How strong your perfume really is.

PERFUME CONCENTRATIONS

Ever been confused as a child as to what in God's name is an Eau de Toilette? Is it water that comes from a toilet? We all chuckled at the very thought of spraying something on ourselves that we were constantly trying to rid out of our body. Oh the innocence! Time flew past us and slowly, we started getting a hold of these terminologies. We were made aware from the SA's in our local mall's about the other concentrations, mainly EDC & EDP and just as we were coming to terms with these 2 new variants, some hot shot YouTuber (not Jeremy ;) ) or an elder person from our family, got us in on another little secret. The magical world of Parfums and the Extrait's and how even a drop of these on your skin, would last you a whole day and in case of clothes, a month or 2. That had our attention and before we knew it, we were deep into this vast never ending world of scented water and our quest for the longest lasting fragrance began. 

So, what are these abbreviations that we keep seeing at the bottom of every fragrance that's found on the shelves of malls? Below we go in-depth and how it affects the performance of our desired scent.

• EDC - Eau de Cologne. This falls in the lower tier of fragrance concentrations. Generally used for freshies like Nautica Voyage, Azzaro Chrome etc. Alcohol used is generally under 10% while the rest is either natural or in a lot of cases, synthetic notes. Longevity of the fragrance varies from anywhere between 2 to 4 hours.

• EDT - Eau de Toilette. This is where most of your flagship fragrances are put under i.e. most well known category for perfumers. Fragrances here, just like EDC have similar characteristics but with better ingredients. Fragrances are much less complex than their EDP counterpart. EDT fragrances last anywhere between 4-8 hours.

• EDP - Eau de Parfum. This category is where perfumers love to showcase their art. They play with somewhat challenging notes and bring out the true beauty in Perfumery. The ingredients used are somewhat richer than in EDT concentrations hence the difference in quality and the price. EDP fragrances last for at least 6-12 hours on skin.

• Parfum /Extrait. Also known as Pure Parfum, this is the most concentrated of all the versions. Naturally, fragrances under extrait form should always be sampled first because they are not your run of the mill fragrances. People with a more refined nose are the one's who would really appreciate the challenging notes that's often associated with them. Perfumer's use anywhere between 20-40% of alcohol or in some cases, even more. Perfumes are known to last for 12+ hours and in some cases, even for days. 

 P.S. - A) Just because a fragrance has a higher concentration, doesn't always mean that they'll last the longest. That's a myth that most people will lead you to believe. Longevity depends on a lot of factors like your skin or the ingredients used. For example, if a freshie is in an EDP or Parfum concentration, doesn't always mean they'll last for the above duration. B) Perfume concentration level differs from brand to brand and are different for perfumers as well. Numbers stated are subjective but those above are generally regarded as an apt representation on concentration percentage and longevity. More or less