Manufacturing Perfume Oils

Collecting Perfume Ingredients
The initial ingredients come to the manufacturing center. Plant substances handpicked for their fragrance are harvested from around the world. Animal products obtained by extracting the fatty substances come directly from the animal. Perfume chemists in a laboratory create aromatic chemicals used in synthetic perfumes.

Extraction of Oils
Oils are extracted from plant substances by: steam distillation, solvent extraction, effleurage, maceration, and expression.

• Steam distillation, steam passes through plant material held in a still, the essential oil turns to gas. This gas passes through tubes, is cooled, and liquefied. Oils can also be extracted by boiling plant substances like flower petals in water instead of steaming them.
• Solvent extraction, flowers are put into large rotating tanks or drums and benzene or petroleum ether is poured over the flowers, extracting the essential oils. The flower parts dissolve in the solvents and leave a waxy material that contains the oil, then it is placed in ethyl alcohol. The oil dissolves in the alcohol and rises. Heat evaporates the alcohol, which once it is fully burned off, leaves a higher concentration of the perfume oil on the bottom.
• Enfleurage, grease is spread on glass sheets, and flowers are spread the grease. The glass sheets are between wooden frames in tiers. Flowers are removed by hand and changed until the grease has absorbed their fragrance.
• Maceration is similar to enfleurage except that warmed fats soak up the flower scent. As in solvent extraction, the grease and fats dissolves in alcohol to obtain the essential oils.
• Expression is the oldest and least complex method of extraction. To obtain citrus oils from the rind, the fruit or plant manually or mechanically is pressed until all the oil is squeezed out.

Blending
Once the perfume oils are collected, they are ready to blend according to a formula determined by a master in the field, known as a "nose." It may take as many as 800 different ingredients and several years to develop the special formula for a scent.

• After the scent has been created, it is mixed with alcohol. The amount of alcohol in a scent varies greatly.
• Most full perfumes are made of about 20-30% perfume oils dissolved in alcohol and a trace of water.
• Eau de Parfum contain approximately 18-20% oil diluted in 70-80% alcohol, with water making up about 2%.
• Toilet water has the least amount-2-5% oil in 70-90% alcohol and 6% water.

Aging
Fine perfume is often aged for several months or even years after it is blended. Following this, a "nose" will once again test the perfume to ensure that the correct scent has been achieved.

Each essential oil and perfume has three notes:

• "Notes de tete," or top notes, - Top notes have tangy or citrus-like smells.
• "Notes de coeur," central or heart notes,- central notes (aromatic flowers like rose and jasmine) provide body.
• "Notes de fond," base notes - (woody fragrances) provide an enduring fragrance.

More "notes," of various smells, may be further blended.

Quality Control
Because perfumes depend heavily on harvests of plant substances and the availability of animal products, perfumery can be volatile. Thousands of flowers are used to obtain just one pound of essential oils. If the season's crop is destroyed by disease or adverse weather, perfumeries are sometimes in jeopardy. In addition, consistency is hard to maintain in natural oils. The same species of plant raised in several different areas with slightly different growing conditions may not yield oils with exactly the same scent.

Problems are also encountered in collecting natural animal oils. Many animals once killed for the value of their oils are on the endangered species list and now are not hunted. For example since 1977, sperm whale products like ambergris are outlawed. Most animal oils in general are difficult and expensive to extract. Deer musk come from a tiny deer found in Tibet and China; civet cats, are bred in Ethiopia and have valued fatty gland secretions; beavers from Canada and the former Soviet Union have castor.

Synthetic perfumes have allowed perfumers more freedom and stability in their art, even though natural ingredients are more desirable in the very finest perfumes. The use of synthetic perfumes and oils eliminates the need to extract oils from animals and removes the risk of a bad plant harvest, saving expense and the lives of many animals.

It was not until the late 1800s, when synthetic chemicals were used, that perfumes could be mass marketed. The first synthetic perfume was nitrobenzene, made from nitric acid and benzene. This synthetic mixture gave off an almond smell and used to scent soaps. In 1868, Englishman William Perkin synthesized coumarin from the South American tonka bean to create a fragrance that smelled like freshly sown hay. Ferdinand Tiemann of the University of Berlin created synthetic violet and vanilla. In the United States, Francis Despard Dodge created citronellol—an alcohol with rose-like odor—by experimenting with citronella, which is derived from citronella oil and has a lemon-like odor. In different variations, this synthetic compound gives off the scents of sweet pea, lily of the valley, narcissus, and hyacinth.

What will the Future Bring:
CNN:
"The power of smell is undeniable, humans are Influenced by airborne chemicals undetectable as odors, called pheromones. Researchers at the University of Chicago say they have the first proof that humans produce and react to pheromones."

Perfumes are manufactured and used in different ways than in previous centuries, with synthetic chemicals rather than natural oils. Less concentrated forms of perfume are also becoming increasingly popular. Combined, these factors decrease the cost of the scents, encouraging more widespread daily, use.

Since the beginning of recorded history, humans have attempted to mask or enhance their own odor by using perfume. Many natural and man-made materials have been used to make perfume to apply to the skin and clothing, to put in cleaners and cosmetics, or to scent the air. Because of differences in body chemistry, temperature, and body odors, no perfume will smell the same on any two people.

Today, most perfume is used to scent bar soaps. Some products are perfumed with industrial odorants to mask unpleasant smells or to appear "unscented."

While fragrant liquids used for the body are often considered perfume, true perfumes are defined as extracts or essences and contain a percentage of oil distilled in alcohol. Water is also used. The United States is the world's largest perfume market with annual sales totaling several billions of dollars.