Perfumes are invitations to travel for the senses, which stimulate the imagination. Many of them come from elsewhere: exotic scents, spicy scents, subtle or complex fragrances. Close your eyes, breathe, and you’re already far away. Because perfumes are linked to territories, almost terroirs.

Let’s go for a world tour of smells and perfumes. Make way for the dream!

Eau de Cologne – Germany, Italy

Invented in 1716 by an Italian, Giovanni Paolo Feminis, based in Cologne. This “acqua mirabilis” was, according to legend, created on a water base prepared by the Florentine nuns of Santa Maria Novella. It is also said to be the ancestor of water, which enabled the Queen of Hungary in the 14th century to seduce a young man.

Eau de Cologne at first has nothing of a perfume. Sold in pharmacies, it is used to invigorate. We even put some in the soup. And Napoleon drinks liters! It is a mixture of beauty product and health product. Its composition is rich: rosemary, lemon, lemon balm, bergamot, citron, neroli, spirit of wine.

It gradually arrived in France from 1760. This water is used by all sections of the population. Each perfumer must have an Eau de Cologne (term deposited in 1806) to which he has brought his close touch.

The best known of these waters is Eau de Cologne Impériale, created by Maison Guerlain in 1830 and dedicated to Empress Eugénie, in 1853. We find on the bottle all the Napoleonic emblems, from the bee to the eagle.

What to see: in Cologne, Germany, don’t miss L’Eau de Cologne No 4711, the boutique-exhibition 4711.com

Ylang Ylang – Philippines, Comoros archipelago, Madagascar

In Elisabeth de Feydeau’s book Les Parfums, Histoire, Anthologie, Dictionnaire, we discover that the ylang ylang is a tree, originally from the Philippines. This is where the essence of ylang ylang flowers was first obtained, at the end of the 19th century, by a European sailor attracted by the charming smell of this flower.

However, the distillation of yellow flowers is now mainly carried out in Madagascar and in the neighboring Comoros archipelago. The heady smell of ylang ylang creates an intense note in a perfume.

On Madagascan lands, notably in Nosy Be, but everywhere else on the island, one can frequently visit distilleries. The opportunity to discover and learn how to obtain these precious extracts of gasoline, sought after all over the world.

The flowers, which grow on pruned trees 2 or 3 meters high, are harvested weekly, cool. Then begins the distillation of the flowers with steam. And damn it must be harvested! For 1 kg of petrol, count around 350 kg of flowers.

To have: In Madagascar, on Nosy Be, several exploitations and distilleries of ylang ylang to visit.

Musk – China, Tibet, Vietnam

A very “animal” scent. And for good reason! Originally, musk was produced by buckskin, an animal close to fallow deer, more precisely in a small pocket located under the abdomen of the animal. The higher the animal lives, the more quality the musk. Reddish in color, this material turns brown in the open air.

Musk is only secreted when the buckshot is rutting. Its strong smell – it is even said to be the most powerful of perfumes – could quite simply turn the head of the first adventurers, who used it in particular for therapeutic purposes. The most powerful and most recognized musk was that of Tonkin (Vietnam). The grainy consistency of this animal matter literally smells and is used above all to fix a composition of perfumes, so that it is tied to the skin.

Over time, the smell became sweeter, smoother and more sensual. Even sexual! So much so that musk was even banned in prude times. The endangered buckshot animal species is now protected. Synthetic musks are now used.

To have: In Vietnam, in the footsteps of the musk of yesteryear, the city of Hoa Lu, was the capital of Tonkin around the year 1000. Landscapes of Chinese prints, with curious limestone peaks under the greenery, and Rocky Mountains.

Lavender – Grasse, Provence

What would Provence be without lavender? You just have to walk on the Valensole plateau at the end of spring and at the beginning of summer, just before harvest, to simply take in your nostrils facing these purple fields as far as the eye can see.

The use of lavender (from lavare, “to wash”, in Latin) dates from Antiquity; the Romans used it already to perfume the linen or the bath. Its smell is often associated with freshness. It was used by master glove makers in Grasse in the 17th century, who had the idea of perfuming their creations, to chase away the stubborn odors of leather.

Over time, the glove makers became perfumers, bathed in a climate favorable to the cultivation of flowers such as roses or jasmine. Grasse then became the world capital of perfumery. Today, lavender, still widely used in perfumery, is also used quite a bit to flavor household cleaning products. Clean air every day.

Patchouli – India, Madagascar, Seychelles, Sumatra and West China

It is impossible to write an article on perfumes at Routard without mentioning the emblematic flower of the hippy years. It must be said that patchouli was blooming everywhere at the time!

Patchouli comes from Tamil “patch”, which means “green”, and from “ilai”, the leaf. The essence of this dried white flower is obtained by distillation, but also with other parts of the plant, such as the roots. With patchouli, it is the Orient that invites itself into 19th century Victorian mansions. We slip a few drops into the potpourris, so British.

