Attars
Attar is a family of concentrated fragrance preparations sold in small quantities and applied by dabbing rather than spraying, traditionally in an oil-type base. The word describes a format and a tradition of use, not a formula: it does not establish what the base is, whether any alcohol is present, whether the material is natural or an accord, or how strong the preparation is. Those are the fields a buyer fills in from the label and from the supplier.
What this family includes
The family covers the traditional oil-based and alcohol-free preparations, the scented body oils sold on the same pattern, and the small decantations and gift-sized bottles of the same things. It also covers the cases where the word is used loosely for any highly concentrated fragrance oil sold for dabbing.
Because the format is defined by use rather than by material, the family spans both genuine distillates and manufactured accords. A buyer who assumes the word settles the question of what is inside has settled nothing.
Not the same as
An attar is not a spray perfume. The application method is different, the quantity used is different, and the buyer who wants to spray should not be sold a dabbing preparation.
It is not a perfume oil sold for compounding, which is a trade supply. It is not a scented body oil whose purpose is moisturising. And it is not an oud oil: an attar may contain no agarwood at all, and one that does is still a compounded preparation rather than a distillation.
Material and format fields
The fields are: the base or carrier; whether the fragrance is natural, a blend or an accord, and in what proportion each; the concentration as the seller states it and the basis for that statement; the intended use and whether the product is evaluated for skin contact; the batch reference and date; and the container, which for a small dabbing bottle is usually a dropper.
On the standards, note the boundary carefully. A Certificate of Conformity applies to a fragrance mixture intended for incorporation into a finished consumer product and is generally not issued for raw materials, and conformity with the standards does not exempt a company from the national or local rules that govern the market it is sold into. A preparation sold for skin contact is governed by that market's rules on cosmetic products as well as by the fragrance-mixture limits.
Comparisons
An attar and a perfume oil differ in use and in supply: one is a finished preparation for a person, the other a concentrate for a formulator. An attar and a finished perfume differ in application rather than in strength alone, and a scent that reads as powerful in one can read as thin in the other.
And an attar made on an accord and one made on a distillation are different products that share a name, which is why the difference has to come out of the field list rather than out of the word.
Buyer requirements
Ask what the base is and whether alcohol is present, because that decides how the preparation should be stored, how it behaves on skin, and which rules govern it in the destination market. Then ask what the fragrance is made from, and whether the supplier will say plainly that it is an accord.
And buy a small quantity first. A concentrated preparation is easy to buy and hard to return, and the only way to know whether the scent suits the person is to open it.
Related suppliers
The directory lists attar makers separately from perfume-oil suppliers and from perfume manufacturers, and the separation reflects the work: an attar maker blends and decants into small bottles, an oil supplier supplies material in bulk, and a manufacturer produces a finished line. Look for a maker who describes the base and the fragrance composition on request.
Relevant guides
Choosing and using skin-intended oils explains what an intended-use statement changes about how a product may be used. Fragrance notes versus ingredients explains why a description of the scent does not tell you what is in the bottle. Understanding perfume concentration labels covers the labelling convention these preparations borrow from.
- Search the supplier directory
- Start a request for quote
- Read choosing and using skin-intended oils
This page defines the family and the fields a buyer should fill in. It does not state a base, a concentration, an ingredient list or a price, and it does not establish the regulatory position of any product in any market.
- IFRA โ Understanding the IFRA StandardsEstablishes that the IFRA Standards operate through three kinds of control โ prohibition of a material, restriction of the maximum quantity used, and specification of conditions on a material โ and that quantitative limits are expressed as an upper concentration in the finished consumer product rather than in the fragrance mixture. Establishes that product types are set out in the guidance documents and that the applicable category is determined from the product's intended use. Establishes that IFRA itself does not issue certificates, does not authorise any third party to certify on its behalf, does not certify products, and that a Certificate of Conformity does not replace a safety assessment. It does not establish the safety of any particular product, the concentration of any material in any product, or compliance by any named supplier.
- IFRA โ Using the IFRA StandardsEstablishes that conformity for a fragrance mixture's intended use is established by the fragrance-mixture formulator or supplier, that a Certificate of Conformity applies exclusively to fragrance mixtures intended for incorporation into finished consumer products, and that IFRA Certificates are generally not issued for raw materials. Establishes that the final decision and responsibility for the finished product lies with the end consumer product manufacturer, and that conformity with the Standards does not exempt a company from applicable national or local regulation. It does not establish that any named supplier holds a certificate, nor what any certificate says about a finished product.
- Biodiversity and application prospects of fungal endophytes in the agarwood-producing genera Aquilaria and Gyrinops (Thymelaeaceae): a reviewStates that all members of the agarwood-producing genera Aquilaria and Gyrinops are placed in CITES Appendix II. Records 92 compounds identified in agarwood, of which terpenoids are 40.22%, and names eighteen fungal genera reported to promote agarwood formation. It does not establish the quality, yield or age of any material, and it is a review rather than a regulatory instrument.
OudGuide editorial review ยท 2026-10-21
Reviewed against the cited sources. The family boundary was checked against the format descriptions elsewhere in the encyclopedia, every statement about the fragrance-mixture standards was checked against the scope of the source cited for it, and no composition, concentration, price or grade is stated anywhere on the page.