Congratulations for making it to the final article in our How to Speak Perfume Series. By now you’ve been dazzling your friends, families, colleagues, sales associates, etc. with your new found knowledge of all things fragrance. This final post will explore common scientific and medical used terms of the fragrance industry. And it is especially helpful if you plan on creating a fragrance line of your own one day.
Let’s begin…
ANOSMIA – A medical term describing the loss of the sense of smell. It may be caused by a cold, head injury, nasal disorders, allergies, a virus, etc. People who have lost their sense of smell may also partially lose their sense of taste.
APOCRINE SWEAT GLANDS – Glands in the human body that give you your unique scent. They influence the odor characteristics of one’s fragrance. And they are the glands responsible for making perfume smell differently from to person.
AROMATHERAPY – The use of volatile plant oils, including essential oils, for psychological and physical well-being. It is often practiced therapeutically using pure essential oils and herbs in massage, to heal and soothe the body and mind.
DISTILLATION – A common technique for obtaining aromatic compounds from plants, such as orange blossoms and roses. The raw material is heated, and the fragrant compounds are recollected through condensation of the distilled vapor.
ENFLEURAGE – A process where aroma materials are absorbed into wax and then the scented oil is extracted with ethyl alcohol. Extraction by enfleurage was commonly used when distillation was not possible because some fragrant compounds denature or break down when exposed to high heat.
EVAPORATION – The process of changing from a liquid to a vapor.
EXPRESSION – The oils collected from raw material that have been squeezed or compressed. Of all raw materials, only the fragrant oils from the peels of fruits in the citrus family are extracted in this manner.
EXTRACTION – The most commonly used method to obtain essences. This process is done using volatile solvents.
INFUSION – A solution obtained when raw material is submerged in hot alcohol or oil for a prolonged period of time.
MACERATION – A method used to process flowers by steeping them in hot fats and butters. The steeping process produces pomades. The pomades are then washed in alcohol for purification. And from this scented mixture, the extract of floral oil is obtained.
MICRO-ENCAPSULATION – A method of incorporating thin-walled, microscopic capsules containing fragrance oils into a solid substance. This is how fragrance advertising inserts, capsules, blotters, paper, etc. are made.
ODOR FATIGUE – A condition characterized by no longer being able to discern one smell from another. This results from overexposure to an odor, or from smelling too many fragrances at one time.
ODOR OR ODOUR – Airborne chemicals emanating from water, objects, one’s body, flowers or fragrance that stimulate the olfactory system. The characteristic smell of something.
ODORIFEROUS – Emitting an odor.
OLFACTION – The sense of smell.
OLFACTORY – Relating to, or concerned with, the sense of smell.
OLFACTORY BULB – The first region of the brain to receive sensory inputs from the tissue that aids in the sense of smell or olfactory system.
OLFACTORY EPITHELIUM – Layer of sensory cells that make up the tissue (i.e. skin) in the upper-rear portion of the nose. Each side of the nose contains roughly 15 million sensory cells in the epithelium.
PHEROMONE – A chemical substance secreted by animals to produce a social response from other members of the same species.
POMADES – Combination of purified fats and flower oils produced by the enfleurage and maceration processes. Pomades are found in the form of an oily and sticky solid.
RECEPTOR CELL – A type of cell located in the olfactory epithelium, each cell has microscopic hairs (cilia) extending into mucus. It is believed that odoriferous substances chemically bind to specific places on the cilia. Then the chemicals send translated electrical messages to the brain that are transmitted along the olfactory nerves to the olfactory bulb.
RETRONASAL OLFACTION – Stimulation of the olfactory receptor cells by chemicals that originate in our mouth (most often during eating) and travel to the olfactory epithelium via the nasopharynx (the place where the nose connects to the throat) during exhalation.
SOLVENTS – Volatile fluids used to extract water-insoluble, aroma substances from plant material. The solvent extract of a plant material is called a concrete.
TINCTURE – Fragrant materials produced by directly soaking and infusing raw materials in room temperature or warm alcohol.
