Sweet and Sour

The science behind body chemistry and a woman's scent

April 18, 2013

Perfume is really a very lyrical luxury. When described in scientific terms, there are top notes and bottom notes, and the top notes can form chords in the fragrance. But why is it the same fragrance smells different on each person? The staff at Queen B has pondered this since we were little bees on the school bus spritzing Jean Nate on ourselves.

Dr. Jennifer Logan, assistant professor of chemistry at Washington and Jefferson College in Pennsylvania, teaches a course on perfume chemistry with a colleague in the college's French department and has organized student trips to learn about the perfume industry in France.  

"There was a recent study published in March on the psychology of fragrance," Logan said. "People seem to choose perfume that goes well with body odor, not mask it. Everyone has a different body odor, so that causes it to smell differently. Our skin has its own scent due to genetics, diet and gender."

Climate and body temperature can also affect fragrance. Evaporation happens faster in warmer climates, and this impacts the scent.

"Top notes are what we smell first in a fragrance, and they evaporate quickest," Logan said.

Tania Sanchez co-authored "Perfumes: The Guide" with her biophysicist husband, Luca Turin.

"Skin chemistry seems to interact most with top notes, Sanchez said. "I heard a perfumist in France say, 'Top notes are what makes you buy a perfume, and base, or heart notes, are what keep you coming back.'"

In her course, Logan's students create their own perfume and learn how scents are extracted from nature and created synthetically in a lab, as well as analytical techniques to discover what's actually in perfume. 

"Chanel No. 5 seems to be the most famous fragrance and the one that's always cited in articles," Logan said of the iconic fragrance that debuted in 1921. "While Chanel No. 5 is still around today, it's most likely not the way it smelled in the beginning. I'm not sure if this is true of Chanel No. 5, but old perfumes might have used chemicals that are now known to be carcinogenic or incorporated musk obtained from animals, a practice now limited by law. This why old perfumes might not smell the same as their modern versions."

Tips to make a scent last longer:

Try to find or store fragrance in a dark bottle. Ironically, most perfumes come in clear bottles, but a darker bottle keeps sunlight out and slows evaporation.

Don't store perfume in your bathroom. The humidity from your shower can break down the fragrance faster.

Layering a fragrance on your skin with a similar scented lotion could keep the fragrance on your skin longer before evaporating.

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