How Are Aromatherapy Scents Manipulated?

How are fragrances created? And how do people know the smell of one thing over another?

In this video, biophysicist Luca Turin discusses the science of smell and how perfume scents are developed. Aromatherapy has historically been the basis of perfumery, but had been until recently based on essential oils, not chemicals. He describes how scientists in laboratories manipulate chemicals to mimic compounds into desired smells. And they are getting better and better at it.

Although Luca Turin is proud to re-create chemical fragrances from natural substances, this is exactly why so many essential oils labeled "pure" and "natural" are anything but. Well, unless you consider pure chemical to be "pure."

When Luca Turin asks if people have spectroscopes in their noses, he makes an important point – that it's very hard for people to tell between fragrances created in a lab vs. fragrances created in nature.

Luca Turin on the science of scent:

But is a synthetic fragrance or a synthetic essential oil what you want to use on your body?

With Young Living Essential Oils, you KNOW the fragrance is natural – directly the way nature grew it in unadulterated soil with organic fertilizer and rain water. It's the real thing – not a cheap imitation.