The History of Perfume

Why do people use perfumes?

Well, there are a lot of reasons.

Some of us use it because they want to create an impression, others want to surround themselves with a cloud of a pleasant scent, or simply because they like the smell of a fragrance.

Today, everyone can choose a perfume among numerous options and find the one they will really like.

On the contrary, in the ancient times perfumes were rare and expensive, so only upper class people could buy them.

The English word "perfume" comes from the Latin "pre fume" meaning "through smoke."

First fragrances were discovered in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Roman and the Persian Empires.

It's known that the first perfume was made by Mesopotamians 4,000 years ago, presumably by the woman chemist Tapputi.

According to a Mesopotamian tablet from circa 1200 BC, she would create and distil her own scents.

The oldest perfumes were discovered in Cyprus; it's considered that the most valuable of scents were more than 4,000 years old.

Besides that, it's known that perfume was used in the Greek and Indus civilizations.

The Greeks believed perfume could deter bad spirits, whereas in ancient Indus texts fragrances were mentioned as items for "glorious people."

Which is to say, perfume was a luxury feature even in the past.

Still, Egyptians were the first who made the use of perfumes popular and would use it in day-to-day life as well as on special occasions.

The Egyptians created perfumes by mixing myrtle, laurel and cinnamon extracts with olive oil and herbs.

In Egypt, fragrances were mostly used for religious rituals, embalming, and lotions, and the most popular scents were floral, woodsy and fruity.

It's known that even Queen Cleopatra used perfumes to scent her body and for baths.

Since Egyptians were inventors of glass, they were also the first who created bottles for perfumes.

How did our ancestors use perfumes?

Fragrances were rare and expensive, because of the difficulty of their production.

Сonsequently, only the wealthy could afford to have scents.

They mostly used oils for skin and for baths, and in general applied perfumes rather for hygiene than for pleasant odour.

Nevertheless, some famous historical persons gave credit to perfume as an exquisite item.

For instance, Napoleon and his wife were well-known as keen perfume lovers.

Inasmuch as they weren't satisfied with common smells and preferred exotic fragrances, they always tried to find specific, rare perfumes and ordered them abroad.

In the 13th century, perfume began to increase in popularity in Europe.

At first, it was used only by glove masters who would use them to get rid of the unpleasant smell of animals' skin.

However, soon thereafter perfumes became affordable for many people thanks to Arabs who invented distillation.

This invention completely changed the perfume manufacture and since then, perfumes became more popular among ordinary people.

In the 16th century, perfume increased in popularity in France, and also firstly among the upper class.

Nevertheless, over time the popularity of perfume increased so much that French perfumers decided to expand agricultural production of aromatic materials, which also made perfumes affordable for average people.

In the 19th century, Muslims completely changed perfume production since they managed to produce synthetic components that were similar to the natural.

In other words, they learnt to imitate rare, essential oils and extracts such as vanilline, aldehydes and others.

Many of the flowers and herbs were also cultivated by muslims communities, and they were the first who began to add rose, jasmine, and bitter orange to their extracts.

As a result, perfumes started to be produced in large quantities and the worldwide trade of perfume was enhanced.

Even though in the past perfumes were derived from single fragrances, modern perfumers learnt to create items that consist of various ingredients, so today perfumes usually have complex scents with many notes and tones.

The global perfume market is valued now at a staggering $40 billion, and the production of perfumes is constantly developing.

At the present time, perfumers even create fragrances with the help of artificial intelligence.

In order to design a new perfume, the computer system uses its fragrance library and then combines ingredients much in the same way as we do the cooking.

Some of us use it because we want to create an impression, others want to surround themselves with a cloud of pleasant scent, and some simply because they like the smell of a fragrance.

Today, anyone can choose a perfume among numerous options and find the one they will really like.

On the contrary, in ancient times perfumes were rare and expensive, so only upper class people could buy them.

The first fragrances were discovered in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Roman and the Persian Empires.

Which is to say perfume was a luxury feature, even in the past.

In Egypt, fragrances were mostly used for religious rituals, embalming, and lotions, and the most popular scents were floral, woodsy, and fruity.

They mostly used oils for skin and for baths, and in general applied perfumes rather for hygiene than for pleasant odor.

For instance, Napoleon and his wife were known to be keen perfume lovers.

They weren't satisfied with common smells and preferred exotic fragrances, so they always tried to find specific, rare perfumes and ordered them abroad.

However, soon after perfumes became affordable for many people thanks to the Arabs, who invented distillation.

This invention completely changed perfume manufacturing and since then perfumes have become more popular among ordinary people.

In the 19th century, Muslims completely changed perfume production after they managed to produce synthetic components that were similar to the natura componentsl.

In order to design a new perfume, a computer system uses its fragrance library and then combines ingredients much in the same way as we do when cooking.