Perfume may not seem like a necessary part of daily hygiene, but it can leave a lasting impression and help to brighten the mood or enhance one’s sense of self. Choosing the right perfume requires careful consideration of personal preferences and occasions. Perfume can also be a status symbol, a way to show off wealth and taste.
The earliest perfumes used a variety of natural ingredients including the smelly ones like musk (from the musk deer glands) and ambergris (from petrified whale vomit). Today’s perfumes are largely created in the laboratory using a wide range of synthetic chemicals.
Most perfumes consist of a blend of top notes, heart notes and base notes. The top notes are the initial smells that the nose notices and usually disappear quickly. The heart notes last a little longer and are usually floral, herbal or spice smells. The base notes are the longest-lasting smells and are often woody, musky or amber in nature. The mix of different smells in a perfume change throughout the day as the chemistry of the person’s skin mixes with it.
In addition to describing the smell of a perfume, olfactory descriptions use words like ‘crisp’, ‘fresh’, ‘fresh linen’ and ‘warm fuzzy’ to describe the sense of the fragrance on the skin. Other important characteristics of a perfume include the occasion it is intended for, whether it suits summer or winter and the mood it evokes. A perfume can be classified as a masculine, feminine or unisex scent. This distinction is based on the fact that certain odors are associated with particular genders.