Perfume manufacturing techniques

A perfume can be created from natural raw materials or from synthetic products. There are different processes to extract the essential oil or essence from natural raw materials.

 

What are the different extraction processes to make a perfume?

Here are the different extraction processes of raw materials used in perfumery: 

For natural products :

 And for synthetic products :

 

Raw materials available to the perfumer  

We would like to remind you that there are 1000 natural and 3000 synthetic raw materials available in perfumery. According to their taste, a perfumer will select about 1000 raw materials, synthetic or/and natural for their perfume palette (a piece of furniture that allows a professional to store and classify their vials with essential oils).

New raw materials are discovered and marketed every year, while others disappear, in particular due to increasingly strict legislation.

 

 

Expression

The expression is a fairly old extraction process, which began in the 19th century. It is a mechanical treatment that makes it possible to recover the essential oil (or essence), found in the peel of citrus fruits (also called "zests" or "epicarps"). 

This type of treatment is only used for citrus fruits. To extract the essence from the bergamot peel, the method used is essentially the pelatrice (a machine made up of a mechanical scraper), reinforced with centrifuges. For oranges, the whole fruit must be pressed.

In the past, there were various methods for extracting citrus peels: the sponge treatment (consisted of removing the pulp from the fruit and extracting the essence from the peel using sponges that absorbed the product) and the spoon treatment (consisted of collecting the essence by scraping the citrus peel with a spoon).

 

Distillation

Used since antiquity, this extraction process was perfected in the Arab civilisation from the 8th century onwards. Today, distillation is the main technique in traditional perfumery.

This process allows the treatment of certain flower petals, as well as seeds, bark, leaves and roots. However, not all raw materials used in perfumery can be treated by distillation. The alembic, a device designed to separate products by heating and then cooling, is used to obtain the essential oil (or essence), as well as the floral water, in the case of orange blossom and rose blossom.

 

Enfleurage

There are two types of enfleurage: hot and cold. 

Already practised in ancient times, the enfleurage technique has been in common use since the beginning of the 18th century. At that time, particularly fragile materials could not be treated by distillation and were therefore extracted by cold or hot enfleurage.

This extraction technique was developed in Grasse, in the South of France, but it was abandoned around the 1930s, as soon as the volatile solvent extraction process became reliable.

Enfleurage consists of saturating the fat with the scent of the flowers that are placed on plates surrounded by wooden frames, or shredded in hot oil. The fat absorbs the scents of the raw materials, and makes it possible to obtain a very precious and expensive product called "absolute ointment".

Today, some small producers are trying to restart the enfleurage activity in Grasse, but this remains very confidential. 

 

Extraction by volatile solvent

Volatile solvent extraction consists of dissolving the fragrant components of the plant in a solvent which is then evaporated. This method replaced enfleurage and became really operational in the 19th century.  

It consists of immersing the flowers in a large tank, called an "extractor". Once the extractor is closed, the contents are immersed in a solvent such as ethanol, hexane, or benzene, which carry the plant molecules away.

The final product is called the absolute. It is then washed with alcohol to obtain the precious concrete.

 

Extraction by C02 or sofact

This extraction process is the most recent available. It allows the odour of the raw material to be reproduced as precisely as possible. It is a modern, clean and gentle technology using solvents. This technique makes it possible to obtain an absolute very close to the natural odour of the raw material, which is very little heated and leaves no trace. Products treated with C02 are considered to be luxury products.

 

Synthetic molecules

Modern perfumery was born at the end of the 19th century when perfumers included synthetic ingredients in their formulas. This expanded the perfumer's palette, gave them more creativity and allowed them to create more abstract olfactory forms.

There are two types of synthetic raw materials:

  • synthetic raw materials obtained by chemical reactions 
  • isolates from natural products

Synthetic molecules have many advantages:

  • They offer more creativity to the perfumer.
  • They enrich the perfumer's palette and give abstraction to the perfume.
  • They help to strenghten the wake.
  • They allow us to replace nature when it is deficient (for example fruit, violet, lily of the valley, etc). 
  • They bring stability to the perfume.
  • They sublimate natural products.

 

Headspace 

The headspace technique aims to reconstitute the natural scent of a raw material.

The objective is to capture the fresh molecules on a living raw material, such as a flower, and to analyse them, with more or less important material, and in particular thanks to chromatographic analysis in the laboratory. 

A "copy" of this analysis is then made, selecting the most interesting molecules, or those that are the easiest to reproduce. The headspace method also makes it possible to analyse more complex and original scents, such as the atmosphere of a forest or a beach, for example. 

There is also a process called "jungle essence", which can be used to analyse rare scents, and which can be assimilated to the headspace technique.

 

Sylvaine Delacourte fragrances

Discover Sylvaine Delacourte's brand with her Orange Blossom, Musk and Vanilla Collections. You can try them thanks to the Discovery Boxes (5 Eaux de Parfum x 2 ml) and rediscover these raw materials as you have never smelled them before.