| History of Perfume |
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Perfume is a Latin word that means through smoke. Perfume is over a thousand years old. Some old practices of perfume were the burning of incense and pleasant aromas which were primarily used for religious services.
It is noted that Egyptians were the first to introduce perfume into their culture, which dates back to around 1000 BC. They used perfumes for religious ceremonies as well as using perfume for love making purposes. The trend of using perfume was then followed by the Greek, Persian, Romans and other cultures. Persians would use perfume as a sign of rank, and would be used amongst royalty as well as other civilians in society, who would use the perfume after they bathed. The Greeks revolutionized the process of perfume by separating the scents of each plant and documenting them throughout history. The Romans adopted the use of perfumes to use in religious ceremonies as well. They also used perfumes after shaving.
Arabian, Indian and Chinese cultures also adopted the use of perfume into their society. People that would visit Arabian homes would sprinkle rose water in the home as a sign of esteem. Coffee would also be flavored with roses. In the Indian culture, before a bride marries her hand is rubbed with perfume, after the ceremony she and her new husband will sit under an elegant canopy and inhale the magnicifient aromas in the air.
In 1190 the first perfume sellers were patented by Henry VI in Paris. It is noted that a man by the name of Francois Coty, was the first great perfumer. He was actually influenced by watching his friend compound toilet waters. Coty moved to Paris to pursue his entrepreneurial idea, and began the process of making perfume. His success happened overnight kind of by accident. He had his famous rose scent bottles that accidentally broke. They gave off a beautiful rose scent that everyone fell in love with, it did not take long for his rose scented perfume to be a success, and with the success of his first perfume others followed such as Chypre and L’amiant. This great perfumer has been a leader in the perfume industry and his original perfume factory is still running and operating until this day.
The history of perfume has had a major influence on modern day society. The manufacturing and retailing of perfume has become a multi-billion dollar a year industry. In today’s society perfume is not really used for religious ceremonies anymore. However it is used for adding an extra touch to one’s personal scent or used as an agent that assist with smelling good. There are hundreds of perfume manufacturers that design perfumes and colognes for men and women that have a lot of different scents to choose from. Perfume scents can range from very sweet to very strong. It depends on an individuals taste what type of scent they prefer. Some people like woody smells, while others like leathery smells.
There are a lot of different components of a perfume, therefore perfumes are categorized b their types of scents. Some perfumes have soft and flowery scents while others have strong and musky cents. Some different types of scents such as the soliflore has a natural scent, subtle but sweet made with natural flowers. Leather scents are made up of wood tar, tobacco and honey. Another scent known as Fougere, which is a French word that means fern is made out of a lavender base but has a type of woody scent, this type of scent is usually used to make colognes.
Perfume is very easy to create; many people choose to buy their perfume from retailers. It can be quite appealing with all the pretty bottles that the perfume comes in, giving it that extra selling power. However for the creative types they can make their own perfume at home with the right ingredients such as vodka or alcohol and essential oils and some water, they can be concocting their own signature brand in not time. |
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