The Right Perfume or Cologne Can Make All the Difference

Ancient Egyptians created the earliest perfumes over 4,000 years ago. Their skill with oils and essences influenced ancient Greek and Roman cultures, reached western Europe and established the principles of modern perfumery. Egyptians’ perfumery skills were so sophisticated that a perfume discovered in King Tut’s tomb was still fragrant thousands of years later.

Technology led to the invention of synthetic fragrances. In 1889, Aimé Guerlain created Jicky, the first fragrance combining both synthetic and natural ingredients. Chanel No. 5, a classic brand created in 1903, is completely synthetic. In fact, today’s top brands are either partially or wholly synthetic. Perfumes are named according to their percentage of oil fragrances. These include:

Perfume/Parfum, the most intense (and priciest) concentration, contains 20%-30% oil and lasts six to eight hours.
Eau de Parfum (EDP) contains 15%-20% oil and lasts four to five hours
Eau de Toilette (EDT) contains 5%-15% oil and lasts one to three hours.
Eau de Cologne (EDC) contains 2%-4% oil and lasts up to two hours.

How Perfume and Cologne Are Made

Making a perfume involves a 4-phase process. That process includes gathering ingredients, extracting the oil, blending oils, and aging the result.

Gathering - This phase ensures enough of the raw fragrance source is available for processing. For example, one pound of solid gardenia perfume requires roughly 4,400 pounds of gardenia flowers. Factoring in how one perfume may contain dozens or hundreds of ingredients, it’s easy to understand how gathering fragrance sources could become complex. Fragrances are derived from plant, animal or synthetic sources.
Extraction - The fragrance is separated from the raw material using expression, distillation, solvent extraction, enfleurage or maceration.
Blending - A master perfumer determines how to blend the scents. After blending, the master scent is mixed with alcohol. During this stage, a fragrance’s concentration and intensity are created.
Aging - Finally, some perfumes need aging to ensure the perfect scent. Only the finest perfumes require aging for months, possibly years.

Popular Perfume Brands

Michael Edwards, industry expert, developed the fragrance wheel, a classification tool that assigns fragrances according to the following 14 fragrance families. These families include:

Floral
Oriental
Woods
Citrus
Green
Fruity
Water
Soft Floral
Soft Oriental
Dry Woods
Mossy Woods
Woody Oriental
Floral Oriental
Fougère

These have developed into some of the world’s greatest perfumes. Some of the most popular ones are:

Black Opium by YSL (Oriental)
Chanel No. 5 by Chanel (Soft Floral)
Christian Dior J’adore (Floral)
Issey Miyake’s L’Eau d’Issey (Woody Oriental)
Jimmy Choo Women’s Perfume (Woody Oriental)
La Vie Est Belle by Lancome (Floral Oriental)
Paris Hilton Can Can (Floral Oriental)
Thierry Mugler’s Angel (Woody Oriental)
Viktor & Rolf Flowerbomb (Woody Oriental)
Viva La Juicy by Juicy Couture (Woody Oriental)

Some more luxury options that people may consider indulging in include:

DKNY Golden Delicious (Floral)
Clive Christian No 1 Imperial Majesty (Woody Oriental)
24 Faubourg by Hermes (Mossy Woods)
Joy Perfume by Jean Patou (Floral)

Popular Cologne Brands

Below are some popular men’s colognes and their fragrance families. Men’s colognes also fall into one of the 14 fragrance families. Despite what you may think, men’s fragrances are often more subtle than those for women.