When you meet someone for the first time your initial thought is to look at them in order to greet them but the one thing that stands out to you more than anything about them is their scent. It defines who they are and what they're trying to say about themselves. The person's character comes out and their smell gives you a hint to what they like but most importantly it creates a memory of them. All fragrances and smells do that though, they remind you of a moment in time, a memory and a person.
Even though these days most perfume houses are found in France, the French weren't the ones to invent it. In past times, the ancient Greeks and Romans were keen users of scents and perfumes; certainly, the art of perfumery can be detected right back to the origins of western civilisation in Egypt Mesopotamia and Cyprus. The first perfume actually dates back to these ancient times. The English word "perfume" comes from the Latin word per fumus, which means "through smoke".
According to Malcolm Moore from The Telegraph dated 21/03/2007, the worlds oldest perfume had been found by archaeologists in Cyprus. The perfumes were scented with extracts of lavender, bay, rosemary, pine, coriander and kept in tiny translucent alabaster bottles. These remaining traces were found on the south of the island in Pyrgos and are more than 4,000 years old.
The first ever modern perfume made was in 1370, it was made of scented oils and blended in an alcohol solution. This was made at the command of Queen Elizabeth Of Hungary and was known throughout Europe as Hungary Water. Nowadays, perfume is made prodominantly with alcohol and full bodied perfumes are made up of 10-20% of perfume oils and a trace of water. Cologne contains about 3-5% of perfume oil diluted in 80-90% alcohol, while water makes up about 10%.
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"I want to see you.
Know your voice.
Recognize you when you
first come 'round the corner'.
Sense your scent when I come
into a room you've just left.
Know the lift of your heel,
the glide of your foot.
Become familiar with the way
you purse your lips
then let them part,
just the slightest bit,
when I lean in to your space
and kiss you.
I want to know the joy
of how you whisper
"more"
― Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi
While most people believe that Chanel No.5 is the most expensive perfume in the world it is not, according to financesonline.com the list for the most expensive perfumes around the world are as follows: 1. DKNY Golden Delicious Million Dollar Fragranc Bottle $1 million 2. Clive Christian No.1 Imperial Majesty Perfume $12,721.89 per ounce 3. Baccarat Les Larmes Sacrees de Thebes $6,800 per ounce 4. Chanel Grand Extrait $4,200 per ounce 5. Clive Christian No.1 $2,150 per ounce 6. Hermès 24 Faubourg $1,500 per ounce 7. Caron Poivre $1,000 per ounce 8. Joy by Jean Patou $850 per ounce 9. JAR Bolt of Lightning $765 per ounce and lastly No.10 Annick Goutal Eau d'Hadrien $441.18 per ounce. Most of these perfumes are so highly-priced because they either contain precious elements that are so hard to source, or just because some of the bottles made are embossed either with super expensive jewels or coated with real carat gold.
Not many know of the infamous fashion designer Jean Patou, he was one of the few to follow the little black dress trend after Chanel first designed it, creating a beautiful range of fashion forte clothes. Jean was also the designer of Joy, the perfume that set hearts on fire and brought depression to it's knees. The name of the perfume speaks for itself as it does what it says, brings you joy! This fragrance ranks among the most expensive perfumes as stated above because in order to create it, you need 28 dozen roses and 10, 600 jasmine flowers to make a single bottle. The creator derives just 1/25 ounce of oil from 8,000 jasmine flowers. Other scarce ingredients included in this perfume are orris, ambergis from sperm whales (I know crazy), oud and Bulgarian Rose.
Which brings me to my conclusion, people are still doing the old rubbing the perfume on the wrist trick, seriously do people still not know that's the biggest mistake in the book! Hellooooo it bruises the perfume when putting it on, thus making it smell completely different and deterring the real fragrance from it's original form...The pressure points are as follows, so please follow→ behind the ears, on the wrists, on the neck, near the collarbone, underneath the knee and in between those little nooks on the inside of the arms. Also the way you maintain perfume, just in case you don't know, or to make it last longer, is to store it in a cool dry place with the temperature of 10-18 degrees celsius. Most colognes and body sprays can be kept in the refrigerator but perfume should not, as it can upset the balance contained in the fragrance. Also to add to this, the warmer the climate, the more careful you should be. From experience while travelling around Greece, I noticed my perfume smelling a little different, I thought ok we need to change it's surroundings, which led me to put it in not only a cool dry place but a dark place, no it's not a vampire but what it needed was to recharge it's smell. So take it from me, fragrance is a beautiful thing, smell, live and remember what it reminds you of, even though sometimes it might bring up things you don't want it to, because at that time, the perfume wants you to remember.
Photo Credit: Alex Ugalek (istockphotos)
