Fragrances:
Floral Facts
- by KissMeGoodnight.com
There’s a popular saying that goes, “Stop
and smell the flowers.” It usually means that you need to slow down a bit in your
life and take time for simple pleasures … like smelling those
proverbial flowers. Isn’t that the first thing you do when
someone hands a bouquet to you or you are walking through
a flower garden? It’s instinctive, something that we just
do unconsciously. When buying flowers for yourself, many
times the smell is what draws you to a purchase. That smell
is what perfume manufacturers use to lure you to try and
wear certain fragrances. In fact, flowers are an integral
part in creating a fragrance.
Perfumes
are derived from a variety of sources like fruits,
bark, herbs, grasses, wood, resins, leather and even tobacco
and chocolate. However, it is the flower that provides the
foundation for many fragrances. Each flower offers a unique
scent that can affect a perfume. In fact, even the same type
of flower can elicit various aromas. For instance, roses often
smell the same, but because there are hundreds of varieties
of roses, each one will offer a scent that is slightly different
from the next.
Flowers grow all over the world, so there are a lot of factors
that play a part in creating a unique scent for your perfumes
and fragrances. Soil acidity or alkalinity can alter
a flower’s scent. The weather and environmental conditions like pollution
and use of pesticides also contribute to a flower’s smell.
Take the rose, for example. Roses grow all over the world,
from France to the United States to Bulgaria, known for its
corner of the market for rose production specifically for perfumes.
For some flowers, they will not grow anywhere except in a small
particular corner of the world. One example of this is the
ylang-ylang flower. This delicate smelling flower only grows
naturally in parts of Southeast Asia.
Manufacturers
of fragrances have to isolate the essential oils from the
flowers. These essential oils are what give plants
and flowers their distinctive aromas. Numerous flowers are
used in the production of perfumes and other fragrances. However,
the most important flowers that provide the foundation to many
fragrances are from the rose, jasmine and orange flowers. Also
commonly used are ylang-ylang flowers.
Roses used in perfumes and fragrances date back to the Roman
and Greek times and account for appearances in over seventy
percent of all perfumes. Roses are rarely picked during the
day; rather, they are harvested at night when their aromatic
fragrance is at its strongest. The Damask Rose and the Rosa
Centifolia are the two most popular roses cultivated for perfumes
and fragrances.
Jasmine
flowers are also picked at night time to preserve
its peak aroma. And once jasmine flowers are picked, they must
be processed and refined right away. Otherwise, their scent
will fade from the picked blooms. Jasmine flowers are delicate,
so great care is taken in the handling of the blooms. The precautions
are needed because jasmine accounts for over seventy-five percent
presence in the perfumes made today.
Parts of Europe and Africa account for most of the orange
flowers used in perfumes and fragrances. Orange blossoms were
once the popular flowers for weddings. The flower oil garnered
from orange blossoms provides a fresh, clean, citrus-y scent
that is quite refreshing to the senses. In fact, even orange
trees have some beneficial things that can contribute to the
fragrance market. Essential orange oils can be derived from
the skin or peel of an orange. Even the leaves and bark can
be harvested for some fragrance uses like cleaning products
or linen sprays.
Finally, the exotic
ylang-ylang flower found predominately
in Southeast Asia is another popular flower used the production
of perfumes and fragrances. The secret to the most aromatic
ylang-ylang flowers is harvesting is waiting until the flower
buds have been open for several weeks. And like the jasmine,
the ylang-ylang flower must be processed and refined quickly
before it loses aroma quality.
When choosing a fragrance for yourself, one way to make a
good choice in perfumes is to determine which flower is your
favorite. From there, you can do a little research into which
perfumes use that flower and go “sniffing” around the department
or fragrance stores in search of the right scent for you.
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KissMeGoodnight.com
: 2006
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