In my last article we touched just a little bit on how fragrances are extracted from the compounds that carry them. Heat and solvents are the traditional ways of extracting fragrances from these compounds but these are not the only methods of extraction.

Three other extraction techniques are: 1) Supercritical Extraction 2) Distillation, and 3) Expression.

In supercritical extraction CO2 is normally used. In this method due to the very low heat applied and the mildness of the solvent very little of the natural fragrance is destroyed. This is the preferred method of extracting fragrance.

In distillation heat is applied  to leech fragrance from the compound and evaporate excess solvent until a scented oil base is left. 

In expression the raw material is squeezed or compressed until the oils of the peels is collected. This is normally done with objects such as citrus rinds.

The job of the perfumer is to blend the extracted compounds into a signature fragrance. A specific fragrance may be composed of several hundred blended compounds. This is what makes it hard to duplicate fragrance. The list and amounts of compounds in any fragrance is the secret that only the perfumer knows. This is the reason that each manufacturers version of a fragrance will be different. We can come very close to duplication sometimes, but most times it is just not possible.

Every ingredient that is put in a fragrance is not necessarily put there for smell. All ingredients used do fall under one of four classifications:

1)      Primary Scents; These are the base compounds that give the fragrance its concept or theme. Examples of primary scents would be sandalwood or cinnamon. They are what I call the root of the fragrance. This is the scent that the fragrance oil is known for.

2)      Modifiers; The purpose of adding a modifier is not to necessarily change the scent but to enhance it in some way. They will have some kind of an influence on the scent such as to give it a more fruity appeal, or to make it a sweeter fragrance.

3)      Blenders; These substances are added in order to smooth out the transitions of the fragrance from note to note or to help the different compounds in the layers of the fragrance to come together. In other words they help to mellow the fragrance out.

4)      Fixtures; The purpose of fixtures is to boost the primary scent to give it a louder aroma. This is always necessarily good because it will conflict with the natural aroma and change it. This is the major difference between perfumes and scented oils. Some retailers will use alcohol or some other compound to boost the fragrance of the oil that they sell and use this as a selling point. Loud is not necessarily good.

Now we have arrived at the completed product. We can do one of two things at this point. We can blend natural oils with this fragrance compound and create an oil based fragrance, or we can add ethyl alcohol and water to it and turn it into a perfume or cologne.

I prefer to use the scented oil because of the softer, natural, quality of the fragrance. The scented oil fragrance lingers longer because it is not carried away by the alcohol. 

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