
Ali Michael for Lanvin Jean Lanvin Parfum
Fragrance and perfumes have existed for eons, with countless varieties of women and men who have worn them. Why then do fragrance ads tend to tell the same story?
The oldest known perfumery was discovered on the island of Cyprus in 2004-5 when an Italian archaeological team unearthed evidence that a large perfume manufacturing facility existed 4,000 years ago during the Bronze Age.
The Bible describes a sacred perfume (Exodus 30: 22-33) consisting of liquid myrrh, fragrant cinnamon, fragrant cane, and cassia. Its use was forbidden, except by the priests. Early perfumes weren't made to attract members of the opposite sex, but to please the gods. The Egyptians took perfumes with them into their tombs.
Archaeologists report that when they opened Tutankhamen's tomb 3000 years later, there was a strong fragrance in the burial chamber.
Early Christianity frowned on the use of perfume, believing it to be too indulgent. Islam embraced the traditions of fragrance and scent.
The Arabs played an important part in the progression of the perfume industry. An Arabian doctor/chemist named Avicenna, developed a distillation process that extracted oils from flowers. The first flower he tried his process on was the rose. Up until then, liquid perfumes had been made from mixtures of oil and crushed herbs or petals, which made quite strong perfume. Avicenna’s process produced much lighter rose water, and it quickly became very popular. via TheHistoryOf.net
Rose petals for Chanel No. 5French Revolutionaries of Fragrance
The French revolutionized the fragrance industry, making Grasse in southern France the center of the perfume-making universe. May Roses became the 'crop' in the region. So precious were the petals that 300,000 May Roses were used to produce one kilogram of rose absolute. At $9,000 per kilogram it made a few hundred bottles of perfume.
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