Perfumery terms explained

My perfumery course: www.perfumerystudent.com/
Shop perfumery supplies: thefragrancefoundry.com/
Download my perfumery app for free: formulair.app/
My perfume brand: zur.ai/
My microphone sound file became corrupted while I was recording this video so the audio quality may be worse than usual. Hopefully you can still enjoy it.
The aim of this video is to provide definitions for common terms used in perfumery. Feel free to skip to the sections you're interested in using the timestamps.
Join our community of perfume makers on discord to share tips on perfume making: / discord
Listen to the video as a podcast: anchor.fm/sam-macer
Instagram accounts:
@sam.macer - / sam.macer
@zurai.official - / zurai.official
@thefragrancefoundry - / thefragrancefoundry
Starting your own perfume brand? I host my online store with Shopify: shopify.pxf.io/jryWdn
00:00 - Intro
00:47 - Notes
02:56 - Accords
04:37 - Bases
06:06 - Captive molecules
06:32 - Top notes, Mid notes, Base notes
07:30 - Bases vs base notes
08:18 - Raw materials
08:35 - Fragrance concentrates
08:50 - Solvents
09:24 - Ethanol, Alcohol
09:58 - Perfumer's alcohol
10:35 - Concretes
11:15 - Absolutes
11:48 - Essential oils
12:07 - Balsams
12:30 - Resinoids
12:57 - Musks
13:38 - Headspace
14:47 - Eau de X: EdC, EdT, EdP
16:03 - Projection
16:13 - Maceration
17:28 - Anything I missed?

[@e.rvanrood7373]

Sam does it again! A brilliant and kind person. Thank you for making it easy for us untrained beginners!

[@sammacer]

My pleasure! Thank you for the kind words.

[@eugenebeckford5441]

Very interesting, I'm getting started and feel that I know a lot as a musician and chem. eng. You've taught it best for me.

[@timothyfox494]

Thanks so much Sam, we’ll explained. Thanks for touching on musks, I’ve heard people use laundry detergent to describe musk which hasn’t clicked with me. But you did a good job explaining the old definition and the new definition.

[@sammacer]

Glad to hear it, thank you!

[@JayMannStuff]

Very useful for beginners. Wonderful resource. (I didn't know all of these. I did know most of them, though.) Keep up the great videos, Sam!

[@sammacer]

Thanks a lot Jay!

[@imaniqbal647]

How can I use the solid benzoin Laos resinoids....usually I grind the resinoid with my mortar and pestle and turns it in to powder then i dissolve the powder with ethanol. The leftover powdered benzoin Laos resinoids turns out to be hard solid form again after few days inside the airtight amber bottle. Thanks Sam Macer. Thank you very much for your generous heart in teaching us in a very understandable way the knowledge in perfumery. God bless your life.

[@haozhan8190]

maybe try dpg or ipm

[@samtan4729]

Could you tell us what fixatives are? Also if you could discuss a bit on what constitutes French perfumery and how does it differ in other countries? Is it about the characteristics of the perfume or does it refer to techniques. Thanks in advance!

[@sammacer]

Fixatives are raw materials which can make other raw materials last slightly longer than they usually would. Usually these are thick and sticky or solids. I like to think of them as trapping the other molecules in a film on the skin. The other question is a bit more tricky as there are many levels upon which you could answer this and I'm no expert either. Is would say it's mostly to do with the culture and history around creation, so both characteristics and techniques in a sense. France was the dominant player in western perfumery for hundreds of year so the two are closely related. I've heard the arabs had a long history in perfumery so this might be considered a different tradition, though I'm sure there were shared aspects. In the past 100 years, perfumery has become a lot more international and therefore the lines are increasingly blurred. You could say the perfumery I teach is closer to the 'French Style' as my philosophy is inspired by French perfumers like Jean Carles, Edmond Roudnitska and Jean-Claude Ellena

[@mi-vy8xm]

this video is almost perfect,i think you missed the sillage and longevity!

[@sammacer]

Thanks! Silage is similar to projection and longevity is similar to lots of base notes.

[@abbasalikhan]

Thanks so much for this vodeo. It made things so simple to understand

[@sammacer]

I'm glad it helped

[@charlesboutin9919]

Is there a maceration for the perfume concentrate AND for the actual perfume (mixed with alcohol)? Your videos are great !

