Are the Chemicals in Perfume Fake?
Short Answer: no
Long Answer:
Pretend you possess a microscope with infinite zooming ability. If you zoom in far enough on literally anything, you will eventually see atoms.
If we zoom out, we get to the level where groups of atoms combine together. For example, you may know that 2 hydrogen atoms and 1 oxygen atom combine together to form the most dangerous chemical currently known to mankind.
These combinations of atoms are chemicals! A chemical is simply a term. Literally everything is made of chemicals, except light, which is made of uhhh.....light bulbs idk I didn't take astronomy.
I'm writing this because someone once asked me this exact question. Isn't perfume just like a bunch of chemicals? To which I responded: Aren't you just like a bunch of chemicals? It's a miracle I have any friends. Anyway, it is not untrue that perfume is simply "a bunch of chemicals", but this definition is about as helpful as describing a human as a bipedal sack of organs.
Seriously though, it is helpful to think about perfumes being made of chemicals. Making a perfume is like playing a metaphorical piano. Actually no it's like playing a literal piano. If you play the right notes at the right time, and in the right sequence, you get a song. Now replace the keys on the piano with chemicals, and you've got yourself a perfume!
But why are they referred to as chemicals and not something more friendly sounding?
Well I suspect you ARE familiar with these chemicals, you just don't know it! Check out the ingredients of any perfume, you've probably seen the word "limonene" before.
Limonene is a chemical, and specifically it makes up the vast majority of the flavor of the oranges in your fridge right now. Limonene is also present in lemons, limes, bergamots, grapefruits, and basically any other citrus fruit you can think of.
Okay so, then the limonene in my perfume is like a fake orange smelling chemical?
Nope! Just like how you can't "fake" a key being played on a piano. There is no "fake" C# note. The only key that you can play to get the sound that C# makes is that one key.
In perfume each chemical has a smell that is unique. There is no other chemical that shares that exact smell. So in the case of limonene, the limonene in the orange in your fridge and the limonene in your perfume are identical. Not a fake. Literally the exact same thing.
Kind of like how all water is H2O. 2 Hydrogens, 1 Oxygen: that's water. If you add any other atom to it, it is no longer water.
As I reread this (yes I do proofread these ramblings) I realize it might not be obvious what limonene is if you've never worked with chemical compounds before. I mean to say that limonene is the smell of oranges. It's not like it, it's not similar to it, it literally is it. It's also the flavor of oranges. When you smell/eat an orange the vast majority of what you experience is the sole responsibility of limonene!
Singular chemicals like limonene are the building blocks used to construct a perfume. Because each aromatic chemical is only one smell, a perfume is a blend of a bunch of these chemicals. Like how a painting is a blend of colors. If chemicals are our paint and nature is our muse, you can combine these chemicals on your canvas in a way that might be even more beautiful than how they exist in nature. What if the statue of liberty was in the grand canyon? You can paint that! What if there was a perfect hybrid flower that smelled of both jasmine and rose simultaneously? Well, a perfumer can compose that. Using chemicals.