Pick up any bottle and somewhere under the name you will find a few small words. Eau de parfum. Eau de toilette. Sometimes extrait, or simply parfum. Most people know that one is stronger than the other. Fewer know what that means, or how loose the rules are.
The rough numbers
These names describe how much perfume oil is mixed into the alcohol. As a general guide, an eau de cologne is around 2 to 5%, an eau de toilette around 5 to 15%, an eau de parfum around 15 to 20%, and an extrait or parfum higher again, often 20% and above.
Notice the word general. No law fixes these numbers. One brand’s eau de toilette can be stronger than another brand’s eau de parfum, and houses change the percentages between versions of the same scent.
Concentration tells you how much oil is in the bottle. How long it lasts depends on which oils they are.
Why some light scents outlast heavy ones
A fragrance is built in layers. The top notes are what you smell first, usually citrus or something fresh, and they evaporate quickest. The heart takes over after twenty minutes or so. The base is the woods, musks, amber and vanilla, and that is what is still on your skin in the evening.
So a citrus eau de parfum can fade faster than a woody eau de toilette, even with more oil in it. Lemon and bergamot simply don’t hang around. Sandalwood, oud and vanilla do.
What heat does to it
Warm skin pushes a fragrance out faster. That is good news for the first hour, when people around you will notice it more, and bad news by evening. In a Dubai summer the same bottle will often give you less time than it would in London. Dry skin holds scent poorly as well, and a day in air conditioning dries it out.
A few things genuinely help. Put fragrance on straight after a shower, while your skin is still slightly damp. Use an unscented moisturiser first. Spray your pulse points and your clothes too, because fabric holds scent far longer than skin. And don’t rub your wrists together. It won’t ruin the perfume, but it does burn through the top notes faster.
Every Cosmera fragrance is an eau de parfum. We list the top, heart and base on each one, so if you want something that is still there at dinner, read the base before you read the name.
