It is not difficult to imagine primitive man lying in the field enjoying the aroma of flowers or celebrating different rituals with fragrant smoke as the main protagonist. Perfume has existed since the origins of humanity and, through its history, it is possible to learn about the way of life of different civilizations.
The meaning of the word perfume comes from per-fumun (through smoke, from its translation from Latin). Its origin dates back thousands of years and, as María Vélez and Raquel Navarro, professionals in the perfume sector and founding members of Catadeperfumes, say, its name does it true justice. Perfume was discovered by burning original raw materials, such as wood or resin. When these substances burned, they gave off a fragrant smell, something that fascinated everyone present and, from then on, was incorporated into people’s lives in different ways.
The beginning of this scented smoke is closely linked to religious offerings and rituals, since ancient civilizations believed in its power to purify the environment and achieve an easier path to meet the gods.
The origin of the perfume is located in the East, without knowing its exact location. The first graphic information that exists is found in Egyptian tombs. This civilization used fragrances -made with natural raw materials- in their rites to aromatize the tomb. In Mesopotamia, people impregnated their bodies with aromatic oils and women filled their jewelry with fragrant plants to get that fragrant smell to be transported.
The next clue that is known, within its long journey, is located in Greece, where the fragrance acquires a sacred value. The perfume leaves through Alexandria and arrives in the Hellenic country. At that time, in Greece the culture of the cult of the body and the healthy mens in corpore healthy was implanted, therefore, this product became an essential part of this religion.
What is known today as Aromatherapy was already practiced in this country thanks to Hippocrates, the father of medicine. Aromatic plants and essential oils were used by all the people who trained their bodies and wanted to tone them up, since they trusted their medicinal value beyond their fragrant characteristics. For the Greeks, perfume could only come from the gods, because in addition to sublimating beauty, it had healing properties. This location is also associated with the creation of the first frasquería; ceramic containers considered authentic jewels.
The cradle of perfume
Just the opposite happens in the next stage. With the arrival of the Romans, the perfume is paganized. So great was the obsession that the Roman population had with this product, that they began to incorporate it into all their daily routines, such as bathing and grooming culture. At this time, Rome becomes the true cradle of perfume. As distillation still did not exist, the Romans made the Pomander, a jewel with different compartments in which resins and aromatic plants were placed. People wore it as a necklace or belt to carry the fragrant smell along with their body, the only possible way to get a good smell.
However, in the Middle Ages, the perfume suffers the period of greatest decline in its history. The alchemists begin to use the distillery techniques with the new chemists of the time, and begin to make perfumes with sumptuous, exotic raw materials, which were totally objects of pleasure, or so they were considered. The Church, with its unstoppable power in times of the Inquisition, totally prohibited the use of perfume and began to condemn the alchemists as witches, punished for making a potion that clouded the senses and incited carnal pleasures, so that the perfume remains relegated only to the brothels and the intimate encounters of the ladies of the nobility.
The story continues. The death of the Inquisition and the arrival of the Renaissance marked the rebirth – as its name suggests – of perfume. The city of Versailles, in France, is intoxicated with aromas, shines and imposes its fashions and customs. The perfume becomes part of a whole, since dirt reigned at that time and was used to mask bad odours. In addition, it begins to be incorporated for the elaboration of garments and objects. Leather gloves played an important role at this point, since they were perfumed to try to mask the smell of tanned kid skin. The French city of Grasse, thanks to its raw material, was the place where the leather of the gloves was worked and, thus, it became -to date- the perfume center par excellence.
At this time, the Sun King stars in one of the most famous legends. The monarch became so obsessed with fragrance that he over-perfumed himself. The intensity of the odors was of such magnitude that, at the end of his life, he could only bear the smell of the orange blossom.
Eau de cologne
On July 13, 1709, Johann Maria Farina (1685-1766), a native of northern Italy but living in Cologne, founded a perfume factory in the German city and discovered a new essence which he called Eau de Cologne -Water of Cologne, from its translation from the French. It didn’t take long for this new discovery to gain popularity among 18th-century celebrities and gain the status of luxury item. A peculiar mixture that provided a fresh and light smell, which had nothing to do with the loaded essences that were known to date.
great revolution
The 19th century marks a before and after in this sector, as well as in the birth of modern perfumery. The possibility of obtaining aromatic products by laboratory synthesis is discovered. The reproduction in the test tube of the smells offered by nature and other new ones. Thus, benzyl acetate was born, widely used in current perfumery. It is a compound of several flower essences: jasmine, ylang-ylang and gardenia, which was previously totally unknown. Hand in hand with this new recipe, the luxury trade is installed and perfumery is gradually defined as a true art.
The rise of the bourgeois class and the notable rise in the standard of living gave rise to the first important French industrial perfumery firms such as Piver or Houbigant, which opened in 1774.
In 1828, the first signature cologne was created under the name Eau de Cologne de l’Impératrice, by Pierre-François Pascal Guerlain. A product that revolutionized French society in the 19th century, considered the most developed in terms of the sense of smell.
The ‘Belle Epoque’ and Coco Chanel
In the Belle Epoque, perfume becomes a luxury product, with a special name and packaging. A model of a new, emancipated and modern woman, in the style of the crazy years, finds in perfumes with aldehyde -chemical synthesis- an unprecedented freshness. In this period of extravagance, Charleston and movie stars, women begin the long road to independence and break out of their corsets. The period of style and that of a new smell begins.
The emblematic Chanel number 5 begins its journey here. It was the first fragrance with a synthesis note as the main protagonist of the perfume. Her creator, Ernest Beaux, was commissioned by Coco Chanel in 1921 to create a fragrance that would define the new style of women, that would reflect the look of her creations and that would smell like a woman and not like a flower. The name of the perfume also has its reason, because, until the fifth test, the creator and the designer were not satisfied with the result.
advertising with image
In 1957, they launched the first perfume associated with a media image, known as L’Interdit by Givenchy and Audrey Hepburn. Hubert de Givenchy created a perfume for the exclusive use of his muse and friend, Audrey Hepburn. Years later, this fragrance was licensed for commercial use and Herpburn became the brand’s ambassador in the US.
The second half of the 20th century is marked by the indissoluble union of perfumes and fashion that lasts to this day, while the great exclusive perfume brands are consolidated and new market niches are born.
The new perfumery
In recent years, perfume has become an object of exclusive desire and the tendency to personify fragrances is growing, with the superimposition of simple perfumes emerging as a way of obtaining an exclusive aroma and perfumers are found on the street. With this evolution through time, we can know the function that the perfume faced in the different times and, with it, know the transformation of the societies that have inhabited the planet. From Mesopotamia to the present day, like the world, this product has been subject to religions, beliefs and periods of decline and splendor. Today, thanks to projects such as Catadeperfumes, it is possible to choose a tailor-made fragrance capable of representing us, since its purpose is still to serve as a letter of introduction to the world. After all, on the continent, it has nothing to do with the fragrant smoke of Egyptian religious rituals, but, in content, we have not changed that much.
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