Perfume is an artificially scented product used as a form of personal adornment to produce a desirable and pleasing smell. It is usually sprayed on the chest and neck to allow people to smell it from a distance, and can be worn to make an impression or to cover unpleasant body odors. Perfumes can be made from natural ingredients, such as flowers, herbs and fruits, or they may be synthetically produced. The latter is the more common, and avoids the need to extract fragrance-producing chemicals from natural materials. However, it also creates new chemical smells and is prone to allergic reactions [1,2].
Fragrance components are described by perfumers in terms of families, with head, middle and base notes describing the different scents that come into play in a perfume. This classification is not perfect, as any perfume can contain a mixture of different families. The head note is the initial aroma that emerges from the bottle and evaporates quickly, within 5-30 minutes after application. Common examples include citrus, light florals and herbaceous scents like lavender or sage.
Middle notes are the heart of a perfume, and combine with the top notes to characterize a particular smell. Typical middle scents include blackcurrant leaf, linalool and vanilla. Many of the middle notes, and a lot of the base notes, are composed using synthetic fragrance compounds. They are formulated to mimic the odor of natural materials and are cheaper than natural oils.
Perfume is a complex product, and the different notes can be blended in various ways to achieve an intended result. ‘Pour homme’ and ‘pour femme’ are French terms for perfumes that are targeted to males and females respectively. This is largely a marketing strategy, since perfumes can be enjoyed by both genders; it’s just that men tend to enjoy stronger and longer-lasting scents than women.