Perfume raw materials: fragrance oils, musk, ambergris and oud
By Omer Siton, founder of PerfuMate · Updated
Beyond single aroma chemicals, perfume makers buy ready-made fragrance oils and work with a few famous natural materials, musk, ambergris and oud, each with rules of its own. Each answer below is the short version, with links to the page that goes into depth.
What are fragrance oils, and how do you use them?
A fragrance oil is a ready-made fragrance blend composed by a supplier and sold under a name, for candles and soap as well as for perfume. To make a perfume with one, check that its IFRA certificate covers Category 4, fine fragrance, then dilute it by weight in perfumer's alcohol, at or below the certificate's figure. Fragrance oils for perfume covers it in full.
What are fragrance oils made of?
Any mix of the materials perfumers use, natural and synthetic, often with a solvent; IFRA's Transparency List shows the range. Suppliers rarely publish the formula: the safety data sheet names the ingredients classified as hazardous, and the allergen declaration lists the EU's declarable allergens. What is a fragrance oil?
Are fragrance oils natural?
Usually not entirely: a fragrance oil can be synthetic, natural or both, and "natural" on one is the seller's description. Ask what it means, or compose with naturals yourself. Are fragrance oils natural?
What is the difference between essential oils and fragrance oils?
An essential oil is one natural material from one plant; a fragrance oil is a finished blend designed to smell of something, usually including aroma chemicals. One is an ingredient, the other is already a fragrance. Essential oils vs fragrance oils has a side-by-side table.
Is fragrance oil the same as perfume oil?
Not necessarily: a perfume oil is a concentrate diluted in a carrier oil to wear, while a fragrance oil is the blend you make things from. Some shops blur the names, so read the description and the IFRA certificate. Fragrance oil vs perfume oil.
What is a fragrance oil concentrate?
Usually the undiluted fragrance blend, what perfumers call the concentrate; "perfume concentrate" and "perfume compound" mean the same. It still needs diluting to a perfume strength. Fragrance oils for perfume explains the words.
Are fragrance oils safe for skin?
Only those made and certified for skin, up to the Category 4 figure on the supplier's IFRA certificate. An oil certified only for candles is not cleared for skin: IFRA places candles in Category 12 and does not restrict fragrance ingredients in them for sensitization. Ask for the certificate, the safety data sheet and the allergen declaration. Are fragrance oils safe for skin?
What are the best fragrance oils for perfume making?
The ones with the right documents that smell right over a whole day, not a brand from a list: sold for fine fragrance, with an IFRA certificate whose Category 4 figure fits your strength, a safety data sheet and allergen declaration, a stated solvent, and sample sizes so you can test before buying more. How do I choose a fragrance oil?
How do you make perfume with fragrance oils?
Use the oil as the concentrate. For a 30 ml bottle, about 25 g of perfume, at 18%, weigh 4.5 g of oil and 20.5 g of perfumer's alcohol; if the certificate's Category 4 figure is 12%, use 3 g of oil and 22 g of alcohol. Rest it, then chill and filter. How do you make perfume with a fragrance oil?
Do perfume materials (fragrance oils, fixatives, perfumer's alcohol) expire?
They have no universal expiry date but age at different speeds: citrus oils, aldehydes and the fresh top notes of fragrance oils first, sealed perfumer's alcohol and stable materials such as Ambroxan far more slowly. Follow the supplier's stated shelf life, store cool, dark, full and sealed, and check old stock on a strip. How to store perfume materials covers it.
What is musk in perfume, and where does it come from?
Musk was first an animal material, a secretion of the male musk deer whose main odorant is muscone; all musk deer are listed under CITES. The musks perfumers weigh today are almost all synthetic, polycyclic like Galaxolide and macrocyclic like Habanolide, plus one plant source: in PerfuMate's catalog, the musk family's only naturals are two ambrette seed materials. How to use musks in a perfume formula covers it.
What is ambergris, and how is it used in perfume?
