natural-synthetic-ingredients-used-in-fragrances

Natural Ingredients Used in Perfumes

When we smell perfumes, we smell certain fragrances that we are familiar with. Scents of flowers, fruits, some foods, leather, wood etc can easily cause us to think that it’s simply a matter of picking flowers and fruits and mix-mashing them up to produce a fragrance. Below, we look at some of the most common ingredients used in perfume making and the issues surrounding them from the perspective of the organic-synthetic products continuum. This will help us appreciate some of the issues surrounding perfume production that then give rise to the naturality, or lack thereof, of the same.

 

Flowers

Almost every perfume needs some floral essence in it, and not all flowers are grown or harvested the same. The yield of the essence of flowers is ordinarily low hence they tend to be highly priced. Producing just over half a kilogram of rose oil, for example, can require as much as 400kg of rose flowers. The roses have to be picked before sunrise, placed in special baskets and processed as soon as possible after picking.

Due to the high price tag on pure, original floral essences of rose and jasmine, synthetic versions are more readily available. Synthetic versions of jasmine can be made from 4 chemicals namely benzyl acetate, indole, cis-jasmone and methyl jasmonate. Extracting the essential oils from flowers involves layering the flowers in trays, immersing them in a solvent such as hexane, and then washing away fatty oils to remain with the ‘absolute’ oil.

 

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Image 5: The Steam Distillation Process of Making Essential Oils. Credit: NewDirectionsAromatics.com

Some of the best floral essences are used to make fragrances at Al Haramain. Flowers such as Istanbuli Rose, Bulgarian Rose and Taif Rose are highly sought-after fragrances which are used in Al Haramain’s fragrances. The fragrance of Al Haramain Attar Al Kaaba, for example, features Taif Rose.

Vetiver

Vetiver is a tall grass that grows naturally in South India, Sri Lanka & Indonesia. The fragrance is extracted from the roots of the vetiver plant. It is a popular ingredient in men’s perfumes and niche fragrances. The essence of vetiver is obtained through steam distillation. Due to its unique fragrance, vetiver is almost impossible to reproduce synthetically. Al Haramain, however, uses natural vetiver in its products such as Amazing Mukhallath, Najm Noir, Ode of Oudh, Mukhallath Seufi and Safwa to name a few.

 

Vetiver-Grass-Ethiopia-Wikipedia

Image 6: Ethiopia 2008 Vetiver Grass. Credit: WikiMedia Commons

 

Agarwood (Oudh)

Agarwood is one of the most expensive natural ingredients used in fragrances. It is found mostly in South Asian countries such as India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia and Thailand. It is popular among fragrance consumers in the Middle East, as well as in Hong Kong and Japan.

It is arguably the most expensive wood in the world, with some varieties costing several times the price of gold per kilogram. Agarwood is produced by Aquilaria trees when they react to a bacterial or fungal attack after being damaged. When harvested, the infected, dark wood is separated from the uninfected wood. Separating the infected wood from the uninfected wood is a highly manual process which is both labour intensive and time consuming. The agarwood oil can then be extracted or distilled, and it is an essential ingredient in high-end, luxurious perfumes.

Image 7: Injection of a virus into the aquilaria tree to induce production of oudh. Credit: Daviegan.com ‘Black Gold of Malaysia’

Identifying infected wood often requires cutting into the bark of the tree. Because of this, sometimes agarwood trees are indiscriminately cut down in order to check for the infected wood, which may be present or absent. More often than not, there won’t be infected wood in the majority of the trees that are cut down, hence leading to the deforestation of agarwood trees. In that regard, this unsustainable practice has necessitated CITES certification for the export of agarwood from its countries of origin. To demonstrate commitment to sustainable production of oudh, Al Haramain’s agarwood has CITES documents to guarantee sustainable and ethical sourcing, and also uses oudh from its own agarwood plantations.

While Oudh has traditionally been a Middle Eastern favourite in perfumes, Western countries in Europe and the US have, in recent years, discovered the beauty of oudh. This has increased the demand for oudh. Perfume brands such as Gucci, Tom Ford, Armani and Christian Dior now have oud-based varieties to tap into this niche. The increase in the demand for oudh has also increased market prices, as well as pressure on the oudh producing environments. In that regard, oudh is becoming more and more rare to find and oudh oil is sometimes referred to as ‘liquid gold.’

Environmental concerns surrounding agarwood include the indiscriminate felling of trees to check for infected wood and also, the prevalence of poaching which is threatening certain areas with extinction of the Aquilaria tree. In that regard, to safeguard the posterity of oudh, there has been a rise in agarwood plantations where saplings are planted. However, demand for oudh is still outsripping supply by far.

