It’s hard to believe, but it’s been almost a year since my last blog post. It’s crazy how time flies. First, it was a busy Christmas season and then for a long time I simply felt lacking in ideas as to what to write about. However, I have been recently asked why I chose to create oil perfumes vs alcohol-based perfumes, and I thought that that would be a great blog topic to make a comeback to blogging.

So how is a fragrance with an oil carrier different from a more conventional alcohol-based perfume? In my opinion, both are valid carriers and both have their application. That said, I chose to work with oil as the base for my fragrances, and here are my reasons.

The initial harshness

Alcohol-based perfumes are very harsh initially. We’ve all been in a perfume department and tested various fragrances, and the scent hits you right in the face after spritzing. The reason for that strong initial ‘hit and lift’  is that alcohol has a very high evaporation rate. That’s what gives the false impression that an alcohol-based fragrance is much stronger than it actually is – 10-15 times stronger, by some estimates. Oil perfumes, on the other hand, have a much slower evaporation rate, and the initial impression of a scent is more accurate. An oil perfume still unfolds over time like a flower, exposing more of the top notes first, then the middle notes, then finally the base notes. However, due to a more even and level evaporation rate, there is no initial harshness associated with them.

Oil perfumes evaporate at a slower rate and aren’t harsh on first contact.

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