As a musician knows music, a perfume creator has to know manifold fragrance notes and combinations of those. His olfactive sense, knowledge of vast number of materials, and ability of imagination result in infinite number of fragrance combinations. Perfumer’s nose is not only sensitive to scents and odors, but trained as well, so he or she is able to recognize, compare and dose the right amounts of components in order to create a desired perfume. The work starts in his office, far away from the lab, and vials and tubes with essential oils and synthetic components. The desire of a client has to be translated into the tongue of fragrances, so s/he has to select the components whose scents have or resemble the note needed for envisioned creation.In time perfume evaporates, while its composition gradually opens. To be able to enjoy the long and altering process of perfume evaporation on the skin, the perfumer uses three kinds of components – those that evaporate quickly, such as bergamot, lemon, lavender; medium-term lasting fragrances such as floral components; and finally those that evaporate slowly and therefore last longer on the skin, such as sandalwood, patchouli, musk, vanilla, amber. Regardless of their durability, each component can be perceived as soon as put on the skin, with the time all of the components and scents disappear, starting with transient top notes up to longer-lasting base notes.
The first impression of a perfume is based on the visual perception of perfume bottle and its outter case. We often, even before knowing the fragrance of a particular perfume, create our opinion upon the site of the package design. At the begining of the 20th century Francois Coty changed the approach to perfume package in a revolutionary manner, as according to him 'a perfume is actually its package'. Perfume bottle became a kind of communication, experssion and seduction. Its color, shape and design promote the perfume, passing on the marketing concept and perfumer's message.
Distillation and extraction:
- Distillation. Steam distillation is one of the oldest extraction techniques, used by Arabs in the 9th century. Before distillation the raw materials are being processed – chipped, rasped, grounded or amalgamated with ferments. The intention is to develop evaporation in order to separate the solids from the various volatile elements present in a blend. The steam that carries the ethereal components from the raw materials is then chilled, and in the next phases the water and odoriferous elements separate due to their density differences. The product of the distillation process is a raw essential oil, subsequently refined by rectification. The vacuum processing of the derived oil, achieved by simmering at a low temperature, enables separation of desired molecules only, what is the method for producing so called ‘absolute’ and other precious components of the raw ethereal oil.
- Solvent extraction. The raw materials are placed in a special extractor together with solvent materials such as ethanol, methanol, hexane, toluene and butane. After the raw materials were soaked in the solvent for several times, the solvents-fragrance carriers are eliminated through evaporation. That way the so called 'concrete' is produced. The result of the last concentration is the pure essence or absolut. This process usually gives better result than distillation.
- Carbon dioxide (CO2) extraction – SOFTACT. Carbon dioxide when put under a pressure of 73,8 bar at a temperature over 31°C becomes a liquid with excellent solvent characteristics. This method makes extraction possible at a low temperature, what enables production of an absolute with fragrance of high quality and purity and with fragrance identical to the original odor of the plant. Furthermore, the CO2 extraction produces excellent results with dry raw materials that do not do well with the traditional extraction techniques. Besides, this method is environmental friendly, as CO2 does not pollute.
Enfleurage The property of fat and oils to absorb odors is known since the ancient of times. However, the technique for extraction of odoriferous components of the raw materials using the fats was first utilized in the 19th century, by using ethyl alcohol. This method of extraction is costly and therefore is rarely applied nowadays, as it requires high qualified technicians, but gives very small quantity of essence.
Cold enfleurage. For the cold enfleurage fresh and delicate flowers, such as tuberose, jasmine, violets or orange blossoms, are deposited in a single layer on 'chassis', a glass pane in wooden frame, previously covered with a film of animal fat, usually a mixture of beef and pork fat. Over the period of 60 days the flower petals are replaced with the fresh ones every 3, 5 or 7 days. Once the enfleurage process is completed, the fat, saturated with odors, is scratched and washed in wine spirits. After the spirits are evaporated, the scented fat is used in cosmetics and for production of absolute.
Hot enfleurage. This procedure is suitable for less fragile flowers only. The flower petals are placed in a basin filled with fat diluted with water. The petals are kept in the fat for 2-3 days. Then the petals are removed, and the fat filtrated and used the same way as the one of the cold enfleurage process.
Cold expression Expression is used only for extracting citrus essential oils from the fruit peel, as only citrus fruits have peels rich enough in natural essences to make the expression process worthwhile. These oils are sensitive to high temperature, oxygen, chemical agents and acids, so the citrus peel is usually processed manually, or by using hydraulic presses. Subsequently, essential oils are distilled or filtrated in order to separate them from water.
Concentration Concentration is used mainly for processing fruit juices. Vacuum concentration or concentration by freezing enables preservation of the finest aromatic fruit elements.
Fractioning Fractioning, or selective distillation, helps extracting fragrant essence from a particular essential oil, in order to produce an extract whose scent is absolutely different from the scent that this particular oil possessed before this processing method. By subtracting and adding chemical components it is possible to attain the scent of rose out of pelargonium oil, the fragrance of carnation can be produced of cloves, etc. this method is widely used especially to produce fragrant substitutes for components which are difficult to extract from the original plant.
Chromatography There are several chromatography techniques. The most popular is gas chromatography. This method enables to decode the fragrance and identify its main chemical components. The technique is based on isolating raw materials molecules, or their compositions for the purpose of their identification, or quantity determination.
Headspace or Nature Print This progressive technique enables capturing of odor from natural sources, fresh plants, without causing damage to it. For instance, using this method the most fragrant and qualitative molecules whose characteristics are identical to those of the real flower can be isolated from lilac blossom in vacuum conditions. After the molecules are isolated, they are analyzed by using chromatography technique.
Artificial aromas At the end of the 19th century production of new fragrances was enabled by organic synthesis. It was possible to:
Concentration Concentration is used mainly for processing fruit juices. Vacuum concentration or concentration by freezing enables preservation of the finest aromatic fruit elements.
Fractioning Fractioning, or selective distillation, helps extracting fragrant essence from a particular essential oil, in order to produce an extract whose scent is absolutely different from the scent that this particular oil possessed before this processing method. By subtracting and adding chemical components it is possible to attain the scent of rose out of pelargonium oil, the fragrance of carnation can be produced of cloves, etc. this method is widely used especially to produce fragrant substitutes for components which are difficult to extract from the original plant.
Chromatography There are several chromatography techniques. The most popular is gas chromatography. This method enables to decode the fragrance and identify its main chemical components. The technique is based on isolating raw materials molecules, or their compositions for the purpose of their identification, or quantity determination.
Headspace or Nature Print This progressive technique enables capturing of odor from natural sources, fresh plants, without causing damage to it. For instance, using this method the most fragrant and qualitative molecules whose characteristics are identical to those of the real flower can be isolated from lilac blossom in vacuum conditions. After the molecules are isolated, they are analyzed by using chromatography technique.
Artificial aromas At the end of the 19th century production of new fragrances was enabled by organic synthesis. It was possible to:
- Precisely imitate natural odors by using other sources, what preserved and saved many animals and plants;
- Creation of new fragrances, not existing in nature;
- Reconstruction of complicated fragrances production of which was not successful, such as the scent of lilac and lily.