Perfume is a mixture of fragrant oils, aroma compounds, fixatives or solvents that are used to give humans, animals or living spaces a pleasant scent.
Making a perfume involves collecting and gathering ingredients, extracting scented oils, blending and aging the fragrance. The perfume can also include antioxidants to preserve the scent over time and improve the quality of the scent.
Plant and animal substances — including fruits, flowers, roots, grasses, resins, gums, leaves, and fatty substances from animals like musk from male deer or ambergris from sperm whales — are the main raw materials used in perfume manufacturing. Other resources such as alcohol, petrochemicals, coal, and tars are also used.
Scents of various plants and flowers vary from supplier to supplier, based on where they grow and how they are harvested and extracted. This is one reason why natural perfumes are so expensive.
Often, a specific flower may be used more than once in a perfume due to its unique aromas. For instance, rose and jasmine are often blended together in a perfume, even though they come from different parts of the world and have been harvested differently.
Synthetic odorants are also commonly used in perfumes. These odorants are usually inexpensively synthesized from natural terpenes, such as linalool and coumarin.
While perfume can be very appealing, it can also have negative health effects when used. This is why many manufacturers now use synthetic odorants to replace natural perfumes. It is difficult to know how these chemicals may affect the environment and human health, but it is important to do more research on their potential hazards.