NaturalPerfumery.com was launched because many natural perfumers didn't have brick-and-mortar stores and it was felt there was strength in numbers having an internet presence. After discussion, we felt we should create a public "face to the world" that would both educate the general public about who we are and what we do, and also help market our natural perfumes.

Most of the natural perfumers on this site come from the Yahoo group, which remains a learning and networking entity. Naturalperfumery.com serves to help with education, marketing, and increased visibility for the perfumers. Naturalperfumery.com also features suppliers, educators and others involved in the field.

Here are some interesting facts about the New Wave of natural perfumers:

Unlike mainstream perfumery (perfume that includes the use of synthetics), that employs about 400 "noses" worldwide: natural perfumery numbers are growing quickly -- there are over 700 in the Yahoo group. The Yahoo group is not the only place that natural perfumers congregate: the real number is unknown.

The mainstream perfumery noses are graduates of just a few specialized schools:
natural perfumers, are, for the most part, self-trained, with supplemental coursework.

Most mainstream perfumers are French: Americans dominate the natural perfumery field.

Mainstream perfumery sales are in the millions worldwide every year: natural perfumery isn't anywhere near that yet!

Sincerely,

Anya McCoy, hostess of the Yahoo group and owner of naturalperfumery.com

The following Comparative Chart and information describes the differences between Aromatherapy, Natural Perfumery and Synthetic Perfumery and is reprinted with the permission of Mandy Aftel, from p. 7 of her Natural Perfume Level One Tutorial. More information on the course can be found at Aftelier.com

Frequently Asked Questions
 
      Why doesnt natural perfume last as long?
Natural perfumes never last as long as synthetic ones because chemical
ingredients last longer on the skin. A perfume that lasts more than a couple
of hours on the skin is almost certainly created from synthetics.
 
      Why does natural perfume cost more?
Natural perfumes are made from the most expensive and luxurious essences.
They are created by hand from raw materials in small batches; sometimes it
takes a great deal of material to render a tiny amount of essence, and some
of the material is rare or difficult to procure.
 
      Why does one batch of a natural blend smell different from another?
Each batch of essential oils, concretes, and absolutes smells slightly
different, depending on growing and extraction conditions of the raw
materials; therefore each blend of a given set of ingredients will vary.
 
      How do I know if a perfume is truly all natural?
Certain natural materials elude current extraction methods, e.g., lily of
the valley, freesia, wisteria, peach, plum, cantaloupe, caramel, apple,
apricot, banana, cherry, dewberry, gardenia, honeysuckle, lilac, mango,
peony, strawberry, violet, tulip, lily, heliotrope, orchid. Their inclusion
in a perfume blend is a tip-off that the fragrance is synthetic. Also
suspect are inexpensive blends containing ingredients that are exceptionally
costly (over $6,000 per pound)  in their natural form, e.g., orris, jonquil,
narcissus.*

reprinted with permission - Copyright Mandy Aftel 2005

note from Anya McCoy:
* Some natural perfumers create doppelgangers for these scents using natural absolutes, essential oils, tinctures or infusions so that they may approximate these scents:

"trompe-nez" (to fool the nose). **Check with the perfumer who states these notes are used in their creation, and ask questions. Don't be fooled by a company that claims to be natural, but uses fragrance oils, as Mandy noted above.

**this is a "created French term", coined with the assistance of a member of my Yahoo group