What Is Extrait de Parfum? Why 30% Perfume Oil Matters
Walk into any perfume counter and you will see the same few words on every box: Eau de Toilette, Eau de Parfum, sometimes Parfum. Much less often, you will see Extrait de Parfum. It is the rarest of the four, and the most concentrated.
The short answer
Extrait de Parfum, often shortened to extrait or simply parfum, is a fragrance with the highest share of perfume oil to alcohol. Most extraits sit between 20% and 40% oil. For comparison, an Eau de Parfum is typically 15 to 20%, and an Eau de Toilette 5 to 15%.
Every AAPLOO fragrance is an Extrait de Parfum at 30% perfume oil.
What more oil actually changes
Concentration is not only about strength. It changes how a fragrance behaves through the day.
- It lasts longer. Perfume oil evaporates slowly; alcohol evaporates fast. With more oil and less alcohol, an extrait typically stays on skin for 10 hours or more.
- It sits closer. Extraits tend to project less in the first minutes than a sharp, alcohol-heavy spray. They wrap around you rather than filling the room.
- It unfolds slowly. You notice the top, heart and base notes one after another over hours, instead of the top notes vanishing in twenty minutes.
- You need less. Two sprays are usually enough. A 50ml bottle goes further than you would expect.
Is stronger always better?
Not necessarily. Concentration tells you how much oil is in the bottle, not how good the oil is. A beautifully composed Eau de Parfum will always beat a badly made extrait. What an extrait gives you is time: more hours with the fragrance, and more chances to notice how it changes.
How to wear an extrait
- Spray on pulse points: the wrists, the base of the neck, behind the ears.
- Don't rub your wrists together. Rubbing crushes the opening notes before you have met them.
- Start with two sprays. You can always add a third.
- Spray on clothing if you want the scent to last into the next day, but test on a hidden patch first with delicate fabrics.
Why we chose 30%
We wanted fragrances that stay with you from morning into night, even through an Indian summer, without shouting. Thirty percent gives each AAPLOO fragrance enough depth to change slowly on the skin while staying close and personal.
The easiest way to understand an extrait is to wear one for a full day. The AAPLOO Discovery Set brings all three of our fragrances in 3ml vials, the same 30% extrait that fills the 50ml bottles.
Crafted. Authentic. Rare.
