What are the particular formulations of perfumes available?
The range of fragrances in this world can only be characterised as marvellous. Yet, when you narrow them down, there are only a few particular types of formulations available. Fragrances can come in its original straight perfume essence, the Eau de Parfum, Eau de Toilette, and Eau de Cologne. The main difference between them are merely the amount of essential oils that are incorporated into them when they are created. The larger the amount of essentials oils, the longer the fragrance will maintain on the skin, hence less you have to use. Perfume companies also develop tester formulations.
Perfume (Parfum): This is the strongest formulation available in fragrances. It consists of 15 to thirty percent concentration of its original essence. You only need to use a small amount on yourself to get a very long-lasting scent, and depending on your skin type, can last up to 6 hours after you spray down the straight perfume itself. It is a little weaker and has only 8 to 15 percent in concentration. Still, it lasts quite long, around three to five hours. The good advantage is that this formulation comes with a lower price tag than the Perfume.
Eau De Toilette (EDT): This formulation is one that we can get quite typically now in retail stores as it is considered to be quite cheap for most people. The EDT comes with four to eight percent of the original essence in each unit and lasts between 2 to 4 hours as compared to its counterparts.
Eau De Cologne (EDC): More commonly known as just colognes, is the weakest formulation in the perfume world. It has only three to 5 percent of the essence, colognes sometime lasts for 2 hours only and can very rapidly vanish after that.
Testers: Another form of fragrances that exists are testers. Although is not manufactured for sale, testers are an awesome way for us to trial the perfume. As a great promotional material, testers are mostly found at retail establishments where perfumes are sold. Being a subjective product, testers exist so that we can have a smell of the fragrance to make a decision whether we like it before decide to buy it. They regularly come in a white box and has the word “Tester” printed onto the bottle of the fragrance itself. Even though they are not manufactured for sale, these days it has become quite common practice that outlets would sell their excess testers to customers.
So how can we make our fragrances last longer?
There exists a skill called “fragrance layering”. Basically, we can build up layers of the same scent on the skin by applying different formulations available of similar fragrance, for instance, soap, bath oil or gel, cream or body lotion, dusting powder or eau de toilette. Every one of these can build up the smell of the other and in certain cases, the effects can be up to four fold.
Make certain you store your perfume in a dry and cool place distant from heat and sunlight. This is because extreme environments can affect the fragile balance of the essential oils and will affect their scent.
If you prefer to use different perfumes at different seasons around the year, you can actually place an opened bottle of fragrance in the fridge to prolong its shelf life so that it does not fade as quickly over time.