Making a perfume by expression

To make a perfume with expression, you need to be able to capture the scent of the fruit. For citrus fruits in particular, you need to use one of the perfume-making techniques : expression. Also called cold pressing, this technique allows you to capture the scent of citrus fruits in the tiny glands found in the peel.

The expression in a few words…

The history of perfume by expression begins in Sicily, which is quite logical, since Sicily is one of the largest producers of citrus fruits. The first technique, "sponge," consisted of emptying the fruits to keep only the peel, both parts were generously wetted, then rested for about 10 hours. This is where the vase on which sponges were fixed came into play. By pressing the peel on the sponges, then after decanting, the essence of the fruit was recovered by pressing the sponges. This technique is no longer used today, it required far too much time, at least a month.

What are the two types of perfume expression used today?

To extract the absolute from citrus fruits, there are two types of perfume expression , they differ slightly from each other, but give very good results.

The expression of the whole fruit
Cold pressing a citrus fruit produces essential oil, also called essence. This type of expression is quite simple: a whole fruit, such as a lemon, is taken and then pressed. The juice is separated from the essential oil using a centrifuge. The lemon essence is then recovered and used in our Bon Parfumeur fragrances, such as 001, which features bergamot and Italian mandarin as the top notes.

The expression of the fruit bark
The second technique used is to express the fruit with only the peel. A citrus fruit is selected, such as the Cuban lime, and then the peel is removed. This is then crushed to recover the essential oil. You can then find its aroma in the perfume 003 with Calabrian bergamot.

Expression is one of the techniques still used today to create original perfumes, unlike enfleurage which was abandoned. Others like the Softact , the Nature Print , the distillation or extraction use different, but very effective processes to take advantage of all the scents offered by nature.