Natural perfume

Naturalness is a complex quest. Aimée de Mars has decided to reveal the secrets of natural perfumes: Are they necessarily organic? Do they last? Do they limit allergies? Are they clean? Discover everything you need to know about these fragrances.

The art of perfumery

Perfumery is mysterious. Because this art is sensitive and because the rules are still very vague in order to protect the work of noses, this industry holds some secrets, particularly concerning perfume formulas.

While the law is very strict regarding the INCI lists of cosmetics and makeup, there is a legal loophole that does not oblige a perfumer to reveal its formula because it is considered a “trade secret”. This is why the origin of raw materials is very often unknown.

Perfumery as we know it today dates back to the 19th century with the advent of petrochemicals. It therefore offers so-called synthetic notes, essential for varied and non-dangerous olfactory scores, but alternatives offered to the consumer from a natural point of view were rare until recently. “We never have the entire list of ingredients for our perfume, but only the allergens (often natural), alcohol, and the famous portmanteau word 'parfum fragrance', which can contain all the other ingredients not mentioned on the labels. With natural products, we aim for more transparency.”

What is a natural perfume?

Concretely, a 100% natural perfume is a perfume without any synthetic notes and therefore without any notes from petrochemicals. “For a perfume to be natural, it must contain at least 95% natural ingredients according to the ISO standard, which is extremely defined. This reduces the range of possibilities because where a nose in classic perfumery has around 4,000 notes, someone who focuses on natural formulas will only have around 400.” Thus, this includes depriving oneself of certain olfactory families such as musks, which today are only synthetic notes.

However, there is a subtlety among synthetic notes: “You should know that some notes are called synthetic even though they come from the plant world. For example, to replace ambergris, which is a musk highly prized in perfumery and originally comes from the sperm whale, you can use ambroxan, which is a musk synthesized from sage. Thus, it is a natural note because it comes from a plant but it has been synthesized.”

Additionally, other ingredients such as silicone, colorants and phthalates are also banned from natural perfumes.

Natural perfumes

Is a natural perfume necessarily organic?

To qualify as natural, you must meet certain criteria, and the same goes for organic. Therefore, not everything that is natural is necessarily organic. The organic charter is extremely regulated, with various labels that exist, such as Ecocert or Cosmos Bio, the most well-known of which require a minimum of 95% natural ingredients and a minimum of 20% organic ingredients. But here again, subtleties remain, particularly due to the high costs involved in obtaining labels: “At Bastille, we use organic wheat alcohol in addition to our formulas, which are 85% organic, but we don't have a label because it's expensive, the process is very long, and you have to pay each time for each perfume. For a young brand, it's very complicated.”

Does natural perfume last well?

The boom in natural perfume houses clearly demonstrates the appetite for greater clarity and transparency. It also proves that great progress has been made in scents and that it is no longer just a question of essential oils with scents that can be smelled and felt. “Natural perfume allows for the use of very high-quality ingredients, but you have to be willing to put a budget in place and opt for scents that are different and stand out from ordinary perfumery.” The market is therefore seeing the arrival of subtle and sophisticated scents.

On the other hand, technically, and because there are no longer these synthetic notes like musk that allow the scent to last longer, 100% natural perfume lasts less time. “The longevity of natural perfumes is a big challenge, but since we are 95% natural ingredients, the 5% that remains allows us to add tiny touches of musk to our perfumes to guarantee an interesting and captivating scent.”

Does natural perfume limit allergic reactions?

In reality, few people are allergic to allergenic substances present in formulas such as linalool from lavender essential oil or geraniol which is from rose essential oil. The real problem is what we put in addition to our cosmetics, the additives, which can cause long-term health problems such as endocrine disruptors , phthalates, parabens, dyes or BHT. “Typically, butylated hydroxytulene (or BHT ) can be found in the famous portmanteau word of the INCI list while it is something that should be banned”. Thus, opting for a natural perfume is therefore more a matter of one's convictions and one's way of consuming.

Making a natural vs. conventional perfume

In the world of perfume, the most well-known product is fine or alcoholic perfume. It is obtained by diluting a perfume concentrate or "juice," a mixture of synthetic odorous compounds and natural extracts, in ethyl alcohol.

