Perfume Strengths Chart: Parfum, EDP, EDT and Cologne Explained

Parfum, Eau de Parfum, Eau de Toilette, Eau de Cologne and Eau Fraîche are five strengths of fragrance, from most concentrated to least. The label tells you roughly how much fragrance concentrate is in the bottle. It doesn’t tell you that two versions of the same perfume smell alike, and often they don’t.

What Does Perfume Strength Mean?

Perfume strength is the share of fragrance concentrate in the bottle. The rest is the carrier, mostly alcohol with some water. An Eau de Parfum at 18% is roughly 18 parts concentrate to 82 parts alcohol and water.

The concentrate is the perfume itself: natural extracts and synthetic aroma molecules blended to a formula. It isn’t simply essential oil. A modern Eau de Parfum might rely as much on ambroxan, Iso E Super and vanillin as on anything distilled from a plant.

There’s no law fixing these percentages. The ranges below are industry convention, and brands drift outside them.

Perfume Concentration Chart

Why Does a Stronger Concentration Last Longer?

Because there’s more of the slow part. The alcohol is gone within minutes of spraying. What stays on skin is the concentrate, and within that, different molecules leave at very different speeds.

Citrus top notes like bergamot are mostly limonene and other light terpenes, which evaporate fast whatever the concentration. Base materials like musks, ambroxan, vanillin and sandalwood molecules are heavier and stick around. A Parfum has more concentrate overall, and perfumers usually weight it further toward the base. So a Parfum doesn’t make the bergamot last longer. It makes the drydown bigger and slower.

The other side of that: a Parfum often projects less than an EDP of the same name. Less alcohol means less of the quick lift that carries scent off the skin in the first minutes, so Parfum tends to stay close and reward anyone leaning in. The EDT vs EDP vs Parfum guide goes further into choosing between versions, and what makes perfume last covers the individual molecules.

Does a Different Strength Mean a Different Perfume?

Often, yes. Dior’s Sauvage shows it clearly, because all three main versions publish their notes:

Version	Dior’s listed notes	How it reads
Sauvage Eau de Toilette	Calabrian bergamot, ambroxan, elemi, woods	Bright, mineral, woody
Sauvage Eau de Parfum	Bergamot, Sichuan pepper, lavender, star anise, vanilla, ambroxan	Rounder and warmer, with a vanilla base
Sauvage Parfum	Mandarin, sandalwood, tonka bean	Creamy wood, much less of the fresh blast

Those are three related perfumes, not one perfume at three volumes. If you love the EDT for its sharp, salty-fresh opening, the Parfum may disappoint you, and the reverse is just as likely.

The Five Perfume Strengths

Parfum (Extrait): About 20–30%

Parfum, also sold as extrait de parfum, is the most concentrated version of a fragrance line, usually around 20 to 30% and sometimes higher. It’s the richest, slowest version, built around the base notes.

Sauvage Parfum is a good example of how far the composition can move: the mandarin, sandalwood and tonka are a different idea from the EDT’s bergamot and ambroxan.

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Eau de Parfum: About 15–20%

Eau de Parfum runs about 15 to 20% and is the default for most new launches. It’s strong enough to project, and not so dense that it turns heavy. If you don’t have a particular reason to want Parfum or EDT, EDP is the place to start.

YSL Black Opium is a typical modern EDP: a coffee accord, white flowers and a sweet vanilla base. Black Opium Le Parfum is a separate, more vanilla-heavy version, not the same scent in a stronger dose.

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Eau de Toilette: About 5–15%

Eau de Toilette runs about 5 to 15%. The name comes from the French faire sa toilette, to get washed and dressed, which says what it was for: something light to put on in the morning.

An EDT isn’t a watered-down EDP. Lighter concentrations usually put the top notes forward, so an EDT often has the brighter, sharper opening of the two. Sauvage shows it: in the EDT the bergamot is louder relative to everything else, where the EDP rounds it off with lavender and vanilla.

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Eau de Cologne: About 2–5%

Eau de Cologne runs about 2 to 5%. In everyday English, “cologne” also just means men’s fragrance, including bottles that are actually EDPs. The two meanings have nothing to do with each other.

The concentration takes its name from the citrus waters sold in Cologne from 1709, when Johann Maria Farina started selling his (more in the history of perfume). 4711, made in Cologne since 1792, is the easiest way to smell the traditional style: lemon, bergamot and orange over lavender, rosemary and neroli. It’s bracing and close to medicinal in a good way, made to splash on after a shower.

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Eau Fraîche: About 1–3%

Eau Fraîche is the lightest category, usually described as 1 to 3% (L’Occitane uses that range). Think of it as a body splash for a hot afternoon.

The words get borrowed for perfume names, though. Versace Man Eau Fraîche is an Eau de Toilette, and Chanel’s Chance Eau Fraîche comes as an EDT and an EDP. When “Eau Fraîche” is part of the name, it usually signals a fresher flanker, not the concentration.

Is a Higher Concentration Better for Sensitive Skin?

No. The idea that Parfum is gentler because it has less alcohol is common, but fragrance ingredients themselves are a recognized cause of skin reactions. The FDA lists fragrance among cosmetic allergens, and a Parfum carries more of them, not fewer. If a fragrance gives you a rash, stop using it; switching to a stronger version won’t help.