Perfume quality: key aspects for quality control and assurance
Scents have been indispensable in human’s history for personal and living or commercial spaces grooming. A report titled ‘Beauty & Personal Care: market data & analysis’ by Statistica, published in November 2023, estimates fragrance worldwide market at 53.4 billion usd in 2022, and forecasts a CAGR of 3.9% to 2028, reaching 67.4 billion usd.
Setting the scents part aside, there are multiple factors to consider around the quality of this beauty product category so the end consumers can embrace the fragrance safely and happily. In this article we will share some of the common aspects you should take into consideration while monitoring your perfume products’ quality comprehensively.
Quality aspect: Raw materials
Perfumes are made of natural and synthetic ingredients that include essential oils, aromatic compounds, solvents, fixatives, and additives. After arrival of these raw materials at the manufacturing sites, proper storage will have crucial impact on the final product quality.
As these materials are vulnerable to temperature and moisture variations, the storage places should be protected from excessive heat or cold, direct exposure to sunlight and moisture, as well as possible contamination from microorganisms. It is important also to label all materials clearly to avoid incorrect usage or cross-contamination.
When raw materials are received, with a proper quality assurance procedure in place, they should be sampled and tested to ensure they fuiflll your quality expectations. Depending on the sources or nature of raw materials, there are different points of attentions, for example, filth or microorganism would be a bigger concern for cold-pressed materials.
Quality aspect: Labelling requirements
In most markets, labelling is a legal requirement so consumers will be well informed of the products’ merchant, quality and safety details when they make purchases. For EU markets, mandatory information such as a business name and address, use by date, correct use and batch number must be printed on the primary packaging (the outside container) and secondary packaging (outerwrap of the product). There are similar regulatory requirements in USA and other countries.
To ensure being right from first place, labelling on packaging should be verified before printing begins. At the production stage, labels are examined again before labelling operation takes place as added assurance. Naturally, during on-site quality check, inspectors will run random check of finished products on packaging and labelling against the approved files.
Quality aspect: Perfume bottles
Coming in different shapes and sizes, perfume bottles are designed for preserving the fragrance's integrity, uplifting consumers’ satisfaction, and enhancing the brands’ identity.
Similar to raw materials, storage of perfume bottles should be monitored well so bottles remain in good condition. This covers again temperature, sunlight exposure and humidity. In addition, equipment such as pallets or racks is essential so not to stack bottles directly, which causes breakage and damage easily. Accurate tracking and storage of glass inventory is crucial to bottles’ integrity as well.
In quality control stage, checking filled fragrance bottles is almost a must-have step. Bottles should be clean and free from scratch marks or stains. Bottle caps are firmly secured and functional. No leakage happens during spraying.
Quality aspect: Production
When working with fragrance suppliers, making sure they have well established procedures and written instructions covering the entire manufacturing process is critical. These documents, coupled with regular training, should span from equipment maintenance to sanitary activities, materials approval, compliance sampling procedures, production status and control status, returned goods handling, lab test control, recording and documentation, and complaints handling. In some markets, cosmetics are regulated and require Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) compliance so qualification of your suppliers should well fulfill this strict requirement.
Eurofins Healthcare Assurance provides GMP audit for cosmetic and other relevant services. Check out details here!
The above gives just an overview of what contributes to high quality of your perfume products briefly. More detailed workflows and check points can be further built on the quality assurance and quality control around perfume manufacturing. Take a look of our product inspection services and see how we can support you. Alternatively, contact us if you want a more customised quality assurance solution anytime!
