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Writer's pictureJil CROQUET

Where do perfumes come from? A brief History of Perfume

Denounced and celebrated since satire exists, the use of perfume remains as sacred as it is frivolous, and its power extends to fields as distant as religion, medicine, and the art of seduction.


From an anthropological perspective, smells and perfumes play a crucial role in the relationship between gods and humans. In many civilizations, while humans consume flesh and plants, ingesting, digesting, and excreting waste, condemned to combat the resulting body odors, gods feed on the scent of sacrifices and the pleasant fragrance of perfumes offered to them. The pleasant odor even becomes a distinctive sign of divinity: in the ancient Greek imagination, it is "euodia," the "good smell," that reveals the presence of a god. The same applies in Christian imagery, where in the New Testament, Jesus Christ is also distinguished by his pleasant odor. In the Islamic religion, Anas said of Mohammed: "I have never smelled an aroma of amber, musk, or any other perfume more pleasant than the sweat of the Prophet." Thus, perfume is primarily, in the human imagination, a divine attribute.


Throughout History, perfume establishes a connection between two entities, whether it is between gods and humans or between humans themselves. Perfumes also exert their magical power in the realm of transformation: they heal, protect, and enhance.



Infographic - Perfume History

Now, it's time to elevate your scent game and immerse yourself in the realm of artisanal perfumery, where every drop tells a story and every spritz becomes a moment of sensory enchantment.


Discover our artisanal classics collection here and our In-The-Vault line here.


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