Perfume, a mixture of fragrant essential oils or aroma compounds, fixatives and solvents in liquid form, is used to give the human body, food, objects and living-spaces an agreeable fragrance. It is sometimes also called a cosmetic fragrance or cologne. Perfumes are a form of perfumery and are categorized into 5 groups loosely based on the concentration of aromatic compounds.
The ancient Greeks and Romans refined the use of perfume over 2500 years ago. [1] However modern perfumery only became feasible in the seventeenth century with the invention of distillation.
In the beginning, natural fragrant ingredients were used in perfumes. They are generally obtained by extracting the fragrant oils from flowers, trees and plants with different methods, but the most common method is steam distillation. Thousands of kilos of plant material can be needed to obtain just one kilo of essential oil which is why perfumes are expensive.
The essential oils are diluted with alcohol which serves as a fixative and prevents the scent from evaporating too quickly. Perfumes can contain up to 100 ingredients. They are usually categorized into three structural parts: The top notes, which is the fresh, volatile smell that evaporates rapidly; the middle notes, providing depth and character; and the base notes, lasting fragrances such as woods, amber and musk.
Many perfumes also have aphrodisiac properties and are known to trigger an intuitive sensual response in humans. This is probably due to the fact that some of the raw materials in perfumes such as Jasmine, Ylang ylang and Vanilla are known for their aphrodisiac properties. Apparently, even Cleopatra was smitten by the fragrance of Jasmine and used it to seduce Mark Antony.