History of perfume: From the sky to the designer fragrance
Old masters in perfumery, in make-up, embalming and ointments were the Egyptians.
In the beginning was the fire - because the story of the perfume starts with the clouds of smoke and smoke rising upwards to heaven. Through the smoke (Latin: per = through, fumum = smoke) tried many people in protohistoric time to create a connection between heaven and earth, to communicate with their gods and to vote with the fragrance of burning herbs mercy. Sumerians, Babylonians or Egyptians - from India to Arabia, from Greece to the Roman Empire - everywhere noble aromas were originally dedicated to the gods. There were precious oils and ointments from the juices of squeezed flowers and leaves, fruits and herbs to anoint the priests, as well as aromatic woods and resins for the smoke victims - especially frankincense and myrrh, more precious than gold, which were burned in special incense burners.
Plague doctor with beak mask, which should protect against infection.
In Europe, incense was used for holy purposes, the Catholic Church is still doing it today. At that time, however, there were worlds between the heavenly fragrances of India, the Orient and the breathtaking stench in the narrow streets of our medieval cities. "The streets smelled of dung, the courtyards of urine, the staircases of rotten wood and rats' dung." Sulfur stank from the chimneys, people stank of sweat, of unwashed clothes, of rotting teeth after rotting Places, huts and palaces, "says Patrick Süskind in his novel" Das Parfum ".
It stank everything. For example, there was no sewage system, and hygiene was a foreign word. They did not know anything about the destructive and destructive power of bacteria and viruses - only knew about diseases that apparently caused water, which was why it was considered dangerous. That's why the washing was considered really harmful. And because the sick stank so badly of decay and putrefaction, bad smells were responsible for the transmission of deadly epidemics and epidemics. Protection against plague, smallpox or cholera, however, should bring cleansing fumigations and good-smelling substances: fragrant herbs carried therefore the plague doctors in their beak masks, stinking balls of Styrax, tragacanth, gum arabic, rose and lavender were worn to prevent the body.
Powder for the wig
Powder for the wig, perfume for the fur ...
It did not smell much more pleasant at court - washing and bathing were as frowned upon even in the royal palaces as in the houses and huts of the subjects. However, the people tried to cover the thick air of their intense body exhalations by heavy, animal musk and civet fragrances: There was powdered and perfumed, what the stuff held. It was lavishly poured on wigs, dripped onto clothing and painted into the face, scented handkerchiefs and gloves, fans and paper, pillows and wallpaper, creams and waters, ointments, pomades, lotions and tinctures, intoxicated with sultry Swaths of amber, civet or musk, patchouli, sandalwood and jasmine. Unimaginable was the consumption - allegedly equal to tons of sun king Louis XIV. Expensive powder and perfume was ordered. The court in Versaille was considered the best customer of the just emerging perfume industry, which - starting from the rich maritime and trading city of Venice - had settled throughout Europe, but especially in France.
A city in bloom
The petals are processed in tubers in Grasse.
The southern French Grasse, for example, developed from an old Gerber town to the capital of perfumery. Here the most different procedures were discovered, developed or refined, with which it finally succeeded to win the fragrances in its purest form: By distillation, maceration, Enfleurage or extraction one could now the herbs, flowers, blooms, shells, barks and leaves her snatch fragrant mystery in the form of essential oils, convert them into precious essences and fill in vials: the perfume as we know it today - as a volatile mixture of essential oils and alcohol, was born.
Later, with the development of hygiene, the taste changes, the finer, fresher scents are preferred, with which the first major Parisian brands become rich - among others, the still-well-known Guerlain company. Rose, clove and lemon are suddenly à la mode, and Grasse is becoming the most important fragrance trading center in Europe.The city exudes the beguiling scent of distant lands - here are tuberose and sandalwood from India, ylang ylang from Malaysia, vanilla pods from Madagascar, here bloom in May, the roses, the petals are harvested at dawn for the precious rose oil. In July, the billowing purple lavender fields around her lavish aroma, then the flowering jasmine is plucked. The whole world of fragrance is concentrated in Grasse. A city in bloom.
And in Cologne comes a miracle water on the market, which conquers the whole world in no time ...
The triumph of Eau de Cologne
"4711 Echt Kölnisch" is the name of the "aqua mirabilis", the Wunderwaser that just celebrated its 211st birthday - as one of the oldest brands in the fragrance sector. The success story began on October 8, 1792, when the businessman Wilhelm Mülhens received the recipe for such a miracle water in Cologne as a wedding present. And because the merchant immediately thundered a good deal, a small manufactory was soon built for the production of the "Cologne Water". The success was triumphant - in Europe, the house Mülhens court supplier of many royal and princely courts, and the Tsar of Russia and the Prince of Wales were soon a noble clientele. Fragrance fanatics Richard Wagner ordered in 1879 equal to three liters - as a minimum stock for a quarter of a year - as much as before Johann Wolfgang von Goethe has ordered. Today 4711 is exported to over 60 countries. The top-secret recipe has been unchanged since 1792, with only the main ingredients being known: essential oils of special citrus fruits such as orange, lemon, lavender, bergamot and neroli, and in small proportions rosemary and lavender are also included.
From luxury to mass-produced
From now on, the art of the perfumers is to use their supply of natural materials, their imagination and imagination to create new fragrances on their olfactory organs, to remix the essences and to compose more and more refined variations. When chemistry comes into play towards the end of the 19th century, the market for fragrances is being revolutionized once again - coumarin, vanillin, aldehydes are the synthetic substances from the test tube that replace expensive natural products or enable hitherto unimaginable fragrances. The fashion designers are already starting to produce perfumes, with success: Ernest Beaux, for example, succeeded in 1920 in creating the fragrance that makes history: For the fashion designer Coco Chanel he created Chanel No.5 - it is the first synthetic perfume on the market. And it still belongs to the famous classics today.
Perfume was and is a luxury item, but in the fifties, the seductive scents are gradually becoming affordable for all women - Dior, Chanel, Pierre Cardin or Paco Rabanne bring new creations on the market. The industry is booming and with it the creation of synthetic fragrances. Today, a perfumer can choose from over 2,000 synthetic fabrics in addition to around 200 natural fabrics to compose a fragrance. In fact, new variations are still being mixed - every year more than 400 new fragrances - women's and men's fragrances - are launched on the market, of which around 100 are new in Germany alone. With this flood of smells, the fragrance no longer decides the success or failure of a new creation, but mainly the marketing. Packaging, bottle and image must be perfect for the cash register to ring.
