“Ladies, a man will never remember your handbag, but he will remember your perfume,” Olivier Creed, British master perfumer and founder of The House of Creed once said. And he has a point.
Perfume acts as a first impression and you can only make one of those, so finding the right scent and strength is paramount. You and your nose must choose the former, but let us help you with the latter.
What is the difference between perfume, eau de perfume and eau de toilette?
The strengths of fragrances can be very confusing. The simple answer is perfume has a much higher concentration of actual perfume and lasts longer compared to its counterparts.
Fragrances are mostly made of a mixture of alcohol (ethanol), water and scented oils (the smelly stuff). The higher the concentration of those oils (also known as “juice” in fragrance expert circles), the stronger the scent, the longer it lasts, and the more expensive the bottle.
Perfume has somewhere between 20 to 40% of scented perfume ingredients, and should last from morning to evening – usually six to eight hours and sometimes into the next day.
Perfume is something you wear to get noticed, but the strongest notes demands the highest prices.
Some fragrance experts say parfum is not for everyday-wear, but for special occasions.
Perfumer Francis Kurkdjian, the nose behind Christian Dior Eau Noire and Carven Le Parfum, recommends dabbing perfume on the skin and never rubbing it in.
Perfumes are better for people with dry and sensitive skin because they have less alcohol and don’t dry out the skin as much.
Eau de parfum, also known as EDP, has between 10 to 20% concentration of oils and lasts from four to five hours.
Some say it is the best option as it lasts longer than EDT but is cheaper than parfum.
EDP is for everyday-wear because it is less intense, so even if you go overboard, it’ll lighten up fairly quickly or you can layer it to strengthen the scent.
Eau de toilette (EDT) has between 5 to 15% of perfume ingredients and lasts two to three hours. Fragrance experts consider it to be daywear, also.
“Ideal for work, for interviews, for when you want to wear scent for your personal pleasure, rather than to help get you ‘noticed’'” Josephine Fairley, co-founder of the perfume society, said.
It is cheaper than perfume and one of the most popular fragrance options bought in Australia.
To show the price comparison, a bottle of Chanel No5 perfume in a 30ml bottle at Myer costs $470, a 50ml bottle of Chanel No5 eau de parfum costs $165, while a 50ml bottle of Chanel No5 eau de toilette is priced at $135.
Chanel says “the parfum is the most precious version of the fragrance” and the eau de toilette as “a warm and bright version of the original fragrance”.
“The eau de parfum draws inspiration from the parfum with which it shares its floral aldehyde signature,” Chanel adds.
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