Naturalness is a complex quest. Aimée de Mars has decided to reveal the secrets of natural perfumes: Are they necessarily organic? Do they last well? Do they minimize allergies? Are they clean?... Discover everything you need to know about these perfumes.
The art of perfumery
Perfumery is mysterious. Because this art is based on sensitivity and because the rules are still very vague in order to protect the work of perfumers, this field holds some secrets, particularly concerning perfume formulas.
While the law is very strict regarding INCI lists for cosmetics and makeup, a legal loophole exists that does not require a perfumer to disclose their formula because it falls under the category of "trade secrets." 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 creating diverse and harmless olfactory compositions, but until recently, natural alternatives for consumers were rare. “We never get the full ingredient list of our perfume, only the allergens (often natural), the alcohol, and the infamous catch-all term 'parfum fragrance,' which can encompass all the other ingredients not listed on the label. With natural products, we aim for greater transparency.”
What is a natural perfume?
In practical terms, a 100% natural perfume is a perfume without any synthetic notes and therefore without any notes derived from petrochemicals. “For a perfume to be considered natural, it must contain at least 95% natural ingredients according to the extremely well-defined ISO standard. This narrows down the possibilities because while a perfumer in the traditional perfume industry has approximately 4,000 notes to work with, someone working on natural formulas will only have around 400.” Thus, this means foregoing certain olfactory families, such as musks, which are now only synthetic notes.
However, there is a subtlety among synthetic notes: “It should be noted 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 which originally comes from the sperm whale, one 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.”
Furthermore, other ingredients such as silicone, dyes and phthalates are also prohibited from natural perfumes.
Natural perfumes
Is a natural perfume necessarily organic?
To qualify as natural, certain criteria must be met, and the same applies to organic products. Therefore, not everything that is natural is necessarily organic. The organic standard is extremely regulated, with various labels such as Ecocert and Cosmos Bio, the best known of which require a minimum of 95% natural ingredients and a minimum of 20% organic ingredients. But here again, nuances remain, particularly due to the high costs involved in obtaining these 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 for each fragrance. 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 significant progress has been made in fragrance sillage, and that it's no longer simply a matter of essential oils with scents that are merely smelled and felt. “Natural perfume allows the use of very high-quality ingredients, but you have to be prepared to invest in it and opt for scents that are different and outside the realm of conventional perfumery.” The market is therefore seeing the arrival of subtle and sophisticated fragrances.
However, technically, and because it no longer contains synthetic notes like musk that help the fragrance last longer, a 100% natural perfume doesn't last as long. “The longevity of natural perfumes is a major challenge, but since we use 95% natural ingredients, the remaining 5% allows us to add very small touches of musk to our perfumes to guarantee an interesting and captivating trail.”
Does natural perfume limit allergic reactions?
In reality, very few people are allergic to the allergenic substances present in formulas, such as linalool from lavender essential oil or geraniol from rose essential oil. The real problem lies in what we add 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 infamous portmanteau word of the INCI list, even though it's something that should be banned. Therefore, opting for a natural perfume is more a matter of personal conviction and consumption habits.
The making of a natural vs. conventional perfume
In the world of perfume, the best-known product is fine or alcoholic perfume. It is obtained by diluting a perfume concentrate or "juice," a mixture of synthetic odor compounds and natural extracts, in ethyl alcohol.
Fine perfumery perfume 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%).
Perfumers use two main families of raw materials: natural products and synthetic compounds.
Natural compounds
Various extracts of plant origin (from flowers, leaves, roots, seeds, bark, resins, etc.) and animal origin can be used in a perfume formula. Two main categories 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, oleoresin, or tincture.
There are also natural isolates, such as:
Benzaldehyde NAT: molecule naturally present in almonds.
Vanillin NAT: synthesis from natural eugenol of clove
Synthetic compounds
We can classify two types of synthetic compounds: synthetic molecules derived from nature: identical molecules, and synthetic molecules invented by man.
Examples of identical molecules (molecules that exist in nature and were not invented by chemistry):
Synthetic vanillin
Synthetic benzaldehyde
Synthetic Linalool
Examples of synthetic molecules (molecules 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 ingredients.
With :
ALCOHOL: NATURAL ORGANIC WHEAT, naturally denatured by essential oils
WATER: AIMÉE'S 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 molecules identical to nature.
Synthetic perfumes contain 50-90% synthetically derived molecules.
