Gucci. If you wonder how essence of thyme smells, you can reach for your spice rack to get an idea; it’s probably there with others you use in everyday cooking. 

Spices are also widely used in men’s perfume products. For example, Lapidus by Ted Lapidus perfumers uses a blend of spices combined with woods, lavender and amber to convey a sense of strong sophistication and individuality backed by warm and earthy power undertones. 

Nutmeg, the seed of evergreen tree that grow in Southeast Asia and other tropical climates, is processed by steam distillation after it is ground up. It is said that in England a few centuries ago, it was such a valuable spice that being able to obtain and sell a few nutmeg nuts would assure lifetime financial independence! Nutmeg is a perfect compliment to perfume formulas that contain wood tones or florals and provides freshness to the blend as well as a faint rich sweetness. 

Spices each have such varied fragrances that they are used to convey emotions as well as mental landscapes. The aromas of the most frequently used spices are those that many of us have smelled all our lives in our everyday food or in sachets used to freshen our closet and even the household cleaners our mothers used! It’s no wonder that perfumes containing spices are invariably pleasant and makes us feel sentimental as well as intrigued.

Tim Walt

A very important ingredient in perfume comes from the seeds of aromatic plants and trees. Many of them are from spices but some, like the tonka bean, come from trees and bushes.

The tonka bean is very versatile, used in food and other applications as well as perfume. Once processed, it exudes the scent as well as the flavor of vanilla and is popular due to its cost. While vanilla is quite expensive, the tonka bean is much less so while still imparting the delicious scent of vanilla as well as touches of almond, cinnamon and cloves. The seed is process through extraction to obtain the rich, warm aroma with an underlying caramel-sweet tone. Carlos Santana recently marketed a perfume of the same name that contains tonka bean with apple, cinnamon and lavender. Its rich, airy aroma isn’t as fruity as you would think, the tonka bean taming the fruit and floral scents into an earthier yet light scent that caresses the air rather than overwhelm it. 

Coriander, another seed that plays an important role in perfumery, comes from the cilantro plant. Although you may be familiar with cilantro through its use in salsa, coriander seeds will surprise you with their faintly orange-like scent especially if you’re familiar with the smell of the plant’s leaves. After the oil is extracted through steam distillation, they have a faint scent of oranges. 

When you think of cocoa, hot drinks and chocolate bars usually come to mind but did you know that they are also used with great success in perfumes? The cocoa bean is actually a seed from the cacao tree, rich in antioxidants and imbued with a scent of rich, dark earth and a very faint cocoa aroma. The dominant cocoa scent you know from drinking cocoa and chocolate is naturally developed after processing quite different than that used for perfumes. 

Vanilla, a natural compliment for cocoa’s aroma, is found in very high grade perfumes due to its purity and cost. The plant is actually an orchid which has to be pollinated and produce seed pods before it can be processed for perfume. Because of the precise requirements of orchids, it’s not as easy to grow and harvest as other seeds but the heavenly aroma from its seeds makes it well worth the extra cost and trouble. Cacharel manufactures a perfume called Amor Amor that uses vanilla combined with fragrant woods, fruits and florals. Vanilla, a wonderful aroma itself, tends to bring out the best in the scents that are combined with it. 

Seeds are a very important component of perfumery, used for hundreds of years while being laboriously processed by hand. With modern methods, perfumers are discovering many new delicious scents from seeds.

Tim Walt

Patchouli, originally native to Asia, is now cultivated in tropical areas throughout the world. 
A bushy herb of the mint family and distantly related to lavender and
rosemary, it is reluctant to flower and is propagated by cuttings. 
Patchouli rocketed to popularity during the hippie movement of the 60’s
when people began challenging traditional ideas. 
Trying different scents that weren’t widely accepted or even known
about was par for the course in that particular era. 
Once Patchouli caught on, however, it eventually became a common
ingredient in perfumes, soaps and incense.  Its
rich exotic scent reminds one of earth and wood, making it a popular ingredient
in perfume. 