It is the route of the “Zindes” which disperses in the wake of this voluptuous odor although a little bitter, but also China. Travel dreams accompany these woodies, intoxicating and powerful odors.

One of its most striking emanations remains the aptly named. Patchouli de Réminiscence (1970). Patchouli is now experiencing a revival in many very trendy olfactory combinations (Jimmy Choo, Comme des Garçons, etc.).

To see: In Indonesia, patchouli is found in Aceh province, north and west of Sumatra, in Bengkulu, or on the island of Java.

Rose – Morocco, Turkey, Bulgaria

Make way for the queen of flowers. Two of its varieties are most often used by perfumers: the centifolia rose, and the damascena rose or Bulgarian rose. The first, whose extracts are obtained thanks to solvents, allows to intensify the body of a perfume. The second, with its dried flowers and using steam, gives more earthy notes.

The work done on roses intended for perfumery is pure alchemy. Each perfumer has his own secrets, sometimes even his own rose gardens, as it is necessary to choose the rose at a certain stage of its development, and to pick it at a specific time of the day.

It is with the capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders that rose water will penetrate the homes of the West. It will be used both for personal hygiene and in various medical preparations.

To see: in Morocco, the valley of roses and Dades, in the South, especially in spring, during the harvest or, in Bulgaria, the valley of roses in Kazanlak.

Sandalwood – India, Nepal, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Indonesia

While sandalwood is found in Australia, white sandalwood, on the other hand, comes exclusively from a tree that is very present on Indian lands, in Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Its size is about 12 meters high. Its oil is obtained by distillation of its roots and its wood.

Its smell being quite present, it is associated in the East with multiple rituals. Sandalwood was used in particular for embalming, but also as part of religious ceremonies where the wood was used as incense. It is also a very resistant wood, used for the construction of furniture and the manufacture of divine statuettes. Rather odorous objects! In symbolism, sandalwood and its scent are so many divine links with the afterlife, especially in Hindu and Buddhist cults.

Its introduction in Europe dates from the Arab presence in Spain, especially in Cordoba. In fact, sandalwood was used to perfume the shoemakers’ leather (a word derived from elsewhere in Cordoba). Sandalwood is expensive, so we sometimes use synthetic products, cheaper, like sandalore.

Jasmine – India, Egypt, France

One of the emblematic flowers of perfume compositions (found in the famous Chanel N ° 5). This pretty little white flower has the distinction of being very fragile. It cannot be distilled and cannot stand heat. It must therefore be treated with the greatest care, often at night, and immediately transformed.

About 7 million flowers are needed for 1 kg of jasmine. India is today the largest producer of jasmine. It is very common to see men selling necklaces or small bouquets of this flower in India. If only to honor the deities. They are found even in cars!

If it is very present today in India and Egypt, this delicate flower was formerly used a lot in China, where it had a very sensual, feminine connotation. It was also produced in large quantities in Grasse, especially in the 18th century.

Even if it is now rarer on the Côte d’Azur, let’s keep in mind the fragrance of Joy , by Jean Patou, who liked to point out that more than 10,000 jasmine flowers were needed for its composition, hence its precious and expensive character.

To see: At La Roquette-sur-Siagne, near Grasse, in France, jasmine fields are visible from August to October. The flower is harvested by hand.
Cyprus

Let’s go to the Mediterranean for this island which has given precise characteristics to perfumes. A perfume can belong to the family of Cyprus, when it offers vegetal notes. “Cyprus” was also the sober name of one of the famous perfumes of François Coty, great perfumer of the beginning of the XXth century. Venus would have been born on this island.

Located on the eastern sea route, the island has been enriched by all these scents that circulated between countries. It is also a paradise for “noses”. Let’s imagine that there was myrtle, marjoram, poppy, etc. What frightens the nostrils!

On this island, chypre water with invigorating and dry scents has been produced since the Middle Ages. This original scent, which will be transmitted from grimoires to grimoires, gives some ideas to the creators of perfumes of the XXth century. They transmit in their compositions this chic and sensual alliance of the “chypre” smell, notably with François Coty, but also Roger & Gallet or even Jacques Guerlain and Mitsouko.

Myrrh – Sudan, Ethiopia, Arabian Peninsula, Somalia

A bit of mythology now: Myrrha was the daughter of the king of Cyprus, Cinyras. Guilty of her incestuous love for her father, she was transformed into a tree and gave birth by a split of its bark to Adonis, God of perfumes and lover of Aphrodite, the goddess of Beauty and Love. This means that this smell of myrrh plunges us into the very heart of the elements of the perfume.

The myrrh tree is 3 to 5 meters high. It produces this resin which naturally oozes from the thick bark of the tree. It is necessary to wait until these “tears of wood” dry to collect them and transform them according to needs and uses.

Myrrh has been used since Antiquity, especially in embalming. Jesus receives it as a gift from the Three Kings. As for the Greeks, they used to perfume their wine. This bitter smell gives a distinguished and elegant flavor to the scented compositions.

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