Perfumes and deodorants

Introduction

Perfumes have been known to exist in some of the earliest human civilizations either through ancient texts or from archaeological digs. Modernperfumery 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 previouslyunattainable solely from natural aromatics alone.
Deodorants are substances applied to the body to affect body odor caused by bacterial growth and the smell associated withbacterial breakdown of perspiration in armpits, feet and other areas of the body. 


Chemical CompositionPerfumes are basically very complex mixtures of chemicals, perfume design is traditionally not a very scientific process. Basically,
people come up with an idea for a smell, andthen they mix chemicals
together which, from their own experience, might produce that smell.

Perfumes basically are three-part mixturesof chemicals. The first part,
the fragrance, is the one that we usually think about. These are generally esters, aldehydes, or aromatic organic compounds that occurnaturally in flowers, fruits, or other things that smell nice. The second part, the solvent, is used to dissolve all the fragrance, and evaporate slowly so that the perfume's scent is given offover a period of time, and not all at once. These are usually common solvents such as acetone or ethanol. The third part consists of stabilizers and fillers, which are used to bulk up thefragrance and make sure that it doesn't degrade over time. Depending on the compounds being used, these will vary, although in some cases the solvent also acts as a preservative and filler.