What's the difference?

What is so different between aromatherapy and perfume. Loosely we could say perfume is an indulgence, is a pleasure or is hedonistic whereas aromatherapy is a medicine or a therapeutic aid.

The materials used in the natural field have a lot in common. Essential oils are the backbone of both natural perfumes and aromatherapy. Perfumery favours standardised materials whilst aromatherapy concentrates the more natural and variable organic materials.

Historically perfumes have often also been medicines such as Eau de Cologne and Queen of Hungary Water. They have also been entwined with religion, its priests and shamans also being connected to the healing sciences.

The turning point for perfumery was the invention of alcohol. In the 8^th century CE an Arabic alchemist Abu Musa Jabir ibn Hayyan designed the alembic or pot still, a technique that allowed for the effective distillation of alcohol. The “alembic” itself is the big kettle-shaped vessel where a primary fermented liquid such as wine is heated up. The evaporated material, Ethanol evaporates before water, traveling into a cooling tube and back into another vessel to condense. Without the wine, the same principle applies to steam distillation of aromatic plants. Placed in water that is heated to boiling point the steam draws out the volatile elements which are then condensed.

But alcohol – oh so much can be done with it! The main components of perfume are a perfume oil, an alcohol, and water. 

Perfume oil can be broken down into two diverse types. A synthetic oil, or a fragrance taken from a specific source through methods such as headspace analysis or pure invention. Headspace is the smell from something (even such as manure or metal) directly vacuumed from a sealed container. The smell from the object is then analysed to find its chemical equation to recreate the smell. Oils and so smells can be extracted from flowers, plants, animals, etc. A tincture is an extract in alcohol, an absolute is made by washing plant material in hexane and then distilled with alcohol, a maceration is when a plant is placed in a vat of fat or liquid oil which over time absorbs the fat-soluble aroma molecules. 

The oils have three parts: The top note, the heart note, and the base note. The top note is what you smell immediately. The heart note is what you smell 3-4 hours after applying and it evaporates slowly. The base note sticks easily to the skin and can stay for up to eight hours! The chemical analysis for a perfume oil completely depend on what the oil was taken from.

Do not confuse a perfume oil or compound with a maceration. You see this a lot on inferior quality internet sites that talk about buying perfume oils rather than alcohol based perfumes. What they are talking about are macerations or fat-soluble perfumes not what a perfumer would understand by the term.

Perfumes should be enjoyed for the character they can bring enhancing the mood of the moment or giving a signature to a personality. They are described in words in the same way as wine is described for we do not have a language for perfume. We always must say some smell is like something, it reminds me of x or y. Just as we describe wine effusively so too fragrance is described similarly. So if a wine is said too taste of blackberry that does not mean it has any in it! Likewise perfume, if it reminds you of rose, there is no guarantee any rose is in the perfume!

Over the counter perfumes are sold according to how much perfume oil is dissolved or carried in the base. So, Perfume extract: 20%-50% aromatic compounds, Eau de Parfum/Parfum de toilette: 10-30% aromatic compounds, Eau de Toilette: 5-20% aromatic compounds, Eau de Cologne:  2-5% aromatic compounds.

Fragrance smells different on different people. This can be due to body chemistry, condition of the skin, the individual’s diet, medication, lifestyle, stress, and the environment in which we live. how a perfume smells is not only what it comes from, but also how a person is chemically wired to perceive it. If everyone smelled the same way and had the same “favourite smells” then everyone would also have the same favourite perfume. Depending on your genetic code, you could have different smell receptors which cause a smell to be different to you than someone else.

History shows us that fragrance has been used everywhere from the sails of Anthony and Cleopatras war fleet, to the horse, the furniture, the wall hangings, clothes, handkerchiefs whilst today we fragrance all personal care items and we are moving toward more environmental fragrance. Just enjoy it and know you will not like everything. Fragrance free hardly such a thing nearly everything around us has a smell we just don’t always perceive it. 

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Why Perfume?

Fragrance free is a fashion statement that arose in the heyday of the Women’s movement! This revolution against perfume was at the moment when Charlie hit the stores – well everywhere really from the dog to the movies. Charlie was everywhere.

Why fragrance free? Well some feel that fragrance is full of bad chemicals. ‘Fragrance gives me headaches’ says one person and another ‘perfume irritates my skin.’ Fair comments and this may happen to some small part of the population but such does not make perfume a bad thing. Fragrance is everywhere. In your soap, your toothpaste, your shampoo, your conditioner, your hairdressing, your deodorant, your polish, your washing-up liquid, your washing powder, your make-up, your hand cream, your lip salve, your fabric conditioner, your fly spray, your toilet cleaner, your socks, your everything. Even fragrance-free things have "odour neutralisers" in them to take away their intrinsically nasty or unpleasant smells.

Perfume and perfuming has been part of culture and human life since its beginning. The oldest found perfumery discovered so far by archaeology is in Cyprus dating back some 4000 years. All classical cultures from Egypt to Rome were big on perfume. In Europe it was only in the Dark ages that perfume use declined re-emerging with alcohol and the Crusades. Products that enhance the feel of skin and the smell of the body have been highly valued in every culture.

At various time religion has tried to curtail the use of perfumes with no lasting success. Likewise, today some very ‘Green’ people seem to think perfume is a luxury we should not afford being a decadence not needed.

However, we must remember that smell is all around us. There is really no such thing as fragrance free. All nuance of taste, for example, beyond sour, salt, sweet comes from retro smell. Some people are smell blind to certain odours and so choice and perception of good and bad is highly individual. Culture takes a great part of our likes and dislikes. What we are used to sells best till we get the message! When you apply perfumes apply them to pulse points such as the folds in the crook of your elbow and back of knees, wrist, neck and cleavage. Gently rub your wrists to warm them to volatise the top notes.  This helps to diffuse it over your body and clothing.  Apply to the back of knees to allow the perfume to rise.

Consider layering perfumes. Use all the same perfume in various products.  Begin with shower or bath gel and then rub in body lotion or spray with a matching after bath spray.  Finally apply the scent preferably as perfume or EDP.

Keep bottles tightly stopped, away from direct heat and out of sunlight. 

Try to choose perfumes that suit you, not your friends or family.  Test a perfume in a store and then walk around for a few minutes.  Some perfumes take more like half an hour or an hour to truly develop.  Do not go by the first sniff.

There is a trick being played by some companies working in the natural or organic field. Regulation requires that the pack is labelled with Parfum if it contains anything to improve, enhance or fragrance smell. Tis does not suit consumers who think f perfume only in a bad chemical context. So these manufacturers often claim they have essential oils (as though they are something special despite containing many allergens) and perhaps list them claiming they are calming or antiaging etc.

The problem with this approach is that if they are here as an active 1. A medicinal claim such as calming is illegal and makes the product liable to be banned or 2. A Cosmetic product whereby a specific claim such antiaging from sandalwood has by law to have been tested independently by a laboratory. Ignorance of the law and a shortage of enforcement officers allows this malpractice to go on.

A lot of fragrances can be made using entirely natural materials. At Fragrant Earth, we have our fair share and sell quantities to good cosmetic companies like Liz Earle or Elemis. Then we have our own products such as our diffusers and of course our famous Aromatherapy Synergies using real essential oils (most in the market are a mixture). Aromatherapy to us is a clinical therapy. However, many psycho or neurological effects can come from synthetic materials as well as natural.

Natural or synthetic is a consumer choice but even synthetics generally try to mimic the joys of our natural surroundings. Perfume is a pleasure and after the other seven arts is itself the 8^th Art.