Perfume /ˈpɜr.fjuːm/ or parfum is a mixture of fragrant essential oils or aroma compounds, fixatives and solvents used to give the human body, animals, objects, and living spaces "a pleasant scent." The odoriferous compounds that make up a perfume can be manufactured synthetically or extracted from plant or animal sources.
Perfumes have been known to exist in some of the earliest human civilizations, either through ancient texts or from archaeological digs. Modern perfumery began in the late 19th century with the commercial synthesis of aroma compounds such as vanillin or coumarin, which allowed for the composition of perfumes with smells previously unattainable solely from natural aromatics alone.
Read more about Perfume: History, Concentration, Describing A Perfume, Obtaining Natural Odorants, Fragrant Extracts, Composing Perfumes, Health and Environmental Issues, Preserving Perfume
Famous quotes containing the word perfume:
“[Wellesley College] is about as meaningful to the educational process in America as a perfume factory is to the national economy.”
—Nora Ephron (b. 1941)
“The merit of those who fill a space in the world’s history, who are borne forward, as it were, by the weight of thousands whom they lead, shed a perfume less sweet than do the sacrifices of private virtue.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Some spring the white man came, built him a house, and made a clearing here, letting in the sun, dried up a farm, piled up the old gray stones in fences, cut down the pines around his dwelling, planted orchard seeds brought from the old country, and persuaded the civil apple-tree to blossom next to the wild pine and the juniper, shedding its perfume in the wilderness. Their old stocks still remain.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)