CHEMICAL FILTERS: absent in natural formulations
COLOURS: absent in natural formulations
STABILIZERS (BHT, BHA): absent in natural formulations
The olfactory pyramid of perfumes
The Top Note : This note corresponds to the first few minutes of fragrance diffusion (0 to 30 minutes). It features aromatic and citrus raw materials.
The Heart Note : This note includes fruity, green, floral, and spicy notes. (30 min to 1 h)
The Base Note : This note corresponds to raw materials with heavy molecules such as Woody, Amber, Musky, and Animalic notes. (More than 1 hour)
The steps involved in making a perfume
1. CREATION – BRIEF – CHARTER FORMULATION and SELECTION of RAW MATERIALS
First, you need to define the style of the final fragrance, whether it's more floral or woody, …
Next, the perfumer selects their raw materials. They then formulate the fragrance using a combination of accords. The creation process varies in length depending on the complexity of the perfume, ranging from a few trials to over a hundred to finalize a formula.
The fragrance 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 be left to mature for 1 week.
3. CONCENTRATE MATURATION – 1 Week
4. ALCOHOL PACKAGING*
This step involves mixing the ingredients: Perfume Concentrate, Alcohol, and in our case, Spring Water. For two weeks, the perfume will macerate to harmonize all the components.
*Alcohol must be denatured in order for the product to comply with customs regulations.
In conventional perfumery, certain phthalates, such as diethyl phthalate (DEP), or glycols, may be used to denature alcohol. Diethyl phthalate 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 development, the concentrated mixture of perfume and alcohol is cooled to around 0 degrees Celsius to precipitate the less soluble substances, such as waxes. This is then followed by filtration, which removes these impurities and makes the perfume clear.
In the case of a conventional synthetic perfume, there may be a coloring step followed by the addition of a UV filter to guarantee the color. This step is not present in Aimée de Mars perfumes.
7 - PACKAGING
The perfume is bottled.
Natural perfume and clean perfume: what are the differences?
Let's delve even deeper into the composition of a natural perfume and explain everything hidden in the ingredient list, also known as the INCI list. You've probably heard a lot about this with apps like Yuka and INCI Beauty, which 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 about 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 also dyes and one or two chemical filters.
This gives us an INCI list with:
Alcohol denat. (alcohol)
Water
Perfume (the concentrate)
CI… (dyes)
Benzophenone 1 or 3…
And the whole list of allergens such as limonene, linalool…
Let's go back to alcohol: why denatured?
In cosmetics, unlike in food which uses potable alcohol, we must prove to customs that the use of alcohol is not for food purposes.
Therefore, it is necessary to "denature" the alcohol with an excipient that makes it unfit for consumption.
Most often, it is said to be denatured by a chemical ingredient such as Bitrex or diethyl phthalate (DEP). And yes, most phthalates are banned because of their harmful effects, but not yet DEP!
There are other ways to denature alcohol, such as with essential oils, but this must be approved by customs.
That's why even in some natural perfumes, you won't always see 100% natural but 99.9% natural.
Only 100% natural guarantees that the alcohol has not been denatured by a chemical additive.
In organic products, the alcohol used is certified organic; it is often wheat alcohol.
Water
Water makes up 10 to 20% of a perfume, depending on the desired alcohol content. It is also present to help precipitate the solid particles (waxes) naturally present in the concentrate during the filtration/chilling stage.
As you know, in the Aimée de Mars perfumes, we have chosen a very special water: Aimée's Celtic spring water which has a very high vibrational rate.
Dyes and chemical filters
You will see names of colorants such as violet 2 (CI 60730), red 33 (CI 17200) or yellow 6 (CI 15985) which are part of the family of azo colorants that are not skin neutral.
However, the worst are chemical filters such as benzophenone 3 or butyl methoxydibenzoylmethane which are listed in the official list of authorities, and proven to be endocrine disruptors.
The concentrate
The concentrate will be used in varying percentages in perfume compositions. This depends on the type of product: cologne, eau de toilette, eau de parfum, or perfume.
The concentration naturally increases when moving towards the perfume category, and this goes hand in hand with the intensity and longevity on the skin.
The percentages vary greatly from one perfume brand to another.
Among the essential oils, we will find lemon, bergamot, lavender, cedar, sandalwood essential oils… Absolutes are plant extracts that do not give their essence with water vapor, such as jasmine, benzoin, and tonka bean absolutes.
Isolates are natural molecules or molecules derived from petrochemicals such as vanillin (vanilla), ionone (violet)...
