A Little About Parfum
 

The words parfum, cologne, eau d' toilette, esprit d' parfum, all refer to differing concentrations of extracts, oils and alcohols, and this also depends on their origins of manufacture.
Contrary to popular modern opinion, alcohol is an intrinsic and important part of parfum making. People have erroneously attributed negative qualities to alcohol, lumping it into the same catagory as syntheti...c and artificial perfumes. There are many different forms of synthetic alcohols of various consistencies, that perform different jobs in the body of a perfume. At The Old Civet Cat, we do as our french predecessors did. We use alcohol of nearly 100% strenghth specifically made for the food industry. We specifically denature the alcohol ourselves, making it suitable for parfum manufacture. The process of denaturing is specific to each different scent aroma our director makes - this allows it to be customized to need, and this is where the addition of ingredients not friendly to distillation are added. This also allows the director to employ the use of natural fixatifs. A fixatif is a blend of balsams and resins and oleo resins, that are added in specifically altering small amounts to both retard evaporation of your parfum, allowing the scent to stay longer (something sorely missing in alot of modern day parfums) and to customize the alcohol to accomodate specific ingredients more harmoniously in the parfum proper. Doing this gives a deeper depth and complexity to any parfum formula. Alcohol, because of its volatile evaporation, carries the scent out and into the air with it, something that came into vouge in victotorian times, when your parfum was a kind of 'signature' of your person . When fixatifs are used in a parfum, they do not exibit the skin drying effects that modern parfums tend towards. Also, your parfum is strong enouph, you need not use so much of it that skin dryness and your parfum become an issue in todays ultra sensative social milleu. Back when it was the thing to promote ones status by showing off your scent, it was meant for others really, instead of keeping it close to your own bodies warmth to be enjoyed by self and close intimates of your life.
A parfum has a higher concentration of essential oils and extracts than does eau d' parfum/esprit d' parfum. Though less concentrated, none the less leaves an intense and lingering aroma. Eau d' Toilette and Eau d' Cologne are lighter than parfum, with cologne considered to be the lightest. In todays view of organic, or 'green' focus, we would add the Aromatic Artisan Hydrosols to this list, making it the lightest of them all, but because of the nearly complete water content, it is suitable for a traveling sponge bath (hence the use of the word 'toilette water' in years bygone.) to a pleasent additive to drinks and appertifs and such.
Parfum became prominent in Europe at the time of the crusades. The creator of the first cologne was Gian Paolo Feminis. The percent of essential oil in this type of cologne is about 5%, whereas parfum has the highest concentration at 20-25% range.
So here at The Old Civet Cat we are here to present high quality parfum, done in a manner and way nearly lost to the sands of time, and shown off to its heights by the French tradition. We are eager to have your reactions to our modern and ancient interpretations and extrapolations to our scented offerings. Though it may take some time, never feel bashful to send a letter to our scent director to give direct input and feedback.
Please write us if you have a special need or desire of our custom skills in making something to suit you and be one of a kind, to walk with you like it was born with you! Inquiries from both individuals and businesses are welcomed and desired, let us create something exclusive to yourself or your store front or organization.