Botanical perfume (also called natural perfume) is made from plant extracts -- flowers, leaves, berries, seeds, roots and resins.

The use of fragrance goes back a long way. Humans were enjoying natural scents even before the Greeks and Romans. It was only in the late 19th century that synthetic ingredients began to be used in perfumes.

How are natural perfumes different from mainstream perfumes?

Natural perfumes are free of synthetic ingredients. Today most mainstream perfumes are completely or mostly synthetic. Some ingredients found in mainstream perfumes, such as musk and phthalates, are probably to blame for adverse reactions such as headaches and allergies, and may actually be toxic. The Health Canada website has information on phthalates.

Natural perfumes are more discreet. Instead of giving off a "sillage" that invades the whole room, a natural perfume stays close to your skin, to surprise and delight anyone who comes within your "scent circle."

Mainstream perfumes contain some ingredients that are never found in natural fragrances. For example, "lily of the valley" in a perfume is always synthetic, because the scent cannot be extracted from the flower. The same is true of freesia, peony, and honeysuckle. Fruity scents — pear, plum, and melon — are also synthetic. The sad thing is that people are becoming accustomed to these synthetic smells, and may even prefer them to naturals.

Natural perfumers have access to a whole range of precious essences that are considered too costly by the mainstream industry. These include carnation, boronia, violet, and agar wood. Natural perfumers can thus create a truly luxury fragrance for the discerning client.

How long does a natural perfume last?

It depends on the ingredients in the perfume and the nature of your skin. The drier your skin, the more quickly the perfume will disappear.

Instead of synthetic fixatives, natural perfumes rely on natural base notes -- sandalwood, oakmoss, and vanilla, for example -- to give staying power. A natural perfume can last all day, while its evolution on the skin offers a delicious progression of notes.

While mainstream perfumes may last longer, the tenacity of a perfume is perhaps not the best measure of its quality. This quotation about music could apply to perfume: "It exists in a perpetual state of disappearance. Once it's done, it fades, it goes away, it ceases to exist except in memory." (Joe Fiorito, The Song Beneath the Ice, p. 155-56).

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