I wish I could say any of this is true, but commercial perfumes do not use natural floral absolutes. Chanel no 5 was one of the first perfumes years ago to use synthetics, but not THE first. Anything labeled "fragrance" automatically means synthetics. Ever sneeze or see someone sneeze when they spray a perfume? Or those people with allergies to fragrances? A big reason is that our brain doesn't know how to process synthetic chemicals in commercial perfumes.
There are many many many derivatives that clone the exact scent of musk, rose, jasmine, etc. Have you ever smelled real tuberose? It smells like pungent dirt. Or lily?
Guess what? Lillies don't smell. It's all synthetic, aldehydes, indoles.
Natural molecules, especially in floral absolutes, are VERY unstable. When mixed with anything else. they break apart and re-bind to other molecules. So say you mix rose absolute and jasmine grandiflorum together, you'd think logically, this will smell like rose and jasmine? NOPE! It will smell like something totally different that smells like NEITHER rose nor jasmine. The molecules break apart, re-bind, and become something else altogether.
The reason commercial fragrance companies use synthetics, other than the fact that real floral absolutes don't last very long, spoil in light, cannot withstand temperature variations etc, is so that when the blend a jasmine-like fragrance oil with a rose-like fragrance oil, the molecules remain intact. So, it smells like ROSE and JASMINE.
The quality of the synthetics vary greatly, for sure. But they are not using actual roses. Companies can even label something "natural" or "organic" but that STILL doesn't mean it's rose absolute oil. It can be a natural derivative like linalool, geraniol or citranellol, which come from other types of plants.
This is pretty OT, but I wanted to post since I have about 600 essential oils/ absolutes in my lab at home & have been making my own perfumes and skincare for almost a decade, sourcing the wildest most rare and intoxicating stuff from all over the world. It's an excellent hobby! But there is a lot there in terms of what the public thinks is natural and what is really going on....There's a lot more here, actually a ton more, regarding cosmetics etc but I can leave that for another day and another thread.
Here are the ingredients dissected by a master perfumer of No. 5...
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