In order to retain these fragrances for a long time, people first invented the ointment. In France at the end of the 19th century, nearly 2,000 people were engaged in the perfume industry, and about 1/3 of the perfume were sold.

Perfume Industry: Promise to Beauty and Charm

The English word "Perfume" originates from Latin , meaning "through smoke".

The ancient tribes ignited fragrant plant seeds, stems, leaves, resins, etc., emitting pleasant and psychedelic smoke, which people thought would satisfy the gods.

Image source: Network

Image source: Network

In order to retain these fragrances for a long time, people first invented the ointment. In ancient Mesopotamia and Egyptians grind volatile spices into powder and mixed them with sesame oil, olive oil and other oils to make ointment or liquid sesame oil for bathing and maintenance.

000 Unearthed from Middle East . The cuneiform template of many years ago records a woman named Tapu (Tapputi) who distilled flowers, oil, Acorus , Sedge , myrrh, Impatiens and other raw materials, and then filtered the fragrance or ointment to synthesize liquid. It can be said that she is the first person in human history to make perfume by chemical means.

000 More than a year ago Ancient Egyptian Temple priests soaked spice plants in oil and filtered them with cloth, or kneaded fragrant petals into animal oil to absorb and preserve the fragrance. This anointing "Phi" (Kyphi) can only be used by priest and pharaoh.

500 BC, the use of ointment in Egypt has become increasingly common. Pharaohs and nobles generally used ointment in bathing and after bathing, and they also had to wrap the body with spices after death. 992 In , archaeologists opened the pyramid tomb of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen (Tutankhamen), and found that there was an oil pot containing essential oil around mummy .

In ancient times, this type of balm and fragrance liquid was the main trading object. For example, Cyprus discovered a wide-mouth bottle that stored spices three years ago. At that time, the Phoenicians who were good at trade transported the fragrant ointment made by Egyptian and Western Asian tribes to ancient Greek city-states for sale, and then the Greeks also learned to use and make ointment. At that time, Greek had a large number of female perfumers who improved Egypt's perfume manufacturing technology to exude fragrance more lastingly. The economy of some city-states mainly relies on the production of ointments to sell to various places.

Citizens of Greek city-state not only use ointments in religious rituals according to traditional etiquette, but also use them infuse the body and clothes in daily life. There is even the pretext of using different ointments in different parts of the body. Athenian politician Solon (Solon) believed that frequent abuse of ointment was contrary to Greek customs. When he was in power, he once legislated the free purchase and sale of ointment.

The ancient Romans, like the Greeks, only used ointment in religious rituals and funerals. Not long after, the powerful began to use ointment in their daily lives. Many people like to apply ointment to clothes, living rooms and even horses, and the wind of perfume and bathing appeared. However, in the late period of Roman Empire, after Christianity became the state religion, a simple life was advocated, and perfume baths were no longer popular among the nobles.

Young woman is wearing makeup with powder and oil painting Georges Seurat 1889-1890 The Courtard Academy of Art

By the 3rd century, the production technology of fragrance liquid underwent revolutionary changes.

Chemists in the Islamic world have carefully studied how to achieve the transformation of substance forms in order to refine drugs. They tried to treat the liquid differently hot and cold to produce products in different states, such as alcohol purification, evaporation of liquids, oxides, liquidization, filtration, crystallization, etc.

A Persian or Arab chemist has improved the distillation technique of extracting volatile essential oils (also known as aromatic oils) from aromatic plants and used to distille rose perfumes.

9 Arab naturalist Kendi (al-Kindi) wrote the "Book of Perfume Chemical Technology and Distillation" written by al-Kindi) lists the formulas of 07 perfumes and essential oil , introducing the structure of distiller required for purification.

Persian businessmen sold various rose water , jasmine water, etc. as luxury goods, which became a profitable business. The Arab Abbas dynasty planted roses in many places, and the capital Baghdad was the center of the essential oil trade in 0— 3 century.

3 century Ottoman Turkish Empire rise, the capital Edirne (Edirne ) and Constantinople have also become the centers of essential oil trade. During the Five Dynasties and , the rose perfume from West Asia was transported to China by the sea trade route, and people called "Rose Dew", "Bashi Rose Water" and "Bashi Water". Distillation technology was also introduced to Guangzhou during the Northern Song Dynasty and spread to Fujian and Zhejiang. Locals used imitation perfumes such as , scented , jasmine, tangerine and osmanthus.

2 html Before the 3rd century, the nobles and civilians in most places in Western Europe did not have the habit of using perfume. Only churches would burn incense and light myrrh at certain religious ceremonies, or sprinkle perfume on clothes and walls with small brushes to create the atmosphere and block the smell.

