Quote:
% this is not on the bottle, this is on the bottle o ( on the upper right hand corner next to the five) So, I would say this is proof. Sorry about the symbols.
In Greece it's not called Everclear , they call it "pure clean alcohol"
OK, I was looking at some European Union documents regarding alcohol tariffs and they were also using the degree symbol (the raised small "o") to denote alcohol content of wine, distilled liquor etc. The way they were using the degree symbol made it seem that this meant alcohol percentage. Then I found this table of measurement definitions - definition [6] for degree is alcohol in percent:
http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/dictD.html
"degree (° or deg) [6]
the percentage of alcohol, by volume, present in a mixture. In winemaking, for example, a 13° wine is 13% alcohol by volume (13% v/v). This unit is also called the degree Gay-Lussac (° GL) after the French chemist Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac (1778-1850)."
So it would seem that the "pure clean alcohol" that you bought from the pharmacy counter in Greece is 95% ethyl alcohol and should be perfect for fragrance formulations. You should be able to make a 20% solution of most essential oils in this alcohol without any clouding.
From the same table of definitions, here is what they say about proof:
"proof (prf)
a traditional unit of proportion used for measuring the strength of distilled liquors ... In the United States, ... the U. S. proof rating is equal to exactly twice the percentage of alcohol present, measured by volume. Thus "86 proof" means 43% alcohol. In Britain proof ratings are no longer used, ... "