Posted on July 19, 2008 01:42:32 AM
The art of making perfume is known as “Perfumery”. In the recent discoveries more than 4000 years old perfume bottles have been recovered from one of the oldest perfumery factory in Pyrgos, Cyprus. After doing much research archeologists discovered that ‘Tapputi’ was the first person in the world to make perfume. He lived in the second millennium B.C in Mesopotamia.
Traditionally perfumes were made from the natural sources found in the local areas. It has been revealed from the old records that they have been using herbs and spices such as bergamot, almonds, coriander, myrtle, etc to make perfume. The flowers were not used by this time.
In the history of perfume ‘Avicenna’ a Persian doctor who was also a chemist is known as the father of modern day’s perfume. He started the process of extracting essential oils from the flowers. Distillation process were used which enables subtle tones to be extracted from the plants. The scents made from distillation process were so delicate that this technique is in use even in the modern day’s perfumery. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on July 18, 2008 03:01:48 AM
The perfume that we use today has its origin in the ancient world. It has derived its name from the Latin word ‘per’ meaning through and ‘fumus’ meaning smoke. It has its origin in the ancient Egypt. The Egyptians started making perfumes to honor their Gods in various ceremonies. Basically the idea behind the invention was to smell good. In the later period the French had given its name as “parfum”.
The perfume is the name given to the pleasant smell which comes due to the burning of the incense sticks. In fact the first form of perfume was incense and it was first discovered by the Mesopotamians. They use the incense at the time of various ceremonies and functions. They burned resin woods and bumps for the fragrance to fill the air. Even the fragrant woods and resins were soaked in water or oil and later they use the water to take bath or rubbed their bodies with it.
When it was first discovered it was used only by certain persons like priests because it was believed to be use only at the time to ceremonies and prayers. Later on it became available to all Egyptians and all citizens were advised to perfume themselves at least once a week. As a result of it the Egyptians keep perfume with them from the birth until they die. It is a general belief among the citizens of Egypt that the body becomes dry after death hence to make it silk and smooth fragrance should be kept in their tombs as well. Read the rest of this entry »