If you're one of those people who doesn't leave the house without first bathing in a good perfume, be aware that the smell that you like so much can come from places you can't even imagine.
Fixatives are the compounds that help prevent the rapid evaporation of the fragrance, they are what make your perfume stay longer in the body. See some examples:
civetone
This substance can be taken from a feline gland, more precisely from the civet cat, an animal similar to the opossum.
Indol, represented in the image above, is a compound isolated from faeces, and ambergris is found in whale vomit. Arg! 
I think we'd better stop here and get to know the chemical structure of some of the fragrances used in perfumes:
Linalool: lavender
Carvone: mint essence
Cis-jasmone: Smell of jasmine
Do not stop now... There's more after the advertising ;)
Geraniol: essence of roses
Citral: lemon essence
Mixing these substances in correct proportions gives rise to the famous perfumes sold on the market.
By Líria Alves
Graduated in Chemistry
Brazil School Team
Chemistry Curiosities - Chemistry - Brazil School
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
SOUZA, Líria Alves de. "The curious world of perfumes"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/quimica/o-curioso-mundo-dos-perfumes.htm. Accessed on June 28, 2021.
