Climbing The Aromatic Ladder

To many of us, the word ‘perfume’ has a special magic. We have smelled a good perfume in the past and the sensual invocations it brought forth then still linger somewhere in our cortex.

The words ‘eau de toilette’ and eau de cologne’ are more subtle and mysterious. We recognize them as lesser gods, able to convey rich scent but not to the degree of their superior cousin. Why not?  What is it about real perfume that so satisfies..and how can we explain it?

When one brings a fragrance genie out of it’s bottle, it will utter two truths: the first truth is that all depends on the density of aromatic oil in the mixture at hand. Perfume has the highest density, eau de toilette next.. followed by the Cinderella of this family, pale-scented cologne.

The second truth is far more complex. Aromatic composites used in perfume mixtures carry multifaceted chemical connections, some with hundreds of components. These are blended to give stages to the olifactory experience. First there is the ‘Chief note’, the opening whiff. Depending on the mix this can last from a few minutes to several hours. Then ‘HEART’ begins to unfold, or the ‘stiff’ of the perfume, which lingers about as a mood of ‘compassion’ for an indefinite time. Finally ‘footnote’ is revealed, that faint bouquet left at the end of the day. The totality of these stages, and their intensity, define a mixture’s place on our aromatic ladder.

Finally, perfume buyer beware. The most luxurious scents in each category are to be found behind labels which proclaim ‘all natural ingredients’. Many new fragrance groups have been formed using synthetic mixtures, but ‘all natural’ still remains on our ladder’s top rung.