We will not go into the price difference between a synthetic concentrate and a natural concentrate (just remember a factor of 10 to 15 between the two).
And let's not forget that this is what makes the big difference between a natural perfume and a synthetic one. Indeed, the vibration and energetic action of the perfume will not be the same at all.
Fragrances and allergens
Allergens are often singled out and labeled "harmful" because they can cause allergies. It's certainly helpful for allergy sufferers to have to list them on the packaging. However, this thankfully 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 the lemon and the mandarin.
Just as someone allergic to geraniol won't be able to smell a rose from the garden, someone allergic to linalool won't 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 highly concentrated in active ingredients, and therefore it is advisable to use them with a good understanding of their composition:
For example, pure organic bergamot essential oil should not be used on the skin because it contains a photosensitizing ingredient, the infamous bergaptene.
For perfumes and cosmetics, regulations require us to use bergamot without bergaptene for this reason, so that the perfumes are not photosensitizing.
CMR-free perfumes from Grasse
You may find this indication, but this is not a guarantee of naturalness: it just means that the composition or manufacture 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 from the United States, we are seeing the emergence of many brands that highlight some natural ingredients without being certified.
Therefore, the only guarantee of a truly natural fragrance is that the product be certified by an independent body (Ecocert or Cosmecert) and display the Cosmebio/COSMOS logo on the product. This proves that the product adheres to the very strict standards for organic and natural cosmetics.
From natural perfumery to Aromaparfumerie®
Modern perfumery
The perfume industry has changed dramatically over the past fifty years. In the conventional sector, 80% of a perfume's retail price is allocated to advertising and marketing. The fragrance composition now represents only a tiny fraction of the budget, which limits the choice of raw materials. Consequently, only synthetic products are feasible to meet these constraints. In the 1960s, perfumes still contained 75% natural ingredients. Today, the percentage of natural materials is well below 25%. This decline is due to advances in synthetic chemistry and the conditions imposed on its mass production, its price, and new regulations. Indeed, a launch at a major perfume house begins with 1 ton of concentrate. On such a scale, it is impossible to manufacture perfumes using only natural ingredients (1).
From Aromachology to Aromaperfumery®
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 their resulting therapeutic activities. Natural essences are chosen according to their composition, where each molecule possesses certain physical properties (2).
Smell is the only one of our senses that does not directly access consciousness.
The olfactory message we perceive when we smell a fragrance 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 where memory is formed; this is why a fragrance is systematically associated with a memory. Each person therefore perceives a fragrance differently, according to their life experiences and olfactory history. Thus, the fragrance we breathe triggers physiological reactions without our conscious awareness. In addition to this positive (pleasure of the fragrance) or negative (rejection, avoidance) behavior, the fragrance also triggers a specific reaction in our body (3).
Aromaparfumerie® is the alliance of fine perfumery and the power of plants
Based on the principles of aromatherapy and olfactotherapy, L'Aromaparfumerie® elevates perfumery by harnessing the evocative power of fragrances and the beneficial properties of natural essences. Indeed, its active core, composed of 21 natural essences, is present in every Aimée de Mars fragrance. This core of natural essences acts on the psyche to provide a general sense of well-being. The surrounding natural materials then create the unique trail of the fragrances and symbolize a character, a personality. Each perfume has a specific action, providing joy, relaxation, and all the feelings that natural essences can convey. L'Aromaparfumerie® uses a minimum of 95% natural ingredients.
Natural ingredients: ten times more effective
Natural essences, resins, and absolutes are extracted directly from the plant. These natural materials are the very soul of the plant. The plant grows by capturing sunlight. Then, it transforms this light to create its own energy; the natural essence extracted from it therefore contains all of this information.
Synthetic materials used in perfumery are man-made through chemical reactions. Natural materials, on the other hand, are complex compounds made up of numerous fragrant molecules. This contrasts with synthetic materials, which generally consist of a single molecule, more or less purified. Therefore, the starting molecules, which after reactions form the final molecule, do not carry the same vibrational message, lacking energy derived from nature itself. Thus, the resulting compound does not exhibit exactly the same biochemical properties, since it is an isolated molecule, and its energetic aspect is not at all identical to that of the natural molecule.
The quantum mechanism of olfaction largely explains this phenomenon. Indeed, our olfactory receptors function exactly like a scanning tunneling spectroscope. Thus, molecules are no longer recognized by their shape, but rather by their energy, which is proportional to their vibrational frequency. The molecules would then have a message far broader 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.