Aromatic Sources

Modern fragrances make use of a combination of natural and synthetic sources for their specific odor characteristics. Natural sources include plant and animal extracts such as bark, flowers and musk, where synthetic sources are used to provide scents that are not found in nature, or to substitute a scent that is not easily obtained from nature.

Natural sources consist of thousands of chemical compounds and, as they vary by the times and locations where they are harvested, it is difficult to ensure consistency. To maintain the quality of the perfume, the perfumer will usually manually balance the variations of the natural ingredients. In contrast, synthetic aromatics generally consist of one main chemical compound, and are much more consistent in strength and quality. However, differences in organic synthesis may result in impurities that can affect the scent quite significantly.

There are necessary differences in scent complexity. Natural aromatics contain deep and complex fragrance notes with subtle nuances, where a perfume consisting of mainly synthetic sources will be have purer, more defined fragrance notes, with an overall sense of being structural and defined. Also, natural sources have the advantage of smelling incredibly similar to its originating material, where synthetic compounds that attempt to mimic natural components often struggle to match the natural scent.

Because natural materials are far more expensive to harvest and extract scent from, perfumes made from mostly synthetic aromatics are more readily available at affordable prices. As such, the development of synthetic sources in perfumes has been one of the major influences on the growth of the modern mainstream fragrance consumer market.