What is Natural Perfume?

Photo Credit: Kari Shea, Unsplash

Blog Post Updated as of May 22, 2025

What is Natural Perfume?

What makes a perfume “natural”? While natural perfume can have different definitions depending on the brand or perfumer you are talking to, typically natural perfume is defined as a fragrance composed of ingredients that are derived from 100% all-natural and botanical or plant-based ingredients. In this post, I’ll break down what natural perfume means, the types of ingredients used, and how we define it at Wit & West.

What Does 'Natural' Really Mean in Perfumery? In general, natural perfume is defined as a fragrance composed of ingredients derived from all-natural botanical sources such as plants, flowers, wood, bark, leaves, citrus, seeds, spices, and resins. These ingredients are extracted using methods such as steam distillation, CO2 extraction, solvent extraction, as well as traditional artisan methods like enfleurage and tincturing.

At Wit & West, all of our perfumes and colognes are made from 100% all-natural ingredients as defined by ISO 9235:2021 – Natural Aromatic Raw Materials Vocabulary. This is also the same standard recognized by IFRA (International Fragrance Association). According to this standard, natural ingredients include:

• Essential Oils: An essential oil is a highly concentrated, fragrant, volatile (easily evaporated) organic compound originating from a single botanical source, e.g., orange essential oil. The word ‘essential’ reflects the ‘essence’ of the plant, and ‘oil’ indicates a liquid that is insoluble in water. Essential oils are extracted from botanical sources using several different methods of distillation or the process of separating components based on differences in evaporation rate of volatile constituents through temperature, pressure and subsequent condensation in what is known as a still or distillation system. The essential oils contained in plants have a higher boiling point than water and are also insoluble in water which allows the essential oil to vaporize at a lower temperature than on its own. The different methods of distillation include water/steam distillation, cohobating (process of re-distillation), and molecular distillation (also called vacuum distillation). Some botanicals such as citrus undergo a different process called cold pressed extraction.
• Absolute Oils: While the resulting oil that is produced from solvent extraction – the extraction method used to produce an absolute oil – is like an essential oil, it is technically not the same thing. One reason they are different is due to their extraction processes; absolutes are produced via solvent extraction, while essential oils are produced using methods such as distillation or expression. Solvent extraction is often used for botanicals such as jasmine and other delicate flowers because they cannot undergo steam distillation due to the heat. Absolute oils contain heavier, non-volatile molecules and are more viscous than an essential oil. Solvent extraction uses a solvent to dissolve aromatic molecules which separate them from their original botanical/plant source. From there, the resulting material must go through two additional phases to separate the solvent from the absolute oil. The first phase of the process produces what is known as ‘concrete’, which contains plant waxes that are solid at room temperature. The second phase of the process separates the waxes from the resulting product or the absolute oil.
• CO2 Extracts: CO2 extracts are produced via a different method than a distilled essential oil and therefore it does not produce a true essential oil. In the CO2 extraction process the solvent is carbon dioxide or CO2 under pressure at ambient temperature. Under normal atmospheric conditions CO2 is a gas, but when highly compressed it becomes supercritical – neither a gas nor a liquid. CO2 extracts tend to smell more like the living plant than essential oils or absolutes.
• Natural Isolates: Obtained via fractional distillation of a distilled essential oil. This process separates or isolates an individual naturally occurring molecule from other components found within the essential oil. Examples of natural isolates include geraniol, a naturally occurring chemical constituent found in roses and geraniums, vanillin, a naturally occurring chemical constituent found in vanilla beans, and coumarin, a naturally occurring chemical constituent found in cloves, tonka bean and other natural sources.
• Biotech Natural Ingredients: Fermentation process that uses natural raw materials such as plants, sugar cane, bacteria, algae, fungi, yeasts, etc. to create 100% all-natural ingredients. Leaders in this area include the fragrance house, Givaudan.
• Resinoid: A resinoid is a solvent-extraction of plant-based raw materials from balsams, gums and resins.
• Enfleurage Extraits: An enfleurage extrait is the resulting material obtained via the traditional French method of extraction known as enfleurage. At a commercial level, enfleurage is a method that is seldom used due to the cost and labor involved in producing an enfleurage extrait. Cold enfleurage utilizes a glass tray with a thin layer of fat such as coconut oil that is spread on the tray and then a layer of fresh flowers on top which is then recharged daily until a desired scent is achieved. Once the desired result is achieved, the ‘fat’ (coconut oil saturated with fresh flowers) or enfleurage pomade can then be processed further for use in alcohol-based perfumes by washing the fat in 190-proof alcohol until the alcohol absorbs the scent from the fat. I talk about enfleurage in-depth on my blog post The Art of Enfleurage in Perfumery.
• Tinctures & Infusions: solution obtained by maceration of a natural raw material in ethanol (alcohol) or an oil such as fractionated coconut oil at variable concentrations or in water. Examples include benzoin tincture, vanilla tincture or infusion.

