The modern perfume industry was born at the end of the nineteenth century. At that time, perfume makers began incorporating industrial ingredients into their formulations, which amplified the color palette of professionals, providing them with more creativity due to the abundance of olfactive options in various forms. Today, chemists can isolate aromatic compounds from the natural raw material, disassemble their chemical molecules, and obtain the molecular structures of the raw material. Once all the compounds of the natural raw material have been analyzed, the competent chemist will then be able to use the single chemical molecule.

Various synthetic raw materials

There are two types of synthetic raw materials.

• Substances obtained only through chemical reactions, such as esters, aldehydes, lactones, macrocyclic (white musk) or methylionones, constituents of violet roses, and other things.
• Substances isolated from natural oils, such as indole (found in jasmine), geraniol (found in rose or geranium), linalool (found in lavender and bergamot), and vetiverol (found in vetiver Haitian or Java) and some musk (found in animal musk). The techniques used are essential oil fractionation, and the cost of molecular isolation is sometimes about twice the price of natural essential oil.

There are some products called developed oils, which are a modification in the natural oil by adding some molecules of other compounds in it (grafting) and they are more expensive: for example, isolated natural linalool will be transformed into linalyl acetate.

Therefore, many synthetic raw materials are components of natural products.

What do formulas bring to perfumery?

The use of synthetic ingredients in the perfume industry has many advantages, the most important of which is providing perfumers with ample options in their library.

• creativity

Synthetic ingredients add magic in perfumes and it is said to add a natural touch to perfumes sometimes, for example aldehydes or marine ingredients, which give a wonderful, mysterious dimension to the perfume.

In fact, there are more than 3,000 synthetic ingredients and more than 1,000 natural ingredients available to perfumers. Of course, ingredients are added/removed with time. One of the advantages of industrial components is that they can be obtained at any time and in the required quantities.

It is also positive that perfumers can recreate some aromatic floral scents that are odorless or whose oils are difficult to extract, for example muted flowers (lily of the valley, lilac, freesia, honeysuckle, gardenia, peony, violet flower, etc.).

Likewise, synthetic materials can recreate some fruity scents whose oils are impossible to extract, such as strawberry (C16), peach (C14), coconut (C18), plum, raspberry (Frambinone), and others, although perfumers can find more Fruity scents from natural.

• Rigidity and sustainability

The synthetic ingredients improve the performance of the scent and also bring strength and longevity to the fragrance.

• The natural ingredients are tolerant

Sometimes artificial ingredients are fortified with natural ingredients, for example the spice ingredient if it is added to natural vanilla, it adds to it the sweet character (gourmandy) that reminds us of sweet pastries (Cinnabon cake), as well as some ingredients such as vanillin or ethyl maltol ) to add caramel features.

Thanks to research and development in chemistry, it is now possible to produce ingredients with extraordinary performance. Thus, perfumers are still looking for ingredients that support the lost natural touch of a plant or flower, so many artificial ingredients have an important aspect to enhance the natural aspect and make its texture more aesthetic, and here, for example, is the vanillin component of vanilla.

Another example is the hedione component, assuming if rose oil was enhanced with it, we will find it adding some refreshing floral touches to it, and its effect may be more noticeable than using natural bergamot or lemon.

Industrial components in our modern era

New synthetic ingredients are highly appreciated in the perfume industry and are credited with obtaining new ingredients such as:

• It brought out woody-amber notes, which are very suitable for men's perfumes.
• White Musk (Synthetic), which offers a softness as well as refinement to the fragrance.
• The artificial ingredients provide sweet, caramel-like overtones, thanks to ethyl maltol.
• There are rarely natural ingredients that mimic natural agarwood and are often very expensive, so we find that they are replaced by a mixture of natural and synthetic materials.
• It is characterized by its strength when mixed with some other ingredients such as cashmeran, ambroxan.
• Evernyl, the moist, earthy scent of moss that oozes from trees.
• The component of Mahonia, which is the scent of floral leaves as if it were a field of variegated flowers.
• Givaudan has recently developed Ambrofix, which presents the scent of whale amber, obtained via biotechnology (100% sustainable) and chemically extracted from sugar cane.

And some other synthetic ingredients that are used continuously in the perfume industry:

• Alpha damascone: Its scent has an apple-watery touch, more like it is floral.
• Ethyl-maltol and maltol: Ingredients that have a sweet, caramel-like aroma.
• Dihydromyrcenol: woody-citrusy, fresh notes.
• Heliotropine adds a creamy-floral character and an almond scent to some of its versions.
• Galaxolide: musky-powdery, with fruity notes.
• Cis 3 hexanol: Smell of cut grass.

