The 100% Natural Perfume: Myths, Realities, and Trends

The Perfumer’s Organ: The Richness of the Palette

You should know that a perfumer builds their perfume organ, a piece of furniture allowing them to arrange and classify their bottles of essential oils, with about 1,000 products they choose according to their affinities from a range of 1,000 natural raw materials and 3,000 synthetic products (cf. The olfactory pyramid).

Each year, in both the natural and synthetic realms, new raw materials are created and launched on the perfumery market. 100% natural perfumes are made with a smaller range of scents and notes, about 500 notes at most instead of 3,000.

Creating a Perfume: Classic vs Natural

If scent is the word, perfume must be called literature.

Synthetic products (cf. Synthetic raw materials) have greatly enriched the perfumer’s organ and allowed the creation of certain notes, such as for certain so-called mute flowers like the violet note, lilac, lily, lily of the valley, and certain fruity notes (cf. The Fruity facet) which are impossible to treat naturally.

All these discoveries contribute to the development, renewal, and enrichment of creation in perfumery.

Stability and Sillage

The most beautiful creations are often the result of a delicate work of associating natural raw materials and synthetic products.

• Perfume with synthesis: A perfume containing many synthetic products will be more linear and stable on many supports (blotters, fabric, skin, etc.). It will also be more tenacious and have more sillage.
• Natural perfume: Conversely, a perfume containing more natural products than synthetic products will evolve according to each skin, and will sometimes be unrecognizable from one person to another. This kind of perfume possesses different vibrations; it will have an extra soul.

The Trend of 100% Natural Perfume

This has been a strong trend in the perfume market in recent years, with many perfume brands launching into this natural niche. Some can be very well orchestrated by talented perfumers and smell very good.

Performance and Tenacity

You should know that a natural perfume will very often perform less well in terms of sillage and tenacity. Everything will depend on the composition of the fragrance; if it contains very tenacious oud notes (cf. Oud) and high-performance woody notes (cf. The woody facet), it can be tenacious and diffuse.

The Reality of Prices

You should know that the concentrate is two to ten times more expensive than a classic or conventional perfume concentrate (alliance of natural and synthetic). Normally, the selling price of these natural perfumes should be significantly higher than a classic perfume. Be careful with the claim of naturalness; the percentage of alcohol can be counted, which can be misleading.

You should know that not all natural raw materials are expensive. Some raw materials can have exorbitant prices like iris, tuberose, vanilla, neroli, but some are not expensive at all like orange (cf. The hesperidic or citrus facet) for example.

A 100% natural perfume based on iris and which smells of iris, for example, should be sold very expensively, but a perfume with a lot of orange should be more reasonable in price.

Important Distinctions: Vegan, Allergies, and Standards

Natural Perfume and Vegan Perfume

The notion of vegan perfume means that there are no animal raw materials, but in any case, these are prohibited, except ambergris. This means there is no beeswax or hive derivatives in the perfume.

Regulation and Allergies

A conventional perfume can cause allergies. A natural perfume does not exclude the risks of allergies. Why do we risk allergies or intolerances with natural products? Because the natural by definition moves, lives, changes, unlike a synthetic product which is monolithic, stable, and does not evolve. However, the latter can still cause them.

To give a concrete example for the creation of a perfume for children or babies, with very fragile and sensitive skin, the law is very strict and only authorizes 3 or 4 natural raw materials at most. As legislation is constantly evolving, some creation companies, or perfume brands, sometimes cannot use any natural essential oil in their composition for babies or children (cf. Perfume for a baby).

Nuances between “Natural” and “Natural Origin”

The very notion of 100% natural is very complicated. Many regulations and standards exist; various regulations are in force. One must already distinguish between:

• 100% Natural
• 100% Natural Origin

Perfumes are subject to very complex standards:

• Cosmos Organic or Cosmos Natural formulation or no formulation
• ISO 9235 Standard
• ISO 16128 Standard

Differences between Certified Organic Perfume and 100% Natural

Natural perfume brands must meet specific labels that allow them to claim 100% natural, but that does not mean these perfumes are organic. Organic is subject to other standards or labels very specific to this segment with regulations that never stop evolving.

Conclusion on Natural Perfume

Many people have a radical and binary vision, thinking that naturals are good and synthetic products are bad. A natural perfume can be interesting, if it is truly certified 100% natural, or even a feat, if it is well constructed, if it has fairly good staying power, and if, moreover, it creates an emotion.

Beyond the debate opposing natural products to synthetic products, let us recall that the essential thing to have a beautiful perfume is to have a creative and strong original idea, a beautiful olfactory aesthetic, as well as an orchestration rightly mastered by a highly talented perfumer.

To work on a natural perfume, the perfumer, in addition to talent and creativity, will have to master this very complex subject.

To conclude, here are some brands of 100% natural perfumes:

• Honoré des Prés
• Ormaie
• 100Bon
• Floratropia
• Abelodor
• Voyages Imaginaires created by Isabelle Doyen