 BOGART
POUR HOMME BY JACQUES BOGART(MEN) – Price : $21.02

Patchouli is also very useful to
perfumers as a fixative that blends well with other ingredients, substantially
slowing their evaporation and allowing the scent to last longer. 
It is usually harvested by steam distillation and has very good yields,
the leaves producing 3.5% of their weight in oil. 
Patchouli leaves are said to be best if processed as quickly as possible
after harvesting but some producers prefer to bale dried leaves and allow them
to ferment a bit to encourage their earthy scent. 
Aging is an important part of processing the leaves, as they have a
rather harsh aroma when first picked.  The
oil mellows with time, becoming sweeter and richer-much as fine wine does as it
ages. 

 

Both men’s and women’s perfumes use
patchouli for its rich, warm fragrance redolent of nature and sunshine. 
High quality oil is demanded by the best perfumers; patchouli that has
been altered by additives to stretch its quantity has a cedar wood or clove-like
scent and its fixative powers are severely impeded. 
The best patchouli oil is fruity, sophisticated and has a wine-like
richness. 

 CRISTALLE
BY CHANEL – Price : $44.95

Patchouli is ideal for men and women who
like to wear fresh scents inspired by nature. 
Bogart Pour Homme by Jacques Bogart, a men’s cologne first marketed in
2004, uses patchouli as a base to preserve and compliment its other notes of
vanilla, bergamot and water lily tempered by tonka bean. 
Cristalle, a women’s fragrance by Chanel, combines patchouli with rose
and amber with an aldehyde fixative for a fresh scent of summer days full of
sunshine and cool, breezy evenings with a hint of dew. 
As you can see, patchouli is very versatile and allows other components
to shine while subtly lending its own unique and earthy bouquet to the formula.  

 

Tim Walt

Essential oils are a very important part in the creation of perfumes. They are concentrated and highly volatile compounds which are either extracted from parts of the plant like the leaves, flower, stem, roots, bark, wood, etc or manufactured synthetically. Aromatherapy essentially makes use of naturally extracted compounds and as a result the method of extraction plays a very important role in the manufacture of quality fragrances. There are various methods of extraction of odorants from the raw materials, like maceration, cold pressing, solvent extraction, etc. But it remains to be said that a very popular and effective technique to this effect is the process of distillation. This is a process that is normally employed to extract aromatic compounds from roses or orange blossoms.

There are various processes of distillation by which odorants are obtained from aromatic plants. Of these processes, the most popular and effective ones are the method of Steam distillation and Water distillation. Steam distillation definitely has an edge over water distillation and it is sometimes opined that this is a better method in the extraction of essential oils for the purpose of aromatherapy.
Process of steam distillation:

Steam distillation is considered to be extremely popular to this day. The basic procedure involves using steam to heat the required part of the plant, thus resulting in extracting its oil. These even in this techno- savvy age. This process uses steam to heat the part of the plant, from which the oil has to be extracted. The vapors and the essence of the plant are then collected and bottled.

The procedure employed in steam distillation is as follows. The selected part or part of the plant is placed in a pressure cooker like utensil and is constantly heated by steam. This process releases the molecules from the plants which forms vapors. These vapors are passed through a cool pipe, which results in the vapors being transformed back into liquids. It is at this stage that the oil from the liquid gets separated and floats on top of the water molecules. This oil is collected as pure essential oil. Although the process of steam distillation may sound easy, it is very much complicated in nature. The whole procedure has to be done with meticulous care and attention and requires a lot of expertise. That could be the reason why oils extracted in such a manner is quite expensive.

Another method of extraction of aromatic compounds from parts of the plant is the dry or destructive distillation. This is a process by which the raw materials used are directly heated without any carrier solvent being present. This procedure results in the release of fragrant compounds which undergoes anhydrous pyrolysis and again forms different other fragrant compounds. Such a procedure is mainly used for obtaining essential oils from fragrant woods and fossil amber, which results in a ‘ burnt’ or ‘toasted’ odour.