Perfume, in its most elemental conception, exists since prehistoric times, when it was found that burning of some kind of woods and resins, could improve the flavor of food. In fact, the word perfume comes from Latin “per-fûmus” (by smoke). Alternatively, other people worshiped their gods by using scented smokes, which is still a common practice in some religions, by burning incense. Scented oils and ointments were used too, since remote times, in order to complement women beauty. On the other hand, perfumes were given curative properties and, besides, used in glove manufacturing, to mask unpleasant smells coming from raw materials employed in the industry. The unpleasant odors in human body were also dissimulated by the use of perfumes.

 The present format of perfumes, in base to alcohol and essences, dates since century XIV. First known perfume, made under this pattern and scented  with rosemary, was given by a monk, as a gift, to Queen Elizabeth of Hungary. And for this reason it was named “Queen of Hungary Water.” Queen Elizabeth, at the time (1380) 70 years old, and suffering from habitual indispositions, proper of her advanced age, took the perfume (drank it, in a moderate dose, as it was usual practice applied to perfumes in their former format), and got so healthy that she was requested for marriage by the king of Poland.

 It was necessary to wait until century XVIII, when an alcoholic solution scented in base to rosemary, orange blossoms, lemon and bergamot, and named “Eau de Cologne” (Colony’s water) came into scene, to see how the universe of perfumery got tremendous impulse.

 If we attend to the most accepted version, the origin of such an important fragrance take us not to Colony (Germany), but to Florence (Italy), to the convent of “Santa Maria la Nuova” (Saint Mary, the new), where, since century XIV a solution known by the name of “Acqua della Regina” (Queen’s water), was produced by the nuns, who were the only owners of the formulae.

 Then, in 1696, one, a certain Giovanni Paolo Feminis “found means,” that we are not going to comment, to get the formulae from the convent Mother Abbess.

 The solution, renamed at the time as “Acqua Mirabilis” (Admirable water), appreciated then as curative, was commercialized by mister Feminis and his nephew Giovanni Maria Farina. They settled in Colony since 1709, and offered the perfume to relieve so many and different pains as: tooth ache, bug bites, affected skin and so long, up to even love affairs. It was recommended to drink some drop of the solution, solved in almost any liquid, as water, wine, etc. or to rub it on the affected area.

 Ultimately, in 1727 the perfume obtained its patent, in Colony, under the new name of “Eau de Cologne” (Colony’s water). After, in 1806 one, a certain Jean Marie Farina, having inherited the formulae, settled in Paris, at “Rue Saint Honorè” (Saint Honorè street), and from there supplied the largest courts of Europe.

 Among the most celebrated users of  “Eau de Cologne,” we have to mention Emperor Napoleon I. He took it mixed in a preparation made in base to syrup, egg whites and lemon juice.

 At the time of French revolution, inclination for perfumes was well alive and even there was one with appellation “à la guillotine.”

 The Emperor, besides taking the solution in the forementioned manner, he took upon himself to get his whole body rubbed with “Eau de Cologne,” every day, asserting that its fragrance stimulated his brain to better thinking.

 It is worth while to mention here that smells can be used to stimulate different activities and appetites. Returning to Napoleon, in order to illustrate, scent of his wife Joséphine was a sexual stimulus for him, as it can be inferred from his correspondence, where he asked her to abstain from taking bath several days before his arrival for meeting.

 It is not so surprising then that, between aphrodisiac smells under consideration to develop new fragrances, sweat from humans or animals, are found.

 Talking about Joséphine, she was well known as great amateur of perfumes and fragrances, so much that she was nicknamed “fou pour l’almizclé” (crazy for musk), and it  is told that her “cabinet de toilette” (dressing room) was so impregnated with scents that, even many years after her death, they could be perceived.

 In 1840  brand “Jean Marie Farina” was sold to one, a certain Léonce Collas, who in the short time yielded it to his cousin Charles Gallet, associated to inventor Armand Roger. The Roger&Gallet House was an important protagonist in advance and modernization of perfumery and birth of the cosmetic art.

 There is another version about the origin of Eau de Cologne: it tell us that around 1790 the formulae of the so called “Acqua Mirabilis” was given as a present to a young  just married couple, by a fray. The husband, mister Wilhelm Mülhen, son of a prestigious banker in Colony, commercialized the admirable water under the name “4711,” after the address of his shop: 4711 Glockengasse. The 4711 House claims its product as “the real” Eau de Cologne.

 In a Parallel, or overlapping way, other great names of fine perfumery appeared into scene, along centuries XVII to XIX, not only in France but outside too: Yardley and Creed two of the most famous in England. In France: Chiris (1768), Lantier (1795), Sozio (1840), among others.

 It was in Century XIX, with arrival of Organic Chemistry, that perfumery started to walk along the industrial era. Olfactory-volatile molecules were isolated and rebuilt by means of synthesis, which paved the path to creation of new fragrances not found in nature and to the simultaneous birth of “Perfume-Creation” as a profession.

 In this manner Perfumery came also into the world of art, having been mister Francois Coty the first to incorporate artificial built fragrances into his perfumes.

 Since then, some other disciplines penetrated too the world of perfumery. Glass artists as Guinnard (Art Nouveau), Lalique and Baccarat, and graphic designers as Alfons Mucha, participated in manufacturing and labeling of beautiful perfume bottles.

 In the down of century XX another mode of art, that of Fashion and Style came to participate in the perfumery world. Paul Poiret, famous for freeing women from corset rigorousness, began to associate fragrances to his fashion creations, in order “to complete” them. After him came Chanel, Lanvin, Worth, Balmain, Dior, Givenchy… and more recently Klein, Saint Laurent, Herrera, Rabane, etc.

 Art itself was influenced by the magic of aromas. The bottle, sculptured by  the great surrealist artist Salvador Dalí, being perhaps the most significant sample of inspiration caused by fine perfumes.

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