How much we spend, how many celebrity launches, the most expensive bottle…
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3,000 The number of scent ingredients a perfumer, or ‘nose’, must commit to memory. He or she must also master the relative volatility of each perfume oil to determine where it sits in the composition. Highly volatile oils, such as bergamot, evaporate quickly and are better top notes, whereas benzoin is stable and lasts for hours, making it a good base note. Some ingredients can be unpleasant if their smell is revealed too soon on the skin and must be shielded until just the right moment. Refining this ‘evaporation curve’ is one of the perfumer’s key skills, says Roja Dove, author of The Essence of Perfume.
25 The millions of pounds allegedly made by jennifer lopez with her fragrance, glow, since its 2003 launch. Elizabeth Taylor was the first celebrity to launch a perfume series, with White Diamonds, in 1991.
50 The percentage of women who receive fragrance as a gift. Some three quarters of us claim not to like the fragrance we are given.
33 The percentage of male fragrances worn by women. Many women prefer the ‘dryness’ of male fragrances and the ingredient vetiver, says perfume expert Roja Dove.
And the citrus notes used in many male fragrances are rarely used as a dominant note in women’s scents. When Christian Dior Eau Sauvage first came out in 1966, women rushed to buy it.
53 The age at which a man is most likely to surprise his partner with perfume, chocolates and flowers. According to a recent survey, men born in 1955 are kings of the romantic gesture.
200,000 The number of people in the UK estimated to have anosmia, the permanent loss of smell or taste. About half of these cases are due to a head injury, which can also cause dysosmia – hallucinating of a vile odour.
24 The hours that the strongest perfume can last. Parfum, or extrait, can be up to 40 per cent pure perfume oil. Chanel makes a parfum concentration of No 5 (£65 for 7.5ml), as does Guerlain for its classic fragrances L’Heure Bleu (£171 for 30ml) and Jicky (£171 for 30ml). By contrast, eau de parfum (up to 14 per cent pure) lasts for about ten hours on the skin, while eau de toilette (at anywhere between three and ten per cent) will buy you about four hours’ fragrance.
5 The number given to Coco Chanel’s first perfume in 1921. This was most likely the fifth sample that perfumer Ernest Beaux proposed when Coco asked him to make a scent for her. She considered it a lucky number and didn’t want to change it.
Her last fragrance, No 19, was launched on her 87th birthday – and was named after the date, 19 August.
40 The number of celebrity fragrances launched so far in 2008.
It’s estimated that one in five fragrance purchases is a celebrity
scent, according to The Premium Market Report, published by
Imogen Matthews Associates.
6 The number of scents most women own at a time.
20 The length of time in years a new fragrance molecule can be patented for. But so long as none of the aroma-chemicals are within patent, you cannot copyright a whole fragrance. The most imitated fragrance in recent years is Thierry Mugler Angel.
119 The age of the oldest perfume that's still available today.
Jicky was created by Guerlain in 1889: ‘When it launched, it was shocking,’ says Roja Dove. Back then, most people wore cologne, but Jicky was overtly sexy. ‘No women in polite society would dare wear it, and only the most audacious man took the risk in wearing it,’ says Dove.
881 The number of fragrances launched in 2007. 561 were for women, 227 for men and 93 were unisex.
4,000 The number of bottles of celebrity fragrances sold by superdrug every day over the Christmas period in 2007.
Stunning by Jordan (right) was the most popular celebrity perfume bought in December 2007, followed by Christina Aguilera’s Christina Aguilera.
Other big sellers included fragrances by Kylie Minogue, Britney Spears, Kate Moss and Kelly Brook.
30 The minutes it takes for a perfume to ‘settle down’ on your skin, according to perfume expert Tania Sanchez. Individual skins affect the top notes – the ones you smell after you spray the tester (and therefore the ones most companies spend a lot of time getting right). Oiliness and temperature of skin affect the rate at which the scent evaporates. If you and a friend spray on a scent at the same time, it will probably smell different on each of you in the minutes afterwards. But after half an hour or so, when the fragrance’s ‘heart’ emerges, these minor differences disappear.
212 The name of a Carolina Herrera scent described as ‘like getting lemon juice in a paper cut’ by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez. They give it a meagre one-star rating in Perfumes: The Guide.
300 The weight in kilograms of the largest piece of ambergris ever found. Ambergris is the most expensive natural raw material in perfume.
It is made when a sperm whale swallows spiky cuttlefish and secretes a waxy paste around it. When this lump becomes too big, the whale coughs it up, like a cat’s furball.
The distinctive odour is derived from the salt and the sun that it soaks up as it floats on the ocean’s surface – the longer the better.
It is extremely rare and supplies are uncertain, so it is only found in a few vintage fragrances; most modern ones use a synthetic substitute.
2,835 The amount in pounds that the average woman will spend on perfume in a lifetime.
1,260 The price in pounds of the world’s most expensive off-the-shelf scent. No 1 Pure Perfume by Clive Christian comes in a 30ml handmade lead-crystal bottle with a diamond in its gold collar.
Katie Holmes wore it at her wedding to Tom Cruise. Its smell changes slightly every year according to the availability of its rare ingredients (including high-quality jasmine, which is picked at dawn and is worth more than gold).
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