1. Perfume Concentrations
2. The 3 Parts of a Fragrance
3. Olfactive Families
4. Common Perfume Notes & Ingredients
Perfume Concentrations
Perfumes are made from a scented compound mixed with a solvent, which in most commercial perfumes is ethanol or ethanol and water. Some perfumers ( especially smaller, home perfumers) prefer to dilute scented oils with scentless carrier oils such as fractionated coconut oil.
Different perfume types are determined by the their concentrations; that is, the ratio of the scented compound to the solvent in a perfume product. The more scented compound there is in a perfume, the stronger it will be and the longer it will last. The concentration by percent/volume of perfume oil is as follows:
Perfume extract (Extrait):
15-40% aromatic compounds
Eau de Parfum (EdP) or Parfum de Toilette (PdT):
10-20% aromatic compounds
Eau de Toilette (EdT):
5-15% aromatic compounds
Eau de Cologne (EdC):
3-8% scented compounds
Splash and Aftershave:
1-3% aromatic compounds
You might notice some significant overlap in some of the numbers listed above. This is because different perfume houses assign different amounts of oils to each of their perfumes. Within the same perfume house, a perfume in Eau de Parfum (EdP) dilution will always be higher than the same perfume in Eau de Toilette (EdT) dilution. However, between different perfume houses, an EdT from one house may actually be stronger than an EdP from another.
It is also important to note that occasionally some fragrances have a slightly different name based on the perfume’s concentration. These perfumes differ not only in their dilutions, but might also use perfume compounds that have actually been changed. For example, in order to make the EdT version of a fragrance brighter and fresher than its EdP, the EdT oil may contain more top notes or fewer base notes, such as the case with Miss Dior Cherie and Miss Dior Cherie L’eau. These vast differences in scent between different concentrations of the “same” perfume are the exception rather than the rule, and they are easily identifiable since the concentration is also a part of the perfume name in these instances.
