- Eau de Parfum (EDP) is an alcoholic perfume solution containing 10 to 30% aromatic compound.
- Eau de Toilette (EDT) is an alcohol/water based perfume solution containing 5 to 20 % aromatic compound.
- Eau De Cologne (EDC) is a a solution of about 3% aromatic compound in an alcohol/water base.
How Perfume is Made
by
Simon Bitton
of Discount Perfume Stop
(
12-Oct-2009
)
Humans have been altering their scent since the beginning of recorded history. Perfume and cologne making is an age old activity that has left people smelling good for thousands of years.
Brief History
The ancient Egyptians were said to have perfumed their dead and assigned certain fragrances to different idols. Their word for perfume has been translated to "fragrance of the gods." In later years, after it spread to Europe, doctors began using perfume as a means of healing, often covering victim's mouths and noses with products containing scents in hopes that it would protect them from diseases. As time went on, people began realizing that perfume could mask unwanted bodily scents, which developed into today's common use for perfume and cologne. (This also explains the high volume of discounted perfume stores around the world.)
How It's Made
The ingredients in perfume can come from a variety of different sources, some of which include bark, flowers, blossoms, fruits leaves, twigs, resins, roots, lichens, and seeds. Animals also help add to the elements that make up perfume. Beavers, whales, mongooses, and honeybees all provide materials for perfumers.
The most important step in manufacturing perfume is deciding which combination of materials correlate to which smell. Perfumers will often spend weeks mixing and matching ingredients (usually oils) in order to get the intended scent. Once the solution is formed, the oils are blended with ethyl alcohol and water and left sitting in tanks to stabilize for several weeks. The next step is filtering, which removes any sediments or particles that the mixture may still have.There are three types of perfume, which are determined by the amount of solvent that is mixed with the fragrance oil.