Exceptions are the powerful and wealthy businessmen in city-states such as Florence , Venice . Because they have dealt with Ottoman Turkish Empire and Arab merchants, they also imitate Oriental people using rose water and other flower dew water. 3 htmlIn the 3rd century, the priests of the New Church of the Lady of the Mary in Florence learned the technique of distilling and extracting perfumes and began to make perfumes by themselves. After that, Europeans shone brightly in this industry.

Source: pexels

Renaissance perfume can be popularized and developed in Western Europe, and there are several realistic and interesting factors.

first, which led to the development of flavor production in southern France for leather deodorization. In the 13th century, wealthy families in Paris and other places were popular in wearing leather gloves, and the leather industry in southern France developed greatly. Since the leather manufacturing process requires the use of nitrogen-containing industrial waste, the whole city is full of odor, and the finished gloves also have this smell.

Later, the leather workshop wiped the essential oils of aromatic plants such as lavender , rosemary, sage on the leather to deodorize, and plants such as lavender began to be planted around. In addition to the traditional distillation method, the Grassians also invented the liposuction method (enflfleurage) for extracting essential oils.

Italians who imported leather gloves from here found that Grasse grew lavender, rose, jasmine and various citrus plants, producing essential oils, so they sent people to import essential oils from here for a long time and resold them to all parts of Italy. To this day, it is still known for its spice cultivation, producing and processing 300,000 kilograms of roses every year. Its main variety is the loess rose (R.centifolia), also known as May rose and painter rose.

Second, after the epidemic of Black Death , epidemic prevention has led to the epidemic of lavender essential oil.

348— 679 In the past year, the "Black Death" was prevalent in Europe (the later analysis was plague ). This plague was mainly spread through flea . In Europe, there are probably /3 people with died. Herbalists try various medicines and also wear thick bird beak-shaped clothing to prevent airborne Black Death pathogens. When the Black Death was raging, people who plant lavender and make perfumes survived - perhaps because vanilla and perfume have a natural deworming effect, so people believe that perfume can help prevent the epidemic, and they carry things like incense boxes and sachets with them, sprinkle cauliflower when wearing gloves or ironing clothes, or put sachets in drawers to make the clothes smell. Some people burn vanilla such as incense wood, rosemary, lavender, hemp, oregano and sage indoors.

Third, in order to block the odor that was everywhere at that time. After the decline of the Roman Empire, the drainage systems of many European cities were also abandoned, and the streets of many cities were dirty, often with dung flowing and smelling. At the same time, people at that time did not like to take a bath, thinking that taking a bath would open up people's pores and easily get sick.It is said that the King of France Louis XVI only takes a bath twice a year, and the Queen of England Elizabeth I also only takes a bath once a week. In order to cover up all kinds of odor, French aristocrats and upper class began to use perfumes, sachets and powders in large quantities. As perfumes popularly used by European countries, especially the powerful and wealthy people in France, the perfume industry in the Italian city-state has developed rapidly.

Modern perfume industry: Industry and anti-industry

Women have a huge impact on the development of modern perfume industry.

4 html In the second half of the 3rd century, Hungary's Queen Elizabeth ordered people to mix essential oils and alcohol to develop the first batch of modern perfume "Hungarian Water". Perfumes in city-states such as Florence and Venice, which flourished due to spice trade and handicrafts, widely used perfumes, and handicraft workshops for making perfumes appeared. Soon after, Italian craftsmen introduced this technology to the southern French region.

5 century, after the discovery of in , Dutch merchants vigorously developed perfume technology and industry. They mixed oriental imported spices (such as flowers, herbs, musk and amber, etc.) to enrich the fragrance of "Hungarian water".

Beauty Makeup Ukiyoe Hashiguchi Five Leaf 1918

After Italy and the Netherlands, the French perfume manufacturing industry emerged, which was related to the fact that 6 rd century Catherine de Medici (Catherine de Meidici ) became the queen of France. She was born in the Florentine Medici family, which is famous for her wealth. When she married Henry II of France, the perfume mixer she brought, Rene the Florentine, opened the first perfume shop in Paris, which inspired the enthusiasm of French nobles for perfume. For a time, the nobles wore leather gloves soaked in perfume and sprayed perfume on their clothes.

After that, France became the leader of European fashion. Louis XIV, Louis XVIV, , and Louis XVI used a lot of perfume in the court to cover up the body odors that appeared in the bathing, and followed the examples from top to bottom. Therefore, the nobles and middle classes in Paris all sprinkled perfume on their own accessories and clothing, and the whole Paris became the "capital of perfume."

