Organic and natural perfumes

There’s a lot of interest in organic and/or natural perfumes these days.  As part of this week’s contest, I asked for readers to submit their questions about perfume and fragrance.  There have been several questions already about natural and organic perfumes.   The short answer is, yes, there are organic and natural perfumes that smell great and last all day.  Most mass market scents use a combination of natural and synthetic fragrances, but lean heavily toward the synthetic for cost and quality control issues.  One of the first “all natural” perfume brands to come to the mass market is LaVanila.

As for the long answer – we first need to define our terms.  When I say “organic” I mean certified organic by the USDA or similar regulating body.  Lots of things are organic or natural, this just means they’ve come from the earth in some way.   Crude oil comes from the earth, but I don’t think that would be a good thing to put on your skin or in perfume.  So natural perfume is an even tougher word to define.   I’d be likely to say that natural perfumes are derived from plants and other naturally-occuring substancec.  Most of these are generally essential oils, but there are also other scented items that can go into natural perfumes.  Natural perfumes may or may not be made from organic materials.

One of the best sources on the web is Natural Perfumers.   This is a guild of many highly-skilled perfumers who have taken their art to another level, and for health, moral/environmental, or spiritual reasons choose to use only natural scents.

Since these scented oils and essences are the highly concentrated scents of plants, they often smell very strongly and when presented in the proper carrier and with good fixatives, can indeed last all day.  The catch, of course, is that these artisan perfumes can be quite expensive to produce, and therefore, to purchase.  Because no two years are the same, a batch of rose oil from the same location can differ depending on temperature and rainfall.  And to be sure,  lavender from Spain smells quite different than lavender from France, and so on.   So no two batches of perfume would smell exactly the same!

Here’s a list of the Natural Perfumers Guild members.  Please visit their sites and be sure to let us know what your favorite natural perfume is!

AbdesSalaam Attar – Dominique Dubrana
Aftelier Perfumes – Mandy Aftel
Anya’s Garden Perfumes – Anya McCoy
Artemisia Natural Perfume – Lisa Fong
Ascent Natural Perfumes- Rohanna Goodwin Smith
Desire in Sunlight Perfumes - Isabelle Aurel
Ecco Bella – Sally Malanga
Fleur de Lis Perfumes – Janet Cutler
JoAnne Bassett Perfumes – JoAnne Bassett
Lunaroma – Leyla Bringas
Maui Perfumes — Jackie Cummings
Mundo Botanica – Sevi Kay
Passion Flower Perfume – Paula Moreschi
Sharini Parfums Naturels – Nick Jennings
Strange Invisible Perfumes — Alexandra Balahoutis