[@sammacer]

Thanks! And yes you could view those as two separate maceration steps.

[@irtiazsairaz903]

Thanks for the awesome content again. Very helpful. Is hot alcohol and ethanol the same thing, or is there any difference?

[@sammacer]

Alcohol and ethanol are the same thing, so hot alcohol would be the same as hot ethanol. Hope that helps.

[@irtiazsairaz903]

@@sammacer thanks so muchh.

[@Abdullah-askar]

Thanks for the efforts , 2 questions: 1- is PW work book is good to know impact and longevity fir fast blending/balancing 2- is there is any similar software? Regards,

[@sammacer]

I've never used the PW work book so I can't comment on it. I would probably say though in general that it's best to make notes for yourself to work out longevity / impact as you need to know by your nose not just by some writing. With regards to other software, there doesn't seem to be much, but I do post perfumery software reviews on my channel so subscribe as I have another coming soon

[@shorts_ran5460]

thank you that so helpful

[@sammacer]

You're welcome

[@justwaitwatch6092]

Sir make video on perfume raw material and fixatives ( how can I make long last a perfume )

[@sammacer]

I already covered this in two of my videos, so be sure to check them out: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jKSznYOeedWqbs0 kzbin.info/www/bejne/bJa0Yqesl5hmZq8

[@10angel23]

I am finding a hard time differentiating: Essential Oils, Fragrance oils, “pro” fragrance oils and aromachemicals. I’ve read in forms to purchase aromachemicals for perfumery but are they just the same as fragrance oils? and what’s the difference from regular fragrance oils and pro?

[@sammacer]

Check out my video on fragrance oils, it explains all your questions

[@cherylgeorge4013]

Hi Sam What is the key ingredient in making perfume last longer? You mention it in 1 of your 1st video's but it seems to have disappeared. In the video you said adding 1 to 2 drops of this item when making the perfume will make the smell last longer.

[@sammacer]

Hey Cheryl. I can't remember ever saying something like that. I don't think there are any raw materials which work like that. The only thing you can really do is to use long lasting raw materials in the first place.

[@annathomas2029]

I think Cheryl may be talking about fixatives. Examples might be something like citropol which extends many different volatile top notes, Then you have glucam p-20 which “subdues volatilizations of high notes,” specifically citrus’s. Other examples are cremphor RH-40, damascol, and indolene.

[@sammacer]

@@annathomas2029 Hi Anna. I had a look at these but couldn't find much information on them. It's possible they're used somewhere but I've never heard of things like that being used in perfume.

[@annathomas2029]

@@sammacer I think they’re all on perfumers apprentice. If you read the descriptions you can see what they *claim* to do. From what I’ve heard anecdotally people say they do work but it’s obviously not extending things by hours, more like, an hour or two at most. It’s not nothing though.

[@annathomas2029]

@@sammacer I’m a wierdo who spends her time reading the descriptions of different aromachemicals on creating perfume and perfumers apprentice…. And what they do and how they’re intended to be used… plus the last month or so I’ve been curating a list of my own starter kit of aromachemicals that I wanted to be in my first order. Aurantiol (listed on PA as Auralva) is an interesting one. It’s a schiffs base that works to extend the longevity of citrus in wierd ways. According to Paul Kiler on base notes “When Methyl Anthranilate and an aldehyde combine, they produce a much larger molecule, that being larger, stays around longer, and hence, can provide some fixative effects.”

[@jaycejones1024]

Is in concentration the same as dilution and if not how do they differ

[@sammacer]

They mean different things in some contexts but an X dilution is the same as concentration X

[@jaycejones1024]

@@sammacer perfect! I have been looking for that answer for weeks I just wanted to make sure I was doing everything right. Thank you so much

[@notawix8542]

what's the difference between projection and sillage

[@sammacer]

They are very close to each other but projection is more a measure of how far the perfume reaches in distance whereas silage is more the trail that 'lingers' after you've walked through a space with the perfume

[@gordianusthefinder9862]

@@sammacer Thanks for the clear explanation; I had the same question.

[@ZT31]

Hey sam thanks for the vids, I have an advice if you don't mind, please use less hand gestures when you talk because that can distract ppl, thank you again.

[@sammacer]

Thanks, I will take a note. The reason I do it is because I don't always have interesting camera shots so it's to help maintain attention.