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Writer's pictureDanae

Synthetic and Other Essences (Science in Perfumery Part 7)

Essences are not always extracted from flowers and plants. Certain animal secretions also contain odorous substances, used as fixatives to elongate the duration of a perfume, as end notes. These animal products include musk from musk deer, castor from beavers and civet from the civet cat, to name a few. In addition, with the advancements in chemistry, scientists create synthetic scent molecules in order to recreate rare ones or create new scents. Now, perfumes contain more that 100 essences and notes, but the majority are from synthetic compounds, as these are easier and more cost efficient to make in large quantities. (Britannica, 2020) In most cases, it can take numerous pounds of petals, and multiple weeks, to obtain just a few ounces of fragrant oil. (Science Buddies, 2020) Although this aspect of perfumery tends to lean more towards the scientific side, the use and creating of synthetic molecules has impacted the perfume industry in many more ways. “Assembling smells, molecule by molecule, is far from simply being a way of providing cheaper copies of natural odours. The natural aroma of rose, for example, consists of three major components: 2-phenylethanol, geraniol and citronellol. Alongside these, numerous other molecules add facets to the scent, resulting in the subtle nuances that comprise a particular flower or extract’s character. Rose oxide, for example, imparts a dry green top note. A skilled perfumer with access to these synthetics can not only reconstruct the smell of a rose, but also shape its character by altering the amount of each compound present in the formula, or by adding new ones. In this way a completely unique interpretation of rose scent results from the perfumer’s artistic expression.” (Lear, 2015)


Sources: Britannica. (2020, November 12). Perfume. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved April 11, 2021, from https://www.britannica.com/art/perfume

Lear, S. (2015, October 1). Perfumery: The molecular art form. Chemistry World. Retrieved April 12, 2021, from https://www.chemistryworld.com/features/perfumery-the-molecular-art-form/9003.article#/

Science Buddies. (2020, November 20). Scintillating Scents: The Science of Making Perfume. Science buddies. Retrieved April 11, 2021, from https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/Chem_p083/chemistry/science-of-making-perfume#background


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