A waxy mass formed in the sperm whale's intestine and aged at sea, where it oxidizes from black towards grey and white and its faecal smell turns musky. Perfumers use it as a tincture, a quiet fixative valued for what it does to the whole formula. What is ambergris?
Why is ambergris so expensive?
It is rare (the Natural History Museum gives less than 5% of whale carcasses), found by chance, graded by color, thought to improve the longer it spends at sea, and cannot legally be sold in some large markets, the United States among them. Why is ambergris so expensive?
Is ambergris the same as amber?
No: ambergris is the whale product; amber in perfumery is a warm accord of labdanum, benzoin and vanilla; and amber the gemstone is fossilized resin. Ambergris vs amber.
Ambroxan vs ambergris (and amber): what is the difference?
Ambroxan is one molecule, ambroxide, a key odorant of ambergris, made from clary-sage sclareol; ambergris is a natural mixture in which ambroxide is a small part. Ambroxan is louder, drier and simpler; the tincture adds salty, animalic facets no single molecule carries. Ambroxan vs ambergris.
Is ambergris legal to buy, sell or use?
It depends on the country. In the US, NOAA says you may not collect, keep or sell it; India protects the sperm whale under its Wild Life (Protection) Act and prohibits exporting the parts and products of the wild animals that law protects. According to London's Natural History Museum, CITES considers naturally occurring ambergris a waste product, so the convention does not stop it being collected from the beach; national laws can. Is ambergris legal?
Where can you buy ambergris?
Where it is legal, from specialist dealers and some natural-perfumery suppliers, as raw pieces or as a tincture. Ask where and when it was found, for papers covering any cross-border shipment, and whether it is natural at all, since several bases sold under ambergris names are reconstructions. Where can you buy ambergris?
How do you use ambergris in perfume (ambergris tincture)?
As a tincture in perfumer's alcohol at a few percent strength, which PerfuMate's catalog prefills at 3%, added to a formula in steps and judged the next morning. It is quiet, 4 out of 10 on the catalog's scale, and valued for what it does to the whole formula. How is ambergris used?
What is an ambergris accord?
A blend that rebuilds the smell of ambergris tincture from other, mostly synthetic, materials. PerfuMate's published Ambergris Accord, an untested starting point to adjust by smell, layers Ambroxan and Cetalox over musks, woods and labdanum, for use at 5 to 20% of a concentrate. What is an ambergris accord?
What can be used instead of ambergris?
An ambergris accord, a ready-made reconstruction, or ambroxide-type materials such as Ambroxan and Cetalox. For the tincture itself, the substitutes engine ranks Absolute Ambergris with Grisalva, 71 to 29, at 61%; the ranking is on Ambergris Tincture's catalog page.
What is oud (oud oil), and how is it used in perfume?
Oud is agarwood, the resin-filled wood of wounded and infected Aquilaria and Gyrinops trees, and the oil distilled from it: smoky, woody, balsamic and animalic. It is used as a base note in small amounts, often as an accord built from woods, cypriol, labdanum and a saffron note, and by the catalog's typical composition its p-cresol holds the distilled oil to about 1% of a finished perfume under IFRA, a calculated reference check, not a safety assessment. What is oud?
How is oud oil made (extracted)?
Mostly by soaking agarwood chips in water, for 30 to 90 days depending on the wood, and then hydrodistilling them; solvent extraction gives an absolute and supercritical CO2 an extract, which keep compounds the distilled oil lacks. How is oud oil made?
Is agarwood protected?
Yes: Aquilaria and Gyrinops are listed in CITES Appendix II, so oud oil crossing a border needs an export permit, while finished products packaged for retail sale are exempt. What CITES means when you buy oud.
Does oud oil expire?
No standard sets a shelf life. As a heavy, base-note natural it keeps better than citrus oils, but follow the supplier's date, store it cool, dark, full and sealed, and compare it on a strip with your first note. Does oud oil expire?
Every material named here has a catalog page with its strength, blotter life and typical constituents where known, free to browse in the catalog.