Attar vs perfume: the difference, and which to wear

Walk into an attar shop anywhere in north India and someone will tell you attar lasts longer than perfume. Walk into a mall and the counter will tell you the opposite. Both are partly right, because they are describing two different ways of carrying a scent. Here is what actually separates them, from the people who blend both at our shop in Bahraich.

What an attar is

An attar — also written ittar or itr — is fragrance carried in oil rather than alcohol. For centuries it was made by distilling flowers, herbs and woods into a base oil such as sandalwood, and Kannauj, in our own state of Uttar Pradesh, is still known for doing it the old way in copper stills.

Today most attars are blended from perfume oils, and ours are too. What makes an attar an attar has not changed: there is no alcohol and no water in the bottle, it comes in a small glass vial, and you apply it by touch — a roll-on or a dab — rather than a spray. Every one of our house attars is made this way and bottled by hand.

What a perfume is

A perfume in the everyday sense — an eau de parfum, a parfum or an extrait — is fragrance oil dissolved in perfumer's alcohol and sprayed. The alcohol has a job to do: it lifts the scent off your skin in a fine cloud, so a spray projects in its first hour in a way oil never will. Then it evaporates and leaves the oil behind.

How much oil is dissolved in that alcohol is what the words on the bottle describe. We have a separate guide to perfume concentrations if you want the detail.

How they behave on the skin

• Projection. A spray throws scent around you. An attar stays close — people notice it when they are near you, not across the room.
• The first half hour. Alcohol flashes off in minutes, so a spray opens bright and loud. An attar opens slowly as it warms on the skin, and is at its best after half an hour.
• How long it stays. Oil does not evaporate the way alcohol does, so an attar tends to stay on the skin longer and on clothes longer still. Your skin, the weather and the scent itself all matter: a deep oud outlasts a fresh floral in either form.
• Feel. A spray is dry within seconds. An attar is a drop of oil — use a little and it sinks in.

Attar in Indian heat

Heat speeds up evaporation. A spray that lasts all evening in an air-conditioned office can be gone by lunch on a May afternoon in Lucknow. Oil holds up better, which is one reason attar has been the everyday fragrance of north India for so long.

The trade-off is that heat also makes a heavy scent louder. In summer, pick a lighter attar or use less of a deep one. Our guide to applying attar so it lasts in the heat goes into the details.

Alcohol-free, for prayer and every day

Many of our customers choose attar because they would rather not wear alcohol, especially for namaz, and every PXM house attar is 100% alcohol-free. Others simply prefer how oil feels: no cold spritz, no drying sting on freshly shaved skin. As with any fragrance, try a little on the inside of your wrist first.

Which should you wear?

• Choose an attar if you want a scent that stays close, keeps going through a hot day, or contains no alcohol. The 3 ml roll-ons are an inexpensive way to start.
• Choose a perfume if you want to be noticed as you walk in — an evening out, a wedding, a winter night. Every House Parfum comes in an 8 ml bottle to try.
• Choose both if you like. Plenty of people wear an attar to the office or the mosque and a spray in the evening.

Still unsure? Tell us two scents you have liked before, and we will suggest an attar and a spray to try.