perfume

Fragrant essence used to scent the body, cosmetics, and candles. More than 100 natural aromatic chemicals may be blended from a range of 60,000 flowers, leaves, fruits, seeds, woods, barks, resins, and roots, combined by natural animal fixatives and various synthetics. Favoured ingredients include balsam, civet (from the African civet cat) hyacinth, jasmine, lily of the valley, musk (from the musk deer), orange blossom, rose, and tuberose.

Culture of the cells of fragrant plants, on membranes that are constantly bathed in a solution to carry the essential oils away for separation, is now being adopted to reduce costs.