Fixative is an old term for any natural substance that will hold and ‘fix’ and that helps a fragrance last longer on the skin.
Alcohol-based scents are the most fleeting, so a substance is required to add for "anchor" the scent. Lowering the evaporation rate of the alcohol usually does this.
The fixative can be a powerful part of the scent. Some think that any fragrance fixatives might impart to a scent should be kept to a minimum.
However, some of these odors with powerful fixative qualities can be integrated into the scent as a base and form a powerful base.The formula of which can be used over and over again in other perfumes to make a fragrant accord.
Fixatives are used to equalize the vapor pressures and thus the volatilities of the raw materials in a perfume oil. As well as to increase the tenacity.
Fixatives are materials that:
1. Slow down the rate of evaporation of the more volatile materials in a perfume composition, causing only gradual changes in the aroma of the perfume as the ingredients in it fade away;
2. Lend a particular note to the perfume throughout all stages of evaporation but do not significantly affect the evaporation rate of the other materials in the perfume;
3. Improve, fortify, and/or transport the vapors and/or lend a combination of a diffusive or retentive effect, typically through the addition of trace amounts;
4. And/or are odorless or almost odorless and lend a stabilizing action by paralyzing the odor of the low-boiling (volatile) materials in the perfume.
Remember that the fixative qualities of an oil and an oil’s tenacity do not necessarily mean the same thing.
Tenacity is the lasting effect of a perfume material and its ability to linger on the skin.
An aromatic perfume ingredient may have immense tenacity but may have little impact on the evaporation rate of the other perfume ingredients it’s combined with.
