The dawn of mankind marks the constant quest that we humans have made. The hustle has always been to make our lifestyle better and this progressive era is a verdict of it. Man had been keen to enhance the odor of his body.
The ancient Greeks, Roman and Egyptian have had their own sets of methods to synthesis fragrance. It has been a part of their rituals and culture for the longest time. They used the elements that nature bestowed upon us. But that isn’t only the case with perfumes. In ancient times people used to synthesize the skin products and clothing out of natural elements as well.
Perfumers and their idea of perfumery:
Perfume a derivative of Latin words which means “through smoke” as in the ancient times people used plants to extract oils and then burned it to induce scent in the air. Although these days there are various progressive methods to synthesis perfumes but the true perfumers consider that the authentic way to manufacture perfume is the distillation of oil incorporated with some amount of alcohol. Water is also used sometimes.
Art of perfumery:
Perfumery is considered to be such a profound piece of art that the craft of making perfume does not ends with the fragrance itself. But how to create the bottle for it matters it bottles speaks for the fragrance it contains. To be precise it is the exact embodiment of what the scent itself represents. This art of designing a perfume bottle goes back to 1000 B.C. When for the first time Egyptians invented the glass bottles for the perfumes. Later it travelled to Europe and made its way to Vatican where this art gained flame and spread all the way to France.
The Materials that the used by the perfumers:
Spices, grasses fruit, wood, flowers, resins, balsams, roots, leaves, gums, and material obtained from animals as in the secretions such as resources like coal, tars petrochemicals, and alcohol are the ones that are highly preferred by the perfumers. They are used to manufacture millions of types of scents. But, there are many natural fragrances that cannot be found in nature. They are synthesized artificially and they smell almost the same.
Animal based materials that perfumer’s value:
Also there are certain ingredients that are not plant based and are obtained from animals to obtain a certain type of smell. For example Musk is obtained from male deer, ambergris from the sperm whale, whereas castor comes from beaver. These are specially obtained from animals in order to create fixatives or strong bases. They help the scent to linger longer. The perfumes that use animal based fixatives are relatively expensive whereas alcohol is used to dilute perfume.
How these materials are collected?
All the plant based materials are collected from the field and then they are bought to factory at the advent of harvest they are handpicked. As for the animal based material they are obtained from their fatty substance them. Later the aromatic substances used in the perfumes are artificially synthesized in the laboratory by the chemists who have mastered the science of perfumery.
Materials from old and new perfumery:
By the end of 19th century as the advent of modern perfumery started the pallets of the perfumers became innovative and modern the old classic methods and materials used were now up notched to the new ones. Due to the latest technology, chemists are able to separate the aromatics from natural materials and convert it into raw compounds to get the perfect blend of scents.
There is a reason that the price of the perfumes is high. Mainly because of the material it uses are and specially harvested to manufacture perfumes. That among the materials used in the perfume some are seasonal. Due to which when these perfumes hit the market their price gets higher. Best perfumes in Pakistan are currently selling their fragrances at a higher rate and that’s because of the top-notch quality products complied by animals and plants.
21st century and perfumes:
Perfumers from the current era have now been making perfumes from artificially synthesized materials. But when we take a look at the years and decades prior to this one we see that the perfumers preferred and valued natural oils. The reason might be that due to the lack of technology and resources they had no option by to go for naturals oils. So, these days less concentrated perfumes are spreading globally. This is good news since the process of perfumes are decreasing.