Fine perfumery fragrance is a dilution of a perfume concentrate in ethanol.

Depending on the concentration of the perfume base, several products can be obtained: perfume (15 to 30%), eau de parfum (8 to 15%), eau de toilette (5 to 8%), eau de Cologne (3 to 5%) and eau de sport (1 to 3%).

Two main families of raw materials are used by the perfumer: natural products and synthetic compounds.

Natural compounds

Different extracts, of plant origin (from flowers, leaves, roots, seeds, bark, resins, etc.) and animal origin, can be used in the formula of a perfume. Two main families of extracts can be distinguished. Extracts obtained by hydrodistillation, steam distillation, or expression, called essential oils or essences. And products obtained by extraction using an organic solvent called concrete, absolute, resinoid or oleoresin, tincture.

There are also natural isolates, such as:

Benzaldehyde NAT: molecule naturally present in almonds.

Vanillin NAT: synthesis from natural clove eugenol

Synthetic compounds

We can classify two types of synthetic compounds: synthetic molecules from nature: identical molecules, and synthetic molecules invented by man.

Examples of identical molecules (molecule that exists in nature and not invented by chemistry):

Synthetic vanillin

Synthetic benzaldehyde

Synthetic Linalool

Examples of synthetic molecules (molecule invented and synthesized):

Ethyl vanillin: vanilla note ++

Methyl ionone: violet candy note

The ingredients of Aimée de Mars perfumes

Aimée de Mars perfumes are composed of 98% to 100% natural origin

With :

ALCOHOL: FROM NATURAL ORGANIC WHEAT naturally denatured by EOs

WATER: AIMÉE CELTIC SPRING WATER

PERFUME CONCENTRATE: The perfume concentrate in the case of a natural perfume is composed of natural raw materials such as essential oils, natural isolates, absolutes, resins and nature-identical molecules.

Synthetic perfumes contain 50-90% molecules of synthetic origin.

CHEMICAL FILTERS: absent in natural formulations

COLORS: absent in natural formulations

STABILIZER (BHT, BHA): absent in natural formulations

The olfactory pyramid of perfumes

The Top Note : This note corresponds to the first minutes of diffusion of the perfume (0 to 30 min). We find the aromatic and citrus raw materials

The Heart Note : This note includes notes: Fruity, Green, Floral, Spicy. (30 min to 1 h)

The Base Note : This note corresponds to raw materials with heavy molecules such as Woody, Ambery, Musky, Animalic. (More than 1 hour)

The stages of making a perfume

1. CREATION – BRIEF – CHARTER FORMULATION and SELECTION of RAW MATERIALS

First, you need to define the tendency of the final perfume, whether it is a rather floral or woody perfume, ...
The perfumer then selects the raw materials. They then formulate the formulas according to their own accord. The creative process varies in length depending on the complexity of the perfume. It can take anywhere from a few trials to over a hundred to validate a formula.
The perfume is evaluated in alcohol before validation.

2. WEIGHING THE PERFUME CONCENTRATE

The formula is validated, the manufacturing stage begins. The concentrate is weighed and will mature for 1 week.

3. MATURATION OF THE CONCENTRATE – 1 Week

4. ALCOHOL PACKING*

This step involves mixing the ingredients: Perfume Concentrate, Alcohol, and in our case, Spring Water. The perfume will macerate for two weeks to harmonize all the components.

*Alcohol must be denatured for the product to be customs compliant.

In conventional perfumery, certain phthalates may be used to denature alcohol, such as diethylphthalate (DEP) or glycols. Diethylphthalate is an endocrine disruptor.
In the case of our perfumes, it is the Essential Oils that will denature the Organic Wheat alcohol.

5. MACERATION – 2 Weeks

6. ICING + FILTRATION

To stop the olfactory evolution, the concentrated mixture of perfume and alcohol is cooled to around 0 degrees to precipitate the less soluble substances such as waxes. Then, it is filtered, which removes these forms of impurities and makes the perfume clear.

In the case of a conventional synthetic perfume, there may be a COLORATION + UV filter addition step to guarantee the color. This step is not present in Aimée de Mars perfumes.

7 - PACKAGING

Bottle the perfume.

Natural perfume and clean perfume: what are the differences?

