The perfumer’s art dates back to the earliest civilizations, and for thousands of years, people have used scent to express themselves and create connections with each other. Perfume is made up of a mixture of natural aromatic raw materials obtained through distillation, expression or extraction, and synthetic chemicals. The ancient perfumers developed sophisticated extraction techniques, including the enfleurage process (putting flowers or organic material in fat to extract the oil) and the so-called “avicenna method” of heating the plant material to release its oils. Early perfumers used a wide variety of natural ingredients, some of which were surprising, and perhaps even gross, such as musk (made from the glands of a musk deer) and ambergris (whale vomit). Today, modern perfumes use a much wider range of synthetic chemicals to produce the same natural aromas that were extracted by ancient perfumers.
Each perfume contains several ingredients that make up its odour: top notes, which are the fresh and volatile odours perceived quickly; middle notes, providing full character; and base notes, or fixatives, which linger on the skin and give a long-lasting scent. A perfume can also contain a number of “blending” ingredients, as well as solvents such as alcohol and water to dilute the raw materials, and a wide variety of additives such as colorants and antioxidants, which improve the shelf life and durability of the finished product.
The five main perfume families are Floral, Oriental, Woody, Chypre and Ozonic or Oceanic (the newest category, first appearing in 1988 with Davidoff Cool Water and Christian Dior Dune). Within these categories, there are many subgroups, each with its own odour profile. For example, the modern ozonic category is distinguished by a clean and aquatic odour, and contains mainly calone, a synthetic discovered in 1966, and ozonic notes such as sage, sagebrush and sea grass.