THE perfumes they are a mixture of odorous essences natural or synthetictypically dosed with alcohol Or water and vegetable oils in variable percentages. The ingredients that make them up are chosen by a bookshop of over 3 000 essential oilsnatural substances and complex molecules. The extraction of smells smells from raw materials (animals, such as gray amber, or more commonly vegetable) takes place through various processes, depending on the delicacy and nature of the matter itself: from distillation, to pressing (as for orange skins), up to the action with special solvents.
How to create a perfume
The professional figure who formulates a perfume for the first time by combining fragrances is the so -called “nose“. The noses are perfumers who, after a specific formation and so much practice, manage to be extremely sensitive to the various odorous molecules and develop a strong olfactory memory. There are approximately around the world 900 Nasi!
In the composition of a perfume, the perfume takes into account the volatility of the molecules and of the persistence of raw materials. To make a perfume, the famous is used olfactory pyramidwith 3 levels:
- Notes of headthe first molecules to be perceived when we spray the perfume, but also the most volatile;
- Notes of Heart: are the ones who remain even after some time, between about 2-3 hours;
- Notes of bottomwhich have greater persistence and are the basis of the perfume.
From the formula of the ingredients chosen by the nose, the essential oilsmixtures of numerous organic compounds which are precisely the essence of a perfume. Essential oils are odorous substances that are naturally extracted (by vegetables or animals) or synthesized in the laboratory.
The extraction of raw materials
Essential oils are obtained with different techniques, depending on the characteristics of the raw material. The raw materials natural They can be flowers, fruits, plants, trees, seeds and so on. Different extraction techniques are widespread, but the most common are: distillation, enfleurage, squeezing, extraction and infusion.
Distillation
The raw material – for example rose petals – is put in a boiler with water that is brought to a boil and becomes steam. Hot water and steam cause vegetable fabrics to free the essential oil naturally contained in their sebaceous glands. When the steam molecules pass between the raw material, they are loaded with odorous substances until they become saturated. A fragrant mixture of water vapor and oil is created which is conveyed until you arrive in a coolant, where condensation for cooling. For the natural difference in density, a layer of perfumed water are formed and, above, a layer of real essential oil. Both are collected and reused. Examples of plants from which essential oils are extracted in this way are lavender and rose.
Enfleurage
It is used to extract the perfume from flowers such as jasmine and tuberous, which continue to release perfume even after having been collected. The petals are positioned on a frame and covered with fat In order to make it absorb the smell, until fat is completely saturated with floral oils. There is therefore a fragrant ointment that is washed in alcohol, to obtain a fragrant oil that is then filtered. The process is typically cold, but there is a hot variant in which the fat is led to temperatures up to 60 ° C; In this case we speak more commonly than maceration.
Squeezing
It is used for citrus fruits, whose peel has sebaceous glands that contain an amount of about 0.5% -0.7% of natural oil. The process in this case is mechanical: the skins are compressed by a press in order to naturally free the essential oil.
Extraction with volatile solvents
The raw material is combined with a volatile solvent able to easily melt the odorous molecules. The solvent penetrates the raw material and dissolves its perfume. A solution is formed that is brought to low temperature conditions and the state of emptiness, where the solvent is isolated and a concentrated oil is obtained.
Usually for this type of extraction it is used as a solvent the oil ethereal. A variant of the process is the technique of Supercritical extraction with carbon dioxide (CO2) as a solvent, used for little volatile or particularly sensitive substances. The supercritical state necessary for the extraction is reached by bringing the CO2 at high pressure and low temperatures.
Infusion (or solid-liquid extraction)
The infusion (as happens for liqueurs) allows you to transfer the aroma from a solid to a liquid thanks to a solvent that is often the ethanol. The principle in which the infusion takes place is that of lisciviationthe process of separation of components soluble from a solid mass through a solvent.
The raw material is made to macerate in a container closed with the solvent chosen for several days, mixing occasionally. At the process ended, the solid residue is pressed to recover as liquid as possible and everything is filtered.
Synthetic molecules
Often the natural aromas are not easy to obtain because they must be obtained from particular substances, as for the gray amber obtained from the whale vomiting. Also and above all for this reason, molecules are almost always used to produce aromas today synthetic made in the laboratory in imitation of the natural ones. This process began from the mid -1800s in which it was discovered how to isolate olfactory molecules from natural substances. An example is the vanillinused by the Aztecs since the 16th century but isolated only in 1858 by the vanilla extract and summarized for the first time in 1874 by Coniferin, a member of the pine bark.
From essential oils to bottling
After defining the ingredients of a fragrance, the next step is the dilution. All perfumes are diluted, otherwise they would be too strong to smell. In the vast majority of perfumes, a alcohol as a solvent. Based on the quantity of alcohol we will have eau de toilette, de parfum or the extracts, in order from the most diluted to the less diluted. In addition to alcohol, all stabilizers, dyes and UV filters that are needed are also added.
At this point the perfume must mature, or rather maceratefor a time that varies from weeks to months. In this way the molecules of the essential oil have time to bind to alcohol. During this period of time, concentration variations of some components can also be verified that can affect the organoleptic characteristics of the final perfume.
Once the maceration is finished, the mixture comes cooled And filter To remove the last sediments. The latest steps finally provide for thebottling and the packaging.
