Perfumes have become an integral part of our daily life. Even talcum powders today carry perfume notes to make it lingering and long lasting. How do we buy perfume? It is normally experience, hearsay or many times brand names not to mention the discount sales and offers. Do you know if the perfume is what you want or if it suits you? We use a tester to check out the perfume to buy and to the surprise of all, it is not the right way to purchase a perfume.

 Here we are getting down to the basics to help you understand perfumes and its constituents. If you are the kind who loves to make your own perfumes. we also start you off with simple DIY perfumes.

Understanding the Top notes, middle notes and the base notes

Top Notes  

Top notes or the head notes as it is known, is the one that you smell when you try out a perfume. This is quite important because it helps you to decide if you like the perfume or not. It is normally light and is the one that is designed to impress you. This note also fades away fast giving place to the middle note to take over the fragrance.

Notable top notes are citric notes and herbal notes. Even mild citric notes such as grapefruits and berries come under this category. Herbal notes include sage, lavender while citric notes have lemon, lime, orange and the like.

Middle Notes

This note comes into focus when the top notes evaporate. This is one of the reason why you feel that the perfume you bought just does not seem to last long. So it is important to ensure that the middle note is well rounded and pleasant and chosen to your interest. This note lasts longer than the top note and also would ensure a smooth transition to the base note. Flower, Fruit and Spicy notes fall in this group.  Jasmine, Lavender ( Yes, there are in Top and Middle notes too), Rose, Neroli, Ylang Ylang, Geranium,  to name a few. For that extra perfume zing, the fruits and flower tones are combined with spices such as nutmeg, cardamom, cinnamon, coriander etc.

Base Notes

Base notes also play in when the top notes completely leave you. It is the base notes and the middle notes which forms the real perfume and attaches to your skin to last longer. Since the base notes associate themselves with the skin, they last longer till the entire presence of perfume is dissipated. The most common base notes come from Patchouli, Sandalwood, Vanilla, Amber and Musk.

Together these three notes make a beautiful perfume.

Know the difference between Perfume, Eau-de-toilette and Eau-de-cologne

* Perfumes have the highest concentration of essential oils, that is why  they are costly, almost 15%

*  Eau-de-toilette has about 5% to 8% of essential oils and so comparitively cheaper

* Eau-de-cologne has only 1 to 4% of essential oils and so light.

DIY Perfume for women

There are many instructions to make perfumes on your own because we use highly potent essential oils in their raw form. Use glass containers and glass rods to mix and store the mixture in Amber or Blue glass bottles. Add the oils drop after drop.

1 ml is equal to approx. 20 drops.

Sensual perfume for women perfume

Ingredients

5 drops coriander
6 drops bergamot
4 drops neroli
1 drops jasmine blend
3 drops rose blend
10 ml jojoba oil (oil base)

Method: Place oil base in mixing container, add oils in the order listed and mix. Bottle, cap and leave one week before using.

Sensual Perfume for Men

Ingredients

10 drops lavender
20 drops coriander
22 drops sandalwood
23 drops cedarwood
5 drop frankincense
100 ml alcohol/vodka

Method : Place the alcohol/vodka mixture into your mixing bowl, add the oils in the order given and mix well.

Perfume is absolutely personal, so make a choice with this information and you will not be disappointed.

You can also check out our other article on Perfumes here

https://chennaifocus.in/2012/01/03/understanding-perfumes-and-perfume-shopping/