Perfumes: what they are and how to buy them

When asked what she wore in bed, Marilyn Monroe once famously replied 'Chanel No.5'. It's a remark that evokes all the mystique and sensuality of perfume, magical concoctions that play strange tunes on the 40 million receptor cells contributing to our sense of smell. Perfumes are composed of dozens of ingredients: extracts of flowers, spices, herbs, fragrant woods and resins - or their synthetic chemical equivalents. It might come as a surprise to learn that the floral sensation of Chanel No.5 depends upon a synthetic aldehyde.