Perfume comes from the french word parfum. “per” meaning “thorough” and “fumus” meaning “smoke”.
Types
Depending on the concentration, they are classified into multiple tiers
- Eua De Toilette (EDT): 5-15% aromatic compounds
- Eue De Parfum (EDP): 15-20% aromatic compounds
- Parfum : 20-30% aromatic compounds
Vocabulary
- Longevity: Describes how long a fragrance lasts
- Projection: Describes how far someone can smell you from
- Sillage: The trail left behind while walking
- Top notes: These are the initial scents you get when you apply. This usually last for around 5-15 minutes.
- Middle notes / heart notes: These are the set of scents which you get in 20-60 minutes
- Base notes: These are the set of scents which lasts from the first hour to around six plus hours
- Decanters: Fragrances are expensive. A good fragrance easily ends up costing 5k+ for a 60ml bottle. You would not want to buy a fragrance you regret. So there are people who import multiple bottles, and then they sell small quantities (10ml, 20ml etc.. ) of expensive fragrances at logical rates (usually). This means that with around 3k INR, you can experiment with 5 fragrances and get a feel for them. Once you decide, you can get a bigger bottle.