Concepts about industrial materials

We often hear that synthetic ingredients are bad, or perfumes that contain natural ingredients are the best, and perfumes that contain synthetic ingredients are bad.

The vast majority think that the natural ingredients are good and that the industrial ingredients are nothing but copies of the natural ingredients and this concept is undoubtedly wrong. For example, component (i-rone) extracted from iris root. The cost of a kilo of it may reach approximately ($2000), although lavender oil may reach around $200. There are also other industrial components whose cost is very high compared to natural ones. .

We do not forget the great role that research plays in exploring new aromatic molecules and their sustainability, bearing in mind that industrial and natural ingredients are subject to legislation and tests to measure their safety for humans. Taking into account that natural ingredients sometimes tend to have poor performance and a reduction in smell, perfumers resort to enhancing them with industrial ingredients.

Without the synthetic ingredients, these fragrances would not exist in our modern world:

• Aldehydes, we wouldn't have seen Chanel (N°5).
• Coumarin, Linalool, Vanillin, Guerlain Perfume (Jicky).
• Ethyl vanillin, Guerlain perfume (Shalimar).
• Hedione, Dior perfume (Eau Sauvage).
• Calone, perfume (Acqua Di Gió).
• The Guerlain Mitsuko perfume wouldn't be as great without the fruity peach ingredient (C14 aldehyde) used for the first time in the fragrance.
• Dihydro-mercinol, Creed perfume (green irish tweed) or Davidoff perfume (Cool Water).

Industrial products in brief

Here is a chronology retracing the history of the great creations of aromatics:

• 1833/1834: Dumas and Peligot isolated cinnamic aldehyde from an extract of cinnamon oil.
• 1844: Corus (Cahours) found the main component of anise scent, the ingredient anethole.
• 1868: English chemist William Henry Perkin synthesizes a spirit extract of tonka bean called coumarin.
• 1882: Coumarin is used by perfumer Paul Parquet for the first time in the fragrance Royal Verne, which becomes Fougere Royale for Houbigant.
• 1869: Discovery of the scent of heliotropin, used in Guerlain's Après l'Ondée perfume, which also contains the aniseed aldehyde component, discovered in 1887.
• 1874: The chemists Tiemann and Reimer synthesize vanillin.
• 1880: The quinoline group is discovered, the leathery ingredient used in many perfumes, perhaps the most famous and oldest of which is Chanel's Cuir de Russie.
• 1888: Baur, a chemist, produces synthetic musk, which is much less expensive than musk deer.
• 1900: Moreu and Delange discovered the constituents of octane and methylheptene carbonate, which gave the impression of violet leaves.
• 1903: The principle of Blaize and Darzens is applied to create the components of aldehydes.
• 1905: Dupont invented some well-known ingredients such as ionone, methyl ionone, and others.
• 1908: Creation of hydroxycitronellal from the component citronella.
• 1960: Great discoveries were made for the perfume industry, such as hedione isolated from jasmine oil, discovered by Firmenich.
• 1966: Sandalwood entered the perfume industry, which led to the emergence of Guerlain Samsara perfume, which used natural sandalwood, but it was recently reformulated and replaced with synthetic.
• 1963: The famous caramel ingredient ethyl maltol is created, which was used in Mugler's Angel perfume for the first time.
• 1966: Calone, a marine ingredient, is used for the first time in Aramis New West.
• 1970: The appearance of damascones, isolated from roses, made by Firmenich, and for the first time used in Guerlain's Nahéma perfume.
• 1973: The appearance of a widely used ingredient, ISO e Super, a very beautiful woody ingredient.
• 1990: Creation of the musky ingredient helvetolide.

New synthetic fragrance molecules are created every year as well as new natural substances.

Conclusion

Industrial ingredients have greatly influenced the perfume industry and have made it possible to create specific scents such as violet, lilac, lily of the valley, and fruity ingredients that cannot be extracted in a natural form, so all these discoveries contribute to the development, renewal and enrichment of creativity in the world of perfumery.

In addition, the perfume that contains many synthetic ingredients is more clear and stable if it is applied, for example, to fabrics, skin, etc. Although the evolution of perfume that contains more natural ingredients than synthetic ones according to skin type, of course, in many cases the fragrance does not accept the person's skin so we may not see its interaction at all.

Therefore, the best solution remains, according to many perfumers, to have natural ingredients in a large percentage in the perfume, accompanied by industrial ingredients that work in enhancing the natural ingredients.

Away from the sterile discussions that revolve around opposing natural ingredients and synthetic ingredients, there must be a beautiful creative idea and a fragrance library rich in ingredients in addition to a professional or even talented perfume maker.