Guides
Concentration Guide (EDC vs. EDP vs. EDT vs. Parfum)
EDT, EDP, Parfum. How strong is it, really?
The letters on the bottle describe one thing only: how much perfume oil is dissolved in the alcohol. That number affects price, longevity and how the scent behaves on skin. It does not tell you whether the fragrance is any good, and it is not always the number you should be buying on.
It is a ratio, nothing more.
Every fragrance is aromatic compounds dissolved in alcohol and a little water. Concentration is simply the percentage of the bottle that is compound rather than solvent.
Raise that percentage and three things follow. The scent generally lasts longer, because there is more material to evaporate. It usually sits closer to the skin rather than filling a room, because heavier molecules dominate. And it costs more, because the expensive part of a fragrance is the oil, not the alcohol.
The single most useful thing to know is that none of these terms are legally defined. There is no regulator checking that an eau de parfum contains a particular percentage. The ranges below are industry conventions that most houses follow loosely, and some ignore entirely. An eau de toilette from one brand can easily be stronger than an eau de parfum from another. Treat the label as a rough signal, not a specification.
Five tiers, drawn to scale.
Bars show the typical oil concentration range for each tier. Longevity figures are averages on skin and vary enormously with the fragrance and the wearer.
Eau Fraiche
The lightest format, mostly water with a small amount of oil. Splashy and cooling rather than perfumed. Rare on the mainstream market and usually sold as a body mist or summer splash.
Eau de Cologne
The original European format, traditionally citrus and herb led. Bright, clean and short-lived by design, meant to be splashed generously and topped up. Note that in American usage the word cologne has drifted to mean any men's fragrance regardless of strength, which causes endless confusion. On a bottle, EDC means this.
Eau de Toilette
The most common format on the market and the widest range on this chart, which is why EDTs vary so much. Typically brighter and more volatile at the top, with citrus and fresh notes given more room. Often the better choice in summer, when heat amplifies everything and a heavier concentration becomes overwhelming.
Eau de Parfum
The default for most modern releases and, for most people, the right balance of performance and value. Richer and rounder than an EDT, with more weight in the base. If you only ever buy one concentration and do not want to think about it, buy this one.
Parfum or Extrait
The richest format and the most expensive per millilitre. Counterintuitively, extraits often project less than an EDP of the same fragrance. The higher oil load favours heavy base materials over volatile top notes, so it sits against the skin and lasts rather than announcing itself. Wear it for depth and longevity, not to fill a room. Apply about half what you normally would.
Four things people get wrong.
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Stronger is better
Concentration is a format, not a grade.
An EDP is not an upgraded EDT. They are different products aimed at different uses, and a great many fragrances are simply better in the lighter format. Citrus and aromatic scents in particular can turn syrupy at higher concentration. Buying the strongest available version by reflex is the most common and most expensive mistake in fragrance.
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Same scent, more oil
The EDP is often a different composition.
This surprises people. When a house releases an EDP version of an existing EDT, it usually is not the same formula concentrated. The perfumer rebalances it, frequently adding or swapping materials, because simply increasing everything would throw the structure off. The two can smell noticeably different. If you love the EDT, do not assume you will love the EDP, and vice versa. Try before you commit where you can.
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Higher percentage lasts longer
The notes matter more than the number.
What a fragrance is made of governs longevity more than how concentrated it is. Citrus and light florals are volatile and vanish quickly at any concentration. Oud, amber, resins, vanilla and musk are heavy and cling for hours even in a modest EDT. A woody EDT will routinely outlast a fresh EDP. Read the base notes, not just the letters.
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It stopped working on me
It is usually your skin, or your nose.
Dry skin holds fragrance poorly, so the same bottle performs differently in winter than in summer, and moisturising unscented before you spray makes a real difference. Separately, you go nose-blind to a scent you wear often within about twenty minutes, long before other people stop smelling it. If you find yourself reaching for a sixth spray, the problem is almost never the bottle.
Words on bottles that are not concentrations.
These get mistaken for strength tiers constantly. Most of them are marketing.
Which one should you buy?
If you are deciding between two concentrations of the same fragrance, this is the short version.
Buy the EDT if you wear fragrance to work, live somewhere hot, prefer fresh and citrus profiles, or like reapplying through the day. Lighter formats are more forgiving in close quarters and in heat.
Buy the EDP if you want one bottle that handles most occasions, you are in a temperate or cold climate, or you simply do not want to think about it. This is the right default for most people.
Buy the extrait if you already know you love the scent, you want it to last all day, and you are comfortable with something that stays close rather than announcing you. It is also the better value than it looks, because you use far less per wear.
On price per wear. Concentration changes the maths more than people expect. If an extrait costs forty percent more than the EDP but you use half as many sprays and it lasts twice as long, the extrait is the cheaper bottle over its life. Compare cost per wear, not cost per bottle.
The concentration is always on the listing.
Every product on this site states its concentration in the title and the details, because it changes what you are getting and it should never be something you have to work out from the picture. Where a fragrance exists in several concentrations, we list them separately rather than treating them as variants of one thing, since they frequently are not the same composition.
Size is on there too. A 30ml extrait and a 100ml EDT are not comparable purchases, and the per-millilitre figure often tells a different story from the sticker price. If you are weighing two versions of the same scent and cannot decide, call us. We have smelled both.
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