Perfume making is an ancient art and believe it or not the first perfumes were the smoke of burning substances. The first scented oils were made of all natural ingredients which were blended to give a certain odor or fragrance. Apple fragrance was obtained from apples, etc. There were no synthetic fragrances such as many that we have today.

Perfume making began in the Middle East with the Arabs being rightfully credited with creating, perfecting, and advancing the use of scented oil fragrances. The first recorded perfumer was a man by the name of Tapputi who was from the Middle East.

Islamic merchants were travelers who became familiar with many different ingredients in their travels. This served to expand the art of perfume making through the use of some of the ingredients from regions other than home. Sometimes they would trade in ingredients which were rare and could only be found in certain areas of their travels.

Europeans learned the art of perfume making from the Islamic culture. The first p[erfume was created by the Hungarians when they mixed oil based fragrances with alcohol. The Europeans did much to advance the art of perfume making during the middle ages. The Italians and the French were credited with most of the advancements in perfume making.

One of the reasons why perfume making caught on in Europe was because of the poor hygienic practices of the day. Perfumes were used as a mask for body odors which led to further development and refining of perfumes and colognes.

Perfume making is a true art these days and a science within itself. The professional perfumer is well paid and highly sought after for his or her work. Designer fragrances are a big money business. The thing that makes them so expensive is that the perfumer attempts to create a product which can’t be duplicated.

The perfumer will use each of four scent groups to blend fragrances to get the desired effect. The groups of scents are 1)Floral 2)Animal 3)Green, and 4)Spicy and Woody.

The perfumer knows the direction that he or she want to go with each fragrance that they create and chooses ingredients from each of these groups appropriately

In addition to groups there are seven different categories of fragrance. They are; 1Citrus, 2 Spicy 3Herbal 4Fruity 5Gourmand, this group includes fragrances such