Perfume production
The great art of perfume making
From extraction to the heart note
Not all perfumes are the same, as we now know. However, there are also great differences in the production process, although it still follows the following, admittedly somewhat simplified, scheme: In a first step, fragrances are extracted from vegetable raw materials, which are then dissolved in distilled water and alcohol in a second step.
1. Extracting fragrances - naturally or artificially
There are many different methods for obtaining fragrances, depending on the raw material used, such as leaves, roots or needles. Enfleurage, for example, uses odourless fat. The fragrances are stored in this fat and later dissolved by washing or heating. Distillation, where steam is used, is even hotter. In expression, meanwhile, fragrances are squeezed out. And in the so-called extraction process, the fragrances are finally extracted from the raw materials by using certain gases.
In addition to these various natural methods of extracting fragrances, synthetic production is now also widespread. This involves chemically reproducing or copying known natural fragrances in the laboratory. The great advantage of synthetic fragrances is that they can usually be produced more quickly and in larger quantities, and at the same time they usually have a longer shelf life. To this day, however, many perfume ingredients still cannot be produced artificially.
2. Base, head and heart notes: it's all about the right mix
As soon as the desired fragrances have all been extracted or procured, the great art of perfume making begins. Now it is a question of the right mixture or composition of the fragrance. This is where the so-called heart, head and base notes come into play, which make up 50, 30 and 20 percent of the blend respectively - although each note can of course consist of several individual fragrances. In this context, the order is also important: the base note must go into the bottle first, followed by the heart and head notes.
The fragrance mixture is then mixed with alcohol and distilled water up to a certain percentage, depending on the type of perfume you want to make, and bottled. Et voilà: The perfume is ready.