How perfume is made

Even pure perfume is only 15 to 30% scent oil, and the rest is mostly alcohol.

stations: 7
things upstream: 25
raw sources: 13
steps from the ground: 6

The short version

Perfume starts with fragrant oils pulled from plants, by steam distillation, solvent extraction or pressing, or built in a chemical plant. A perfumer blends dozens of these into a concentrate, which is diluted in alcohol, left to rest for weeks, chilled, filtered and filled into glass bottles.

Collect the plant oils

Flowers, citrus peel, vanilla pods, resins and woods are gathered. Each material is harvested at the point its aroma is strongest.

Goes in
Oranges Vanilla pods
Distill the scent

Steam from boiling water passes through the raw material and carries the volatile aroma compounds with it. The steam condenses, and the oil separates and floats to the top of the water.

Goes in
Water
Extract the delicate ones

Fragile flowers such as jasmine would be ruined by steam, so a solvent or fat draws out their scent instead. The waxy residue is then washed with ethanol to leave the pure oil.

Goes in
Ethanol
Build the blend

A perfumer combines natural oils with lab-made aroma molecules into a concentrate called the compound. Some formulas contain dozens of ingredients.
Dilute in alcohol

The concentrate is mixed into ethanol, or ethanol and water. A strong pure perfume holds 15 to 30% aromatic compounds, and lighter eau de toilette sprays hold far less.

Goes in
Ethanol
Rest and filter

The mixture is left to settle so the ingredients stabilize, then it is chilled and filtered to remove any sediment and cloud.
Bottle it

Filtered perfume is filled into glass bottles under a spray pump, and the cap is fitted.

Goes in
Glass bottle

End of the linePerfume Next it goes into shampoo, deodorant, air freshener and 3 more.

Worth repeating

The strongest form, parfum, holds 15 to 30% aromatic compounds.
Perfume can also be diluted in neutral-smelling oils, such as jojoba, instead of alcohol.