Perfume Oil Painting Takeji Fujishima 1915 Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art

France's perfume workshop has been established, and a variety of plants have been developed to expand the raw materials for perfume, enrich the fragrance of perfume, and pay more attention to the design and production of perfume bottles.

7 html Starting from the 3rd century, French nobles often sprayed perfume on fans to carry it with them. It was not until the second half of the 3rd century that people sprayed perfume bottles directly on their bodies or clothes.

8 century is the climax of the traditional perfume industry. 724 years, the fragrance makers of Grass began to use modern distillers to make perfumes. After more than 3 years, it developed into the largest spice cultivation and essential oil extraction base in Europe. Glass' largest perfume and aromatic products workshop, Galimar (Galimard), has long provided Kings Louis XIV with perfume, balm, olive oil and other aromatic products to Kings Louis XIV. Many farmers in southern France began to plant aromatic plants such as lavender used to extract flavors, and at the end of the 3rd century, the famous landscape of the lavender field of Provence was formed.

8 century, the revolutionary perfume product "cologne" appeared. Its origins have different opinions from the Italians.

The former said that at the wedding of William, the son of the banker Murhens in Cologne, in 3 years, a priest gave the new couple a pampered roll with the perfume formula "Extraordinary Water" (l’acqua marabilish). The couple made and sold the perfume, named Cologne; the latter believed that the nun in the Monastery of St. Mary in Florence developed this perfume called "Queen's Water" (Acqua de Regina). After obtaining the perfume formula, he began to make his own "Extraordinary Water" (Eau Admirable), which was later renamed Cologne.

Fresh cologne is made of natural spices and alcohol. At that time, people used it to bathe, rinse, disinfect, or drink it with red wine and sugar. After that, perfume workshops in various places imitated it, becoming the most popular perfume category in the 3rd century of 9.

Source: pexels

9 html Since the third century, people no longer have to use perfume to cover their body odor. The "practical function" of perfume has declined. However, under the publicity of perfume merchants and the media, spraying perfume has become a fashion act. Every bottle of perfume displayed in the mall means that the long perfume industry chain is continuously operating. Bulgaria , Turkey , Morocco , Egypt and other places provide the most basic planting and essential oils, and then send the essential oils to factories in Vienna, Frankfurt and Paris to blend them into perfumes, and then ship them to all parts of the world for sale.

After a long time, the ancient forms of perfume and petals soaked in water evolved into the bottled perfume that was common in the 3rd century. Most perfumes are liquids mixed with essential oils, fixatives, alcohol or ethyl acetate to give the body parts a lasting and pleasing odor.

Essential oil is taken from flowers, plants or mixed with fragrance by distillation or liposuction.

Fixing agent is used to combine various fragrances together, such as balm, ambergris , and secretions from the air glands of the musk deer. The alcohol or ethyl acetate concentration depends on whether it is perfume, eau deer or cologne.

Source: pexels

9 rd century, the modern chemical industry developed rapidly. Chemists separated various components in plant essential oils into molecules, analyzed their chemical structure , and tried to use chemical methods to artificially synthesize chemical substances similar to the taste of natural flavors: 855 years benzyl acetate in jasmine oil; 868 years benzyl coumarin in black coumarin ; 874 years benzyl vanillin in vanillin ; 888 years benzyl nitro musk compound; 893 years used citral to synthesize ionone. This allows the owners and perfumers of the perfume industry to make lower-priced products in large quantities, so that the general public can afford perfume.

In the late 3rd century, nearly ,000 people were engaged in the perfume industry, and about /3 perfume was exported and sold. Businessmen also began to pay attention to bottle design, outer packaging and advertising.

0 century 80 html Since the 3rd century, due to the advancement of analysis technology and precision instruments, important trace components in many essential oils, such as rose ether and turkenone in rose oil , have been discovered one after another, and their industrial synthesis methods have also been released, providing more colorful raw materials for mixing various new fragrance flavors.

Although most perfumes are produced strictly in laboratories and factories in strict accordance with industrial standards, since the late 3rd century, perfume manufacturers have been more willing to emphasize the unique cultural quality of their products. Many brands are more willing to promote the "natural", "handmade", "primitive" and "plant" characteristics of perfumes, and strive to make people believe that these factors make their perfume products unique. Perhaps, they appeal to humans' long-standing closeness to plants and land.

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Source: "Chinese Taste: Naturalism of Spices and Seasonings"

Author: Zhou Wenhan

Some pictures in the article are from the Internet

Copyright belongs to the original author