Modern History of Natural Perfume |  |
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July 2005
Where Perfume Came FromIn 1703 Johann Farina first mixed plant essential oils with alcohol creating a pleasant smelling astringent. He named his creation a Cologne, after his hometown in France, and claimed it was useful for relieving minor aches and pains. During the 7 year war, Farina's cologne was supplied to the French soldiers for use as a topical medicine. It became known as: eau de Cologne. After the war, French soldiers brought the sweet smelling cologne home with them and it became very popular. I digress. Regular bathing is a recent development. It has only been practiced since with the advent of indoor plumbing (roughly 100 years). After the Romans were defeated, bathing went out of style. People believed regular bathing was a sign of a declining civilization and they pointed to the Romans as proof of their thesis. After all, Romans bathed regularly and their empire fell, ergo bathing was bad. Most people felt the idea of a daily shower was unhealthy and immoral. For some, bathing was against their religion. Members of a few religious orders bristled at the thought of water ever touching their body. As you can imagine humans had become stinky smelly creatures (and short-lived to boot!). That was the way life was in eighteenth century European cities. Gross smelling piles of trash and raw sewage line the streets. So you can imagine how, in this stinky environment, demand for Farina's sweet smelling cologne quickly developed. To meet the demand Farina moved his operation to Paris. Others followed and the French Perfume industry was started. To this day many perfumes and colognes are made using Farina's original formula consisting of a fragrant oil in an alcohol base.
The Difference Between Perfume, Cologne, Eau De Toilette and a SplashPerfumes are the most concentrated. Eau de toilette are half as strong and colognes are half as strong as them. Splashes have the least intense fragrance of all.
The Difference Between Essential Oils and Perfume Fragrance (Synthetic) OilsThere are two kinds of oils used in modern perfumery: essential oils and fragrance or synthetic oils which are also sometimes called perfume oils. Essential oils are derived from actual flowers, leaves, woods, fruits, herbs and spices. For example, rose essential oil is extracted from actual rose petals. Natural Perfumery (such as can be found here at Black Pearl Botanicals) uses only 100% pure essential oil. Fragrance oils are made in a laboratory. They are often extremely toxic chemical compounds designed to mimic the odor of the real thing. Initially fragrance oils were made to mimic the smell of plants where the essential oil could not be extracted such as Strawberries. In the 1920's Chemists chemically simulated the fragrance of strawberries in the laboratory. In time, perfumeries discovered that they could make huge profits by substituting chemically simulated fragrance oils for the real thing. Being produced in a laboratory, fragrance oils are dirt cheap to produce and infinitely replicable. Whereas essential oils are produced only on mother nature's schedule, are sometimes very expensive and can and do vary as a result of soil and weather conditions where the plant is grown. Fragrance oils are not conducive to health. They (may) cause headaches and other unpleasant maladies. If you're experiencing such problems, change your perfume (to a natural one) and see if the condition improves. At Black Pearl Botanicals, we use only 100% skin safe essential oil in our natural perfumes. Please take some time to explore our online store.
Copyright 2005 |
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