Agarwood is covered extensively in our earlier blog. Click on the button below to watch:

 

Musk

The term ‘musk’ is used to denote a range of aromatic substances usually used as base notes in perfumes. It is a fixative ingredient, which aids in reducing the rate of evaporation of the perfume to make it last longer. Musk comes from several different sources, both natural and artificial. Natural sources of musk include the ‘musk deer’, musk glands in crocodiles, the musk duck, musk shrew, musk beetle, African civet and the musk rat. Plant sources include the musk flower and muskwood among others. The most prized source of musk has been the musk deer, which is considered as a threatened species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). As such, due to the rare occurrence of the same, such musk fetches a very high market price which can be upwards of $45,000 per kilogram, making it one of the most expensive natural products used in perfumery. To complicate matters, only a few dozen grams can be extracted from a single animal and over 150 animals can be required to produce one kilogram.

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Image 8: Musk Pods from the Kashmiri Musk Deer. Credit: Profumo.it

Environmental issues surrounding musk include poaching, and the killing of the animals to collect the musk pods. While it is possible to remove the pods without killing the animal, this is hardly ever done due to the ease of removing them from a carcass. This threatens the existence of the species. In that regard, most of the musk that is available commercially is synthetic due to the difficulty in sourcing the natural musk, and the need to preserve the species. Some of Al Haramain’s products use natural musk and as such, command a premium. These include Hayati, Mystique Musk, Midnight Musk and Haramain Treasure.

 

Ambergris

Ambergris is an intestinal secretion of some sperm whale species. It is also used as a base note in perfumery. It is mostly found afloat on oceans, and occasionally shored up on beaches. Aged ambergris is more valuable and useful for perfumery due to loss of the repulsive smell of fresh ambergris. The use of ambergris in perfumes was banned in the United States due to the endangered status of the sperm whale.

The very small chance of finding ambergris, and the legal ambiguity involved led some perfumers away from ambergris. Al Haramain, however, uses ambergris in some of its perfumes such as Ehsas, L’Aventure Blanche and Etoiles Silver Spray. A synthetic product, ambroxide, apparently is more commonly used to create ambergris notes, and also, as a fixative.

Pros and Cons of Synthetic Perfume Ingredients

Synthetic aroma compounds that are mass produced and contain very little to none of the aromatic substances they resemble. Often created from petrochemicals and can include phthalates. We discuss these in more detail.

Because fragrance formulations are highly intellectual property, companies are permitted in most countries to withhold the ingredients used to make their fragrances, making it hard to determine what exactly constitutes a particular fragrance product. Because of this, beauty product manufacturers can potentially fill their products with potential hormone disruptors and other unsafe chemicals. Some of the most notable include:

 

  1. Phthalates

Phthalates are chemical salts or esters of phthalic acid, which are used as plasticizers to give various products an element of flexibility. They are used in toys, flooring, wall covering, detergents, lubricants and food packaging among other uses. Phthalates are also used as synthetic additives in perfumes and other fragrance preparations, mainly as solvents and fixatives.

Phthalates are thought to mimic and displace hormones and interrupt their production. While the precise effects of phthalates have not been conclusively discovered, research on their effect on human beings continues and the European Union has banned some of the phthalates used in cosmetics. Some phthalates have been known to cause liver & kidney damage, birth defects and reducing sperm count in males (le monde). To protect the consumer, it is possible to market cosmetic products as ‘Phthalate free’ and obtain the certification from authorized regulatory bodies, where consumers may demand such.

 

  1. Parabens

The average consumer may notice a number of products being marketed as ‘parabens free’ – this means that they are contain none of this commonly used synthetic preservative in fragrances which may interfere with the production and release of hormones. Parabens, like phthalates, are readily absorbed into the skin and intestines, but a conversion process takes place within, that convert them into an acid that is then excreted through urine. In that regard, traces of parabens and phthalates can be detected in urine samples for most people, as their use is widespread. However, parabens have been known to have negative side effects on the skin’s sensitivity, depending on the concentration levels used.

 

  1. Synthetic Musks – Some types of synthetic musks have been found to disrupt hormones, but traces have been found in: fat tissue, breast milk, body fat, umbilical cord blood, both fresh and marine water samples, air, wastewater and sludge.

 

Why are synthetics used, then? We have looked at just a few of the commonly used fixative ingredients in perfumes, and the environmental issues surrounding their production. Ambergris is difficult to come across, and in perfumery, there is a certain need for consistency in the supply of critical raw materials in order to ensure that one gets the desired fragrance with every purchase. In that regard, synthetics help to overcome this obstacle through recreations of the fragrances that perfume consumers love. Synthetics drive down the cost of producing the fragrances, and the prices as well.

 

The use of some synthetics, such as synthetic musk, help to preserve the animals from which the natural alternative is sourced, thus protecting endangered species. Some synthetics are safe to use, and have no known side effects, whereas other chemical preparations may be harmful to the environment and to the health of fragrance consumers.

 

Natural ingredients are quite rare and expensive to source, but also, certain fragrance notes cannot be obtained purely through nature’s extracts. In our last blog post, the advances in scientific research and technology have allowed for a new era of creativity in perfumery that was simply not there before.

 

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