January 19, 2010

Perfume



The word perfume is derived from a Latin word "Per Fumum" meaning "through smoke." The art of perfumery was known to the ancient Chinese, Hindus, Egyptians, Arabs, Greeks, and Romans.
The burning of incense in religious rites of ancient China, Palestine, and Egypt led gradually to the personal use of perfume known as attars, widespread in ancient Greece and Rome. During the Middle Ages, crusaders brought the knowledge of perfumery to Europe from the East. After 1500, Paris was the major center of perfume-making followed by Egypt and other middle eastern countries.


What's the fuss between fragrance oil and ordinary perfumes?
When you purchase alcohol-free fragrance oil, what you are getting is pure perfume oil that is far more sophisticated then over-the-counter perfumes. The pure perfume oil emits a fine scent that is delicate yet strong but never offensive or overpowering.
Known for its well-balanced characteristics and long-lasting smell, perfume oil is pure and unadulterated by industrial fillers such as alcohol, white oil and water. These fillers, commonly found in the over-the-counter perfumes are used to make up the volume for larger packaging.


Why do they add alcohol in your perfumes?
Alcohol has a low evaporating point so it dries quicker than water. Hence mixing perfume oil with alcohol causes the oil to evaporate faster than they would by themselves. This gives the impression that the perfume is considerably stronger than it actually is. That is why, when you first put on a commercial fragrance, the aroma may sometimes seem overwhelming to those around you. This also explains why the scent fades dramatically within one or two hours as the perfume oil evaporates along with the alcohol.
The second reason for all those fillers is just clever marketing -- a bigger and fancier bottle containing fragrance plus fillers seems like a much better value than a smaller simple packaging of pure perfume oil.


What's the problem with alcohol anyway?
Alcohol tends to kill off or mask some of the subtle notes in many fragrances.
Ethyl alcohol is the most popular alcohol found in ordinary perfumes. It is extremely caustic. Many people who think they are allergic to the perfumes are actually allergic to the alcohol added in the perfume.
Alcohol is a drying agent - it makes things evaporate including the fragrance and your natural body oils.


How long do One Drop Perfumes last?
A well-established fact is that oil based perfumes do not evaporate quickly and will settle on the skin for much longer, causing the scent to linger for a longer period of time.
The oil-based One Drop Perfumes last up to 12 to 24 hours - depending on your body chemistry.  If you apply the fragrance on your clothing, the scent will last throughout the day as it permeates into the fabric of your clothing.


Remarkable Facts Revealed

Perfume Fact 1
70 to 90% of the cost of commercial perfume is marketing, not materials. Perfume is one of the most dramatic examples of the price not reflecting the cost of materials. Most people think that designer perfumes have all kinds of expensive and precious ingredients, and that is what makes it so expensive.
While this was true at one point, the real reason why most modern perfumes have such a high price tag is because of advertising, including:
- Glossy magazine ads in Cosmo, GQ, and other popular magazines
- Primetime TV commercials featuring hired celebrities
-Custom-designed boxes, fancy bottles, and glitzy packaging to make the perfume "look expensive" and attract the eye of shoppers.
-And don't forget the reseller's mark-up, which is usually twice the wholesale rate.

Perfume Fact 2
Thanks to amazing advances in recent technologies, it is now possible to chemically analyze and recreate most fragrances, including designer perfumes. This is completely legal. It is impossible to copyright or patent a smell. (After all, can you imagine a monopoly on things that smell like rose? That would be ridiculous!)
The courts of law have held that - fragrance is something that belongs to the nature and not to any individual. As a result of this, a fragrance cannot be patented or copyrighted. On the other hand a brand name can be copyrighted and registered and others may not profit from its use.

Perfume Fact 3
Designer-inspired fragrance oil used to be available only to a niche and selected few. Today, its popularity is growing steadily. Discerning customers are now more aware and able to appreciate this sophistication of fine fragrance. Moreover, having learned that ingredients in fragrance oil and most generic perfumes are quite the same hence there is no reason for one to spend on astronomically-priced generic perfumes.

No comments: