Synthesis!

In those days, fragrance compositions consisted solely of natural ingredients, of resins, leaves, peels and blossoms that were treated in a variety of ways to capture their fragrant principles. One well-known technique was to place plant parts in alcohol
to produce so-called tinctures or infusions. If blossoms were placed in animal fat to produce perfumed pomades, the process was called “enfleurage.”

In the mid nineteenth century, modern perfumery evolved with the advent of modern chemistry. Innovative techniques of extraction and distillation supplied highly
fragrant plant extracts – it was even possible to isolate specific fragrance molecules from botanical isolates – and – even more exciting – it was possible to replicate
fragrance molecules in the laboratory – to synthesize them. One of the first molecules of kind was vanillin – in 1874, the principle of vanillin synthesis was patented, and chemists Haarmann and Reimer founded the company of the same name. Further important
molecules were coumarin (woodruff) and ionone (violet). In one fell swoop, the perfumer’s palette became incomparably richer – and for the first time perfumers were not only able to blend fragrances from nature, but also to replicate them, to interpret them, to translate them...

From Grasse to Cologne

In France, the profession of perfumer & glove-maker emerged, whose center quickly became the city of Grasse in the south of the country – the capital of fragrant plant cultivation and leather-making. Brought to the French court by Catherine de Medici in the 16th century, perfume remained a royal fashion and was used all the more extravagantly. It was believed that water had the power to extract the life force from the body, and hygiene was exchanged for fragrance – the very first deodorant.

The situation was different in England under Oliver Cromwell – “Perfume is the work of the devil”, it was said, and was banned and even prohibited for an entire century.

The seventeenth century brought with it “Eau de Cologne” – “Cologne Water” – whose “recipe” had been brought to Germany by a young Italian named Farina. This refreshing blend of citrus oils, rosemary and alcohol went on to spread
throughout Europe – however not just as a fragrance, but also as a cure-all for both external and internal use. It would be left to Napoleon to finally clear up the situation – under his reign, a legal distinction was made between the professions of a “Perfumer” and a “Pharmacist.”

The anointed

The Egyptians already knew about perfume. Through their pictures and writings, the annals of ancient cultures suggest that fragrant substances from nature enjoyed a firm place in the daily lives of the Etruscans, Sumerians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and Chinese. Fragrance as a sacrificial offering to the gods – Frankincense, myrrh and
blossoms like jasmine were initially the exclusive domain of the high priests. It was thought that it was possible to communicate with the gods through the rising smoke produced by burning fragrant substances. Incense is still ceremoniously burned today in the Catholic Church, and this ritual presumably has the same roots. Per fumum – the Latin idiom meaning through smoke – is therefore the origin of the modern word Perfume. In the Old Testament, Exodus 30 contains a reference to a perfume recipe, in this case an anointing oil.

Yet it was the desire for beauty and care that brought fragrant resins and blossoms into daily life. A Roman fresco, for example, depicts a young maiden filling perfume into a little bottle. On an Egyptian wall panel from a grave in Thebes, it is possible to distinguish a lady smelling a perfume. On her head, she wears a typical perfume cone, which is slowly melted by the body’s heat. An Indian poem by Kalidasa contains
the following description:

In the summer, the beautiful ladies perfume their busts with the oil of sandalwood,
their hair with jasmin water,
their bodies with rose water,
to prepare themselves for love.

In Europe, the culture of fragrances first began to spread during the twelfth century. Amulets in the shape of a small apple, with gaps that could be individually opened and
filled, were in common use. Since the customary fragrant waxes were called “ambre”, these often highly artistic items of jewelry were called fragrance apples – pommes
d’ambre – pomander. Also popular were potpourris that were made from blossoms, fruits
and spices to mask bad odors in the home. Even utilitarian items were perfumed – like the leather gloves that fine ladies could hold under their sensitive noses when they had to cross the litter-strewn roads.

The air that we breathe

Of the five senses, the sense of smell is undoubtedly the one of which we are least aware – why? Fragrances are a difficult subject to talk about – so descriptive terms have to be borrowed from other sectors, such as “green” from the world of color or “fruity” from the field of taste. And yet fragrances have the magical ability
to enchant.

A rudimentary kind of olfactory system played a crucial role in the development of life: Water served as the medium that transported information to the first living
organisms, which they assimilated with the aid of a mechanism that can be termed a “sense of smell” in the broadest sense of the world. The life forms that later developed on land were forced to adapt: It was now the air they breathed, and not water, that supplied them with vital information.

So it was necessary to find a filtration system, i.e. an actual olfactory organ. It was with this first nose that the prehistoric quadrupeds were able to sniff vital information about enemies and mates, sources of nutrition and territorial borders. When the first human-like beings set out to conquer the world on two legs, though, they lost their “olfactory contact” with the ground – their eyes and ears provided them with faster and more effective information about friends, foes and prey. Yet right
down to this very day, our noses tell us much more than we realize:
– if we equate enemy with a warning odor, mating with eroticism and prey with nutrition…