Extrait de Parfum or Eau de Parfum?

Parfum extrait & Luxury Houses.

 

So, you’ve decided to treat yourself to a new scent from a luxury house. You’ve come across an extrait, noticed the eye watering price tag and now you want it even more. So, what is an extrait and why do only the luxury brands offer them?

 

Let’s put them into categories:

 

Parfum extrait (can be called parfum,pure parfum, extrait de parfum) – highest quality ingredients & methods.

 

Everything else (EdC, EdT, EdP, PdT, etc) – normal ingredients used, less labour involved.

 

Eau de Parfum takes the crown amongst niche fragrance brands. Think Creed, Frederic Malle, Tom Ford Private Collection etc. The flagship of these lines is all EdP, they may use some more creative language to describe them but that is the gist of it. Which is ultimately a higher concentration and more refined EdT.

 

However, when you take the next step up, think Chanel, Dior, Guerlain and Maison Francis Kurkdejian, EdP is no longer.

 

Let’s use vehicles as an analogy. The Volkswagen Group owns the likes of VW, Porsche, Audi, Lamborghini and SEAT. They own a whole lot more, but you get the idea. EdC would be like a VW Up! or a Polo, one step higher to EdT and we have a Jetta/Golf. Logically the next step, EdP would be a Passat or CC right? Wrong, it’s not just a step but rather a leap into a different league. The Parfum is a Porsche 911 or Lamborghini. The name on the bottle does not make this very clear though.

 

Now, Chanel and Dior also make clothes, but this is not an indication that they put out lower quality fragrances. These prestigious brands have often lent out their name in the past to merchandise that’s outside their comfort zone (Bentley & Ferrari Fragrances). Fragrance has and always will be a strong foundation of both Dior and Chanel.

 

Let’s look into Chanel No 5. which while released over 100 years ago is still the world’s most renowned fragrance. The Parfum was released in 1921, the EdT 1952. 65 years later the EdP was released in 1986. Traditional luxury houses never had EdP as the king, Parfum was. EdP was more of a marketing technique, an afterthought to ‘Make it stronger!’. Expressive, more liquid, more spray to tie in with the current market in the 1980’s. They were even called ‘Parfum de Toilettes’ There may have been some other EdP’s floating around but they were not common. All existing lines were formulated as parfums then adjusted accordingly for value.

 

Parfum extraits are made with ingredients of the highest available quality, materials are sourced from various suppliers driving up the cost. Take Chanel for example, each and every rose used in No 5. is from a Chanel controlled farm just outside of Grasse. Chanel employees nurture , love and oversee growth, once ready they are picked and within 20 minutes, processed into an oil. You can already see the high cost, quality and rigid timescale that goes into this perfume. The same cannot be said for EdT or EdP but that is not to say they are terrible options.

 

These parfum extraits are so expensive that most department stores don’t even stock them and if they do there are few to no testers. This is because they are simply too expensive to test at almost £1 a spray and as a result many consumers have never experienced an extrait. No 5. extrait comes in at around £1700 for 225 ml and MFK’s Baccarat Rouge 540 at £600 for their 200ml, you can see why these are not known, let alone how they’d make an extremely expensive everyday wear. But who am I to say you’re not bougee enough to leave a trail of ££ in your wake.

 

What are these variants like?

 

For starters they are not projection monsters. They are refined, rich and most importantly, long lasting yet fairly quiet in projection. EdPs have been formulated for the board rooms of the 1980’s, think high tension, ego boosting and competitive environments. Parfums were composed for dinner with the President or viewing the Opera from a balcony in Vienna. The base notes are where the focus lies, and top notes remain subdued compared to other versions. For our male readers, unfortunately these mostly exist for women. Men wearing fragrances heavier than EdCs is a relatively new phenomenon and as demand goes up the brands will follow. Fortunately, many older women’s fragrances in extrait versions were and remain quite unisex.

 

Key Takeaways:

Eau de Parfum and Parfum are extremely different.

Parfum, Extrait or Pure Parfum are in their own exclusive club of that fragrance. Whilst reading this you have probably thought ‘I wonder if they make a really high-quality version of x’ This is exactly what these are! Also, if they do, expect the price to be around 10x the normal variant.

If you want the best and absolutely nothing but the best, a clinically perfect formulated example of a fragrance – get the extrait it will almost always be the best version.

In terms of sampling not many places offer it however we do offer samples of MFKs Baccarat Rouge 540, Chanel No 5 and should you not find what you’re looking for, let us know because it could be just around the corner.