Let's go even further in explaining the composition of a natural perfume and explain everything that's hidden in the list of ingredients, also called the INCI list of a perfume. You hear a lot about it with Yuka and INCI beauty, the apps that decipher the composition of cosmetics and perfumes.

As you now know, a natural or synthetic perfume is composed of the concentrate, itself made up of around twenty to thirty ingredients (essential oils, isolates, absolutes or chemical molecules derived from petroleum), alcohol and water.

In most conventional synthetic perfumes, we will see that there are, in addition, colorants and one or two chemical filters.

We thus obtain an INCI list with:

Alcohol denat. (alcohol)

Water

Perfume (concentrate)

CI… (dyes)

Benzophenone 1 or 3…

And the whole list of allergens such as limonene, linalool...

Let’s get back to alcohol: why denatured?

In cosmetics, unlike food which uses potable alcohol, we must prove to customs that the alcohol is not used for food.

Also, it is necessary to “denature” the alcohol with an excipient which makes it unfit for consumption.

Most often, it is said to be denatured by a chemical ingredient such as Bitrex or Dietyl Phthalate (DEP). And yes, most phthalates are banned for their harmfulness, but not yet DEP!

There are other ways to denature alcohol, such as with essential oils, which must then be validated by customs.

This is why even in some natural perfumes, you will not always see 100% natural written but 99.9% natural.

Only 100% natural guarantees that the alcohol has not been denatured by a chemical additive.

In organic, the alcohol used is certified organic, it is often a wheat alcohol.

Water

Water is used in the composition of a perfume from 10 to 20% depending on the desired alcohol content. In fact, it is also present to help precipitate the solid bodies (waxes) naturally present in the concentrate during the filtration/icing stage.

As you know, in Aimée de Mars perfumes, we have chosen a very special water: Aimée Celtic spring water which has a very high vibrational rate.

Dyes and chemical filters

You will see dye names listed like violet 2 (CI 60730), red 33 (CI 17200) or yellow 6 (CI 15985) which are part of the family of azo dyes that are not neutral for the skin.

However, the worst are chemical filters such as benzophenone 3 or butyl methoxydibenzoylmethane which are included in the official list of authorities, and proven to be endocrine disruptors.

The concentrate

The concentrate will be used in different percentages in perfume compositions, depending on the type of product: cologne, eau de toilette, eau de parfum, or perfume.

The concentration of course increases as we move towards the perfume category and this goes with the intensity and the hold on the skin.

The percentages vary greatly from one perfume brand to another.

Among the essential oils, we will find essential oil of lemon, bergamot, lavender, cedar, sandalwood... Absolutes are extracts of plants which do not give their essence with water vapor, such as for example jasmine absolute, benzoin absolute, tonka bean absolute.

Isolates are natural or petrochemical molecules such as vanillin (vanilla), ionone (violet)...

We will not go back over the price difference between a synthetic concentrate and a natural concentrate (just keep in mind a factor of 10 to 15 between the two).

And without forgetting that this is what will make the big difference between a natural perfume and a synthetic perfume. Indeed, the vibration and the energetic action of the perfume will not be at all the same.

Perfumes and allergens

Allergens are often singled out and declared "harmful" because they can cause allergies. And it's perfectly fine to have to indicate them on the packaging for allergy sufferers. However, fortunately, this only affects a very small percentage of people.

Moreover, people allergic to limonene, for example, cannot touch or squeeze a lemon or a mandarin, because limonene is present in the zest of lemons and mandarins.

Just as someone allergic to geraniol will not be able to smell a rose from the garden, someone allergic to linalool will not be able to touch lavender, which contains a large amount of linalool.

Of course, it is important to be careful with essential oils which are very concentrated in active ingredients, and it is therefore advisable to use them with a good understanding of their composition:

For example, we would not use pure organic bergamot essential oil on the skin because it contains a photosensitizing ingredient, the famous bergapten.

For perfumes and cosmetics, regulations require us to use bergamot without bergaptene so that the perfumes are not photosensitizing.

Grasse perfumes without CMR

You can find this indication, but it is not a guarantee of naturalness: it just means that the composition or manufacturing was done in Grasse but most often with synthetic materials and without CMR ingredients (carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic).

