(VOVworld) - When it comes to the art of perfume, no country ranks more highly than France. France has been the heart and soul of the world’s perfume industry. French perfumes, like their wines, are famous around the world for their character and originality. Today VOV talks to Mr. Yoan Guyon, a French engineer, again about French perfume, the powerful fragrance.

Q: Hello Yoan Guyon! Nice to meet you again and thank you for being on air with us today. Why is perfume popular in France?

A: Perfume was invented thousands of years ago. It has always existed in human evolution. You have some famous perfumes like Flower by de Kenzo, Coco Mademoiselle by Chanel, Tresor de Lancome, J’adore by Dior. Yeah it’s popular. One thing is sure, everybody has perfume in France, but not everybody wears it every day. It’s something in the culture. It’s something that you cannot really see or interpret. It exists like that.

Charlize Theron stars in Dior J’adore 2015 campaign (Photo: pinterest.com)

Q: What are some major ingredients in a perfume?

A: It’s a mixture of fragrant essential oils or aromas, solvents – most of time is ethanol, and a bit of water sometimes. The dilution is the factor of the smell intensity along with the length of time that you can smell it on you. And it depends on the concentration of the aroma, and the fragrance of the perfume. You have several ingredients to create perfume. Some of them are the floral, the aquatic, some smells come from seaweed, some from fruits, some woods, and even some animals. Making a perfume is like cooking. There is a city in the south of France famous for that. Its name is Grasse. That’s where they create a lot of perfumes. They have some professionals who are really good with their notes, and that’s their nickname. We call them the “noses”. Those people are really good at interpreting the smells and mixing them together to create a new perfume. They have in front of them some thousands of fragrances, and they mix them. They are the trusted people from big brands like Dior and Chanel who refers each of those brands to their own notes to create the perfume.

Grasse is surrounded by endless fields of lavender, jasmine, and other (Photo: vitorlazas.hu)

Q: How are French perfumes classified?

A: So you have several types and classifications. The first one is the Perfume, which is made of between 15% and 40% of essential oils. Then after that you have the Eau de Parfum, which is made of between 10 and 20% that can last up to 6 hours on your body. After that you have Eau de Toilette which is around 10% and this lasts around 2 or 4 hours. And finally Eau de Cologne, between 3% and 8%, and this lasts a bit less time on the skin. To produce one Eau de Toilette from Eau de Parfum, we play on the notes. That’s the levels of smells. You have the top notes and the base notes. So the principle to create the Eau de Toilette is to decrease the base notes and to increase the top notes.

The Noses’ workplace in Grasse, France (photo: alamy.com)

Q: Can you explain a little bit more about the notes of the perfume? How does it work?

A: The top notes or head notes are the first smell that you can smell when you play the perfume. Then those top notes disappear and then you have the middle notes which is the second smell. It’s also called the heart notes, and finally the base notes is the third smell that you can smell after 30 minutes. It’s really the depth and the solidity of the perfume. For example the Chanel No.5 is not only playing on the top notes and base notes but they also play on the composition of the perfume to create one Eau de Toilette from one Eau de Parfum. For women, it’s more Eau de Parfum. Perfumes for women are more intense and a bit stronger, and more synthetic, actually, than those for men. The ones for men are mostly Eau de Toilette, more natural.

An iconic No.5 advertisement featuring Nicole Kidman was shot at the cost of £18.7 million GBP (Photo: stylecaster.com)

Q: How can we apply perfume on the body in a right way?

A: About the application of the perfume, there are some key locations on the body to play the perfume: behind the ears, on the neck, inside the wrists, and on the elbows. The reason for those locations is that the pulse points, the blood goes especially to these locations, the blood will warm up the perfume and release the fragrance continuously. Some perfume professionals also indicate that behind the knees is a good location since the perfume will evaporate and rise on your body. The length of time that you can smell the perfume depends on the concentration of the oils inside your perfume. It also depends on your skin. For example, the skin with more oils will hold the perfume longer than dry skin.

Q: How long can we keep perfume? Does it lose its quality through time?

A: Oh yeah you can keep it for a few years, but it evaporates even it is put in a bottle. The quality of the perfume depends on the light, temperature, humidity. In a day, every product that you use for the shower, the shampoo, the cream for the skin, they all have some perfume. So we should take something fresh for the morning, going on an Eau de Toilette – something lighter for the daytime, and we would use Eau de Parfum- the strongest during the evening.

Q: Thank you again for granting us this interview. That has been Mr. Yoan Guyon on Cultural Rendezvous. Until next time, good bye!