Perfume – A Personal Product
Many people use perfume to freshen up their appearance, brighten their moods or influence how they are perceived by others. For some, it is a must-have; for others, it’s simply an accessory that enhances their style.
Perfume is a mixture of fragrant essential oils or aroma compounds, fixatives and solvents, usually in liquid form. It is used to scent the human body, animals, food, objects and living-spaces.
Today, a wide variety of natural and synthetic chemicals are used to create the various fragrances we enjoy. The first fragrances, however, were crafted with natural ingredients like herbs and flowers. They also included a variety of animal products such as musk from deer glands, hyraceum from petrified Hyrax feces, or ambergris from whale vomit.
In today’s world, perfume is primarily produced in the laboratory, using a range of synthetic chemicals. There are still perfumes made from natural oils, but these are more expensive and often less desirable to the consumer.
Despite these advances in technology, fragrance still has a strong connection to culture and identity. The smell of success – for example – has a distinct and powerful effect on those who wear it, causing them to be perceived as more successful than their peers.
A perfumer is a chemist who uses chemical knowledge to create different fragrances that can be incorporated into other products such as soaps, talcums, face powders, deodorants, body lotions and more. In addition to making a difference in odor, these fragrances must also be stable and compatible with the medium they are being incorporated into.