The word perfume used today derives from the Latin "per fumum", meaning through smoke. Perfumery, or the art of making perfumes, began in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt but was developed and further refined by the Romans and Persians. Although perfume and perfumery also existed in East Asia, much of its fragrances are incense based.

The precise formulae of commercial perfumes are kept secret. Even if they were widely published, they would be dominated by such miscellaneous ingredients and odorants Perfume that they would be of little bag in providing a useful guide to the accustomed consumer in description of the empiricism of a scent. Nonetheless, connoisseurs of perfume can become extremely skillful at identifying components and origins of scents in the same manner as wine experts .