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Basic Perfumes
Perfume is a fragrant product borne of the correct blend of certain fragrant substances in a certain proportion. It is worn on the skin to give off a particular fragrance, mask body odors, attract the opposite sex, make a personal statement or just because it pleases the wearer.
It is made of animal and plant-based aromatic compounds or esters, dissolved in a combination of alcohol and water. The ration of scented matter to solvent determines whether the product is a perfume or cologne. The scented matter can either be botanical essential oils, animal musk oils or synthetic scents.
You could easily wear a 'true' perfume which has the highest proportion of scent and is very expensive. About 25 to 40% of it is pure scent but eau de parfum is commoner with 15-30% aromatics.
Types of perfumes:
The four types of perfume comprise eau de toilette, eau de parfum and eau de cologne, according to their oil content:- Parfum: This has 15%-30% oil or perfume concentrates. It is called extract or extrait perfume and is the purest form of scented products and also the most expensive.
- Eau de parfum: This contains 8%-15% oil or perfume concentrates and is the most popular form of perfume and a long-lasting one.
- Eau de toilette (toilet water): With about 5%-8 % of oil, this is a light scent that stays for a shorter time than the stronger versions. It was always designed to be a refreshing body splash that could help people wake up each day.
- Eau de Cologne (cologne): This contains 2%-7% of oil. It isn't found in fragrances anymore, and doesn't last long. Typically, it is made with a mix of citrus oils of lemons and oranges, lavender and neroli (orange-flower oil). It is a less concentrated form of perfume and is often used interchangeably with toilet water.
This oil is made of natural ingredients such as essential oils extracted from plants such as lavender, flowers such as rose and jasmine, roots such as iris, fruit such as vanilla, and orange and lemon peel. Perfumes may be floral, spicy, woody, herbal, musky, powdery, "aqueous", floral or herbal. Since eau de toilettes and de colognes have the least amount of alcohol content, they are classed and priced low.
Differences among cologne, toilette and parfum:
Eau de cologne is a light and refreshing citrus-based scented fragrance. It is a perfume compound in an alcohol or water base. You can find men's and women's cologne, of which men's is more concentrated than women's at 5%-8% concentration of perfume. Women's cologne is a light fragrance with about 3% concentration of perfume compound in an alcohol water base.Eau de parfum contains 10%-15% perfume concentration and is an alcoholic perfume. Eau de toilette, on the other hand, contains 3%-8% perfume concentration and is an alcohol or water based perfume.
On the whole, perfume is stronger and fuller and lingers longer on the wearer. It also comes in smaller bottles and does not have a spray head, and therefore is more expensive than other perfume variants. Eau de toilette has more alcohol to thin it out and is therefore weaker than other perfume types.
Now that you know the differences among these three perfume types, choose the one you want and get ready for the day.