Extraction processes in perfumery
ADELE FADILI
How do you capture the smell of a flower, a zest or a wood? For centuries, perfumers have been trying to catch the smells of nature. Here are the main extraction techniques, explained without jargon (or almost).
Enfleurage, the historical technique
It's the oldest one. Flowers were laid on fat (hot or cold, for delicate flowers like jasmine). The fat soaked up their scent, then it was washed with alcohol to recover the fragrance.
Very slow and barely profitable, enfleurage is hardly used at all today. You may have discovered it in Patrick Süskind's Perfume… in a (very) dark version.
Steam distillation
The most common technique. The raw material is placed in a still, above a tank of water brought to a boil. The steam passes through the plants and picks up their odorous molecules. It then travels through a cooled coil and condenses, and in the Florentine flask, the essential oil naturally separates from the water. Simple but ingenious.
It's used for many plants, woods, aromatic herbs, and for neroli.
Cold expression
Reserved for citrus fruits, which don't handle heat well. The zest is mechanically pressed to recover the essence held in the peel. Yes, it really is the peel that concentrates a citrus fruit's scent. Everything you need to know about citrus and lemon.
Volatile solvent extraction
For materials too delicate for distillation (jasmine, tuberose, orange blossom…). They're steeped in a solvent that captures their odorous molecules. This gives a "concrete," then, after washing with alcohol, an "absolute." That's how orange blossom absolute is made.
Supercritical CO2 extraction
A more recent technique: under high pressure, CO2 becomes a very effective yet gentle solvent, which then evaporates completely. It yields extracts that are very true to the original material, like the pink pepper CO2 extract cherished by our perfumer Anne-Sophie Behaghel.
Headspace
Invented in the 1970s, headspace ("the space around the head") isn't used to extract, but to analyze. A living flower is placed under a glass bell jar, the air carrying its molecules is captured, and those molecules are then identified. Perfumers can then recreate the smell through synthesis: handy for "silent" flowers like lily of the valley.
In a nutshell
- Enfleurage: the historical method, almost abandoned.
- Distillation: the most common, produces essential oils.
- Expression: for citrus fruits.
- Volatile solvents: for delicate flowers, produces absolutes.
- Supercritical CO2: modern and true to nature.
- Headspace: to analyze and recreate a smell.
And for everything that can't be extracted, there's synthesis. We explain why it has its rightful place in No more fragwashing.
Love from Versatile. XOXO