Natural Perfume Certifications and Standards

Some natural perfume brands choose to follow additional certifications such as:

• The International Perfume Foundation – IPF certified perfumers/brands must follow the IPF New Luxury Code (focuses on respect for the earth, environment, plants, water and air, natural resources, communities, etc.) as well as refrain from using animal-derived ingredients, animal testing, parabens, phthalates, synthetic compounds, natural isolates, phenoxyethanol, glycols, and ethoxylated compounds.
• COSMOS Natural and COSMOS Organic – To be COSMOS Natural certified, brands must demonstrate that they do not use ingredients that are of non-natural origins, and to be COSMOS organic brands must demonstrate that they only use certified organic ingredients with no solvents, GMOs and/or animal by-products. Brands must apply for certification through an approved certification body such as Ecocert, Cosmebio, ICEA, BDIH – certification bodies for natural cosmetics in Europe.

Each certification varies in what’s allowed, but they all attempt to define boundaries for what “natural” should mean.

Natural vs. Synthetic Perfumery Ingredients

So, what is a synthetic ingredient in perfumery? Synthetic ingredients consist of lab created aroma molecules. Some synthetic aroma molecules are nature-identical (e.g., synthetic geraniol, a molecule that occurs naturally in roses and geranium), while others don’t occur in nature at all (e.g., ISO E Super). Advancements in technologies in the 1800s paved the way for a new era of perfumery, allowing perfumers access to a wider range of ingredients beyond the naturals including everything from the ionones (violet-like note that includes some ingredients that are natural isolates, but also some ingredients that cannot be naturally isolated) to synthetic musks and beyond.

Why Wit & West Chooses Natural Perfumery

At Wit & West, working with natural ingredients is an intentional and artistic choice. The art of perfumery—just like any other art form—contains a range of genres, each with its own traditions, techniques, and audience. Two of the primary genres within the industry are mainstream perfumery (typically associated with large, corporate-run perfume houses) and indie perfumery (created by independent artisan perfumers or small brands who may work with outside perfumers).

Within these broader genres are even more nuanced sub-genres. This is where Wit & West fits in—as an indie natural perfume brand, and myself, Wit (Whitney), as an indie natural perfumer.

Our commitment to naturals is both a creative and personal one. Just as someone might be drawn to a particular genre of music or style of painting, we believe perfume lovers can be drawn to the raw beauty, complexity, and ephemeral nature of botanical ingredients. For us, working with naturals isn't just about what's not in our perfumes—it's about what is in our perfumes: botanical ingredients extracted from nature, blended and arranged into fragrance compositions that are opulent, multi-layered, unique and never boring. Nature’s olfactory memories, bottled.

Explore the World of Botanical Perfumes with Wit & West Perfumes

Wit & West Perfumes is a Colorado-based 100% all-natural botanical perfumery with a focus on rare natural ingredients and unique scents for those who do not want to smell like everyone else. Our perfumes are handcrafted completely in-house in small batches using only the finest, high-quality 100% natural whole botanicals and naturally derived ingredients. If you’re interested in sampling some of our 100% all-natural perfumes and colognes check out individual samples as well as our sample sets on our website by visiting the Wit & West Samples page. If you're new to natural perfume, we also have a sample set that's perfect for anyone who isn't familiar with the genre of natural perfume. The sample set includes five (5) of our most popular perfumes and colognes curated by Wit & West perfumer, Wit: New to Natural Perfume Sample Set.