The Complete Guide To Designer Perfume Fragrances (Sep 18, 2011)
The perfume counter, do you approach it with anticipation or trepidation? Selecting a designer fragrance should be fun, but with hundreds of beautifully bottled, boxed, and displayed designer perfume fragrances available for many of us it has become tedious. How do you select from the designer perfume fragrances for yourself let alone buy them for gift giving. How can we not be confused when new perfume fragrances appear daily? The differences in odours, our personal preferences in perfume fragrances, and differences in price can be overwhelming.There is hope! After learning a bit about perfume fragrances, colognes, and brands, choosing and purchasing of perfume fragrances can be fun and even affordable. Let us begin with perfume categories. There are seven basic types of perfume fragrances. Designer Perfume Fragrance CategoriesAssociated with naturalness and smoothness, the Floral category is the largest and most popular with flower based notes such as rose, gardenia, orange blossom or jasmine often blended together, Fern or Fougere perfume fragrances are a popular structure for men and represents a forest-fragrance of oakmoss often combined with herbal derived perfume fragrances like lavender.The Chypre category with citrus combined with the rich woody notes of patchouli, labdanum, or oakmoss is the basis for many mens colognes. The Leather category encompasses the pungent smells characteristic of the tanning process. The Woody category uses the natural perfume fragrances emanating from freshly cut cedar, sandalwood, cypress, pine, or fir, often combined with vetiver or patchouli. The Oriental family of perfume fragrances uses balsamic, vanilla, oakmoss, and animal sources. Frequently, the name more generally denotes heavy, full bodied and tenacious perfume fragrances. The Citrus fruit family is among the oldest known perfume fragrances.The essential oils of Perfume FragrancesThe essential oils necessary to prepare the perfume fragrances in these categories are obtained by three basic methods. One method is distillation, which is energy intensive and time consuming, but can allow the isolation of slightly different oils from the same materials. Expression, a second process, used mainly for fruit scents, consists of simply squeezing or compressing materials. A third method is solvent extraction. This is a relatively easy process often accomplished in hours but it may take several months.The perfumer then prepares the desired combination of perfume fragrances by dissolution of the selected essential oils in specially denatured alcohol. Different Types of Perfumes Finally Explained Perfume, 22 percent oils, is the costliest formulation for perfume fragrances. With between 15 and 22 percent oils, Eau de Parfum can sometimes be as costly. Eau de Toilette with 8 to 15 percent oils becomes notably less expensive. Eau de Cologne has just 4 percent oils. Finally, if a light touch is your goal, both in scent and pocket book, Eau Fraiche at 1 to 3 percent is the lightest dilution of perfume fragrances available.The Facinating History of PerfumesNow let us look at a brief history of the various European Perfume Houses many of whom began in earnest in the 18th or 19th centuries with most active to this day.Pierre-Francois Pascal Guerlain established a perfume house in Paris in 1828, creating perfume fragrances for his aristocratic patrons including Queen Victoria and Queen Isabelle II. The house has prospered for six generations. Noteworthy scents are Jicky (1889), and Mitsouko (1919), Shalimar (1925), and Insolence (2006)In 1730, Juan Floris opened a barber shop in London's St. James's quarter and created toilette waters, most notably his famous Lavender Eau de Toilette which is still available at the Floris shop at its original address. William Henry Penhaligon opened his barber shop in St. James's in 1870 where he created Hammam Bouquet in 1872, with the perfume fragrances of jasmine, roses and sandalwood. In 1902, Penhaligon created Blenheim Bouquet a scent of green lemon and pine wood as homage to Sir Winston Churchill. In 2006, Penhaligon introduced Lily and Spice. The House of Creed in London, founded in 1780 with Royal English Leather, has remained in business for six generations. Creed introduced Acqua Fiorentina in 2009.With the advances in organic chemistry in the late 19th century, synthetic perfume products began to replace expensive perfume fragrances and by the 20th century, perfumes began to be mass produced. In 1921, Coco Chanel No. 5 introduced the first synthetic floral aldehydes to perfume fragrances and it remains one of the most popular perfumes in the world. Chanel No. 22 (1922), No. 19 (1971), Cristalle (1974), Coco (1984), Coco Mademoiselle (2001), and Chance (2002) followed.Elizabeth Arden entered the fray with Blue Grass Perfume (1935) followed by White Shoulders (1945), and Red Door (1989). In 1946, Estee Lauder also added a perfume line with Youth Dew (1953), Cinnabar and White Linen (1978) and Beyond Paradise (2003).Parfums Christian Dior is the perfumery line created by the fashion designer in 1947 with the launch of Miss Dior perfume, then Diorissimo (1956), Diorling (1963), Eau Sauvage (1966), Diorella (1972), Poison (1985), Fahrenheit (1988), and Dolce Vita (1996), This began the entrance of the fashion houses into the perfume fragrances business.Hermes started its perfume fragrances line in 1951 with Eau d'Hermes, 24 Faubourg (1995), Eau des Merveilles (2004), Un Jardin sur le Nil (2005), and Terre d'Hermes (2006). Monsieur de Givenchy founded Les Parfums Givenchy with Le De and the original L'Interdit in 1957, and followed with Monsieur de Givenchy (1959), Givenchy Gentleman (1975), Ysatis (1984), Amarige (1991), Organza (1996) and Very Irresistible (2003).Although the house no longer exists, the Yves Saint Laurent brand lives on since 1999 as part of Gucci. The lines first huge success was Opium (1977), then Kouros (1981), Paris (1983), Nu (2001), M7 (2002), L'Homme (2006) and La Nuit (2009). Meanwhile Gucci gave us Envy (1997), Gucci by Gucci (2007), and Gucci by Gucci - Pour Homme (2008). The Thierry Mugler perfume division began with Angel (1992), Angel Men/A*Men (1996), Mugler Cologne (2001), and Alien (2005).Of course this short list represents a mere fraction of the hundreds of perfume fragrances and brands available. However, most of those listed are either in the Fragrance Hall of Fame or received a Fragrance of the Year award. I hope that with this background knowledge, you should be able to approach that perfume counter with some confidence. Simply choose a few perfume fragrances you would like to try rather than what the Sales Assistants suggest. If price conscious, choose at the store then buy online!
