The potential of LC–MS technique in direct analysis of perfume content

Perfumes are products that consist of a wide range of natural and synthetic compounds. Due to complex composition, the determination of their ingredients is a difficult task. Most of the perfume components are either volatile or semi-volatile; however, most of the attention has been paid to volatile ones, and thus, gas chromatography or electronic noses are generally used. Nevertheless, in this study, liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry has been applied for direct perfume analysis. Four samples of different best-selling perfumes (two men’s and two women’s fragrances) and their counterfeits were taken under consideration. The identification of their ingredients was performed by combining obtained results with information available in on-line databases. Compounds specific to essential oils and carrier oils, antioxidants and dyes were generally detected in both types of samples, whereas components of the fragrance of animal origin were only found in brand-name perfumes. On the other hand, counterfeits contained more types of polymer emulsifiers. Therefore, based on the results obtained, it can be concluded that liquid chromatography coupled with very sensitive detection technique can be used as a complementary approach to analyses performed with gas chromatography. Moreover, this technique offers the possibility to determine compounds that have low thermostability.