Perfume Facts

* Perfume is made up of alcohol, water and perfume (fragrance) oil.

* It is a word that comes from Latin per fumum, which means "through smoke" (per means through, fumum means smoke).

* There are 3 major types: oriental, floral and chypre (means "very sincere" in French). There are also many sub-variations such as woody, musky, aquatic, spicy and fruity.

* Eau de - means "water of" in French.

* Eau de cologne - contains about 3-5% perfume oil. Used by men.

* Aftershave lotions and splash colognes - contains about 0.5-2% perfume oil. Used by men.

* Eau de parfum - contains about 15-18% perfume oil. Used by women.

* Eau de toilette - contains about 4-8% perfume oil. Used by women.

* Parfum (perfume) is the strongest of them all as it contains the most perfume oil. Use sparingly.

* Scented ingredients added to perfumes include ginger, grapefruit, musk, peppercorns, mandarin peel, fig leaves, rose, watercress, bamboo, clementine, vanilia, honeysuckle, green tea and the list goes on.

* A perfume contains between 10 to more than 250 ingredients.

* Everyone has their own personal aura. Thanks to genes, diet, skin type, medication, stress levels, pore size and perspiration. These factors can affect the warmth of the skin which will in turn affect the scent result. That means, a perfume could smell differently on 2 persons.

Nose

* A highly trained and excellent sense gifted expert (often known as a "nose" within the industry) is responsible for creating perfumes.

* "Noses" compare themselves to composers. Eeach perfume is like a piece of music, divided into 3 movements; beginning, middle and end - equivalent to the different stages of perfume evaporation.

* Industrial perfumes are used to hide odours, e.g. in paints and cleaning agents.

Health issue

* Some workplaces in Canada and the US have encouraged employees to refrain from putting on perfumes and other fragrance products. Reason? They can trigger asthma, migraine and certain health problems for people who are very allergic to them.