The natural fragrance guarantee

With the arrival of clean beauty in the United States, we are seeing the emergence of many brands that promote some natural materials without being certified.

So, the only guarantee of having a truly natural perfume is that the product is certified by an independent organization (Ecocert, or Cosmecert) with the Cosmebio/COSMOS logo indicated on the product. In this case, this proves that the product follows the very strict charter of organic and natural cosmetic products.

From natural perfumery to Aromaparfumerie®

Current perfumery

Perfumery has evolved considerably over the past fifty years. In the conventional sector, 80% of the selling price of a perfume is made up of advertising and marketing. The fragrance composition now represents only a tiny part of the budget, which limits the choice of materials. Thus, only synthetic products are possible to meet these constraints. In the 1960s, perfumes still contained 75% natural products. Today, the percentage of natural materials is well below 25%. The causes of this decline are due to advances in synthetic chemistry and the conditions imposed on its mass production, its price, and new regulations. Indeed, a launch in a major perfume house starts with 1 ton of concentrate. In these proportions, it is impossible to manufacture perfumes solely with natural materials (1).

From aromachology to Aromaparfumerie®

Aromatherapy is a branch of phytotherapy. It was created by the chemist Gattefossé in 1910. It involves the use of natural essences for therapeutic purposes. It is a natural therapy based on the relationship between the chemical components of natural essences and the resulting therapeutic activities. Natural essences are chosen based on their composition, where each molecule exhibits certain physical properties (2).

Smell is the only one of our senses that does not directly access consciousness.

The olfactory message that we perceive when we smell a perfume first passes through the unconscious, via the limbic system. This part of the brain is the seat of our emotions, and plays a major role in our everyday behavior. The limbic system is also the place where memory is formed; this is why a perfume is systematically associated with a memory. Each person then perceives a perfume differently, depending on their life and olfactory experiences. This is how the perfume we breathe triggers physiological reactions without us being aware of it. In addition to this positive (pleasure of the perfume) or negative (refusal, escape) behavior, the perfume also triggers a specific reaction in our body (3).

Aromaparfumerie® is the alliance of beautiful perfumery and the power of plants

Based on the principles of aromatherapy and olfactotherapy, L'Aromaparfumerie® enhances perfumery by using the evocative power of fragrances and the healing power of natural essences. Indeed, its active heart composed of 21 natural essences is present in each Aimée de Mars perfume. This heart of natural essences acts on the psyche to provide general well-being. The natural materials that surround it then create the unique trail of fragrances and symbolize a character, a personality. Each perfume has a specific action providing joy of living, relaxation, and all the feelings that natural essences can convey. L'Aromaparfumerie® uses at least 95% natural materials.

Natural: tenfold effectiveness

Natural essences, resins, and absolutes are extracted directly from the plant. These natural materials are the soul of the plant. The plant grows by capturing sunlight. Then, it transforms it to create its own energy; the natural essence extracted from it therefore contains all this information.

Synthetic perfume materials are man-made through chemical reactions. Natural materials are complexes composed of many odorous molecules. Unlike synthetic materials, which are generally based on a single, more or less purified molecule. This is why the starting molecules, which after reactions form the final molecule, do not contain the same vibrational message, no energy coming from nature itself. Thus, the compound formed does not have exactly the same biochemical properties since it is an isolated molecule, and the energetic aspect is not at all identical to the natural molecule.

The quantum mechanism of olfaction largely explains this phenomenon. Indeed, our olfactory receptors would function exactly like a scanning tunnel spectroscope. Thus, molecules would no longer be recognized by their shape, but rather by their energy, proportional to their vibrational frequency. The molecules would then have a much broader message than the simple characteristics studied in classical physics (5).

References

Le Guérer A. Perfume, from its origins to the present day, Odile Jacob. 2005.

Werner M., Von Braunschweig R. Aromatherapy, Vigot. 2007.

Melernerich U., Golebolwski J., Fernandez X., Cabrol Brass D. “From molecule to odor”, L'Actualité Chimique 2005; 289:2940.

Gérault G., Sommerard JC., Béhard C., Mary R. The guide to olfactotherapy, Albin Michel. 2011

Penoël D. Quantum aromatherapy.