A fragrance contains four basic ingredients:
In modern perfumes virtually all these ingredients are made in the lab rather than derived from natural sources. Many of them mimic natural smells, but chemists have devised some good smells that have no natural counterpart.
Some of the ingredients are essential oils, derived from plants. Plants sometimes produce strong smells to attract insects for pollination. But some of those strong smells are insect-repellants or poisons, to discourage damage to the plant. So, although essential oils are "natural", they're not always harmless, even to humans.
This section looks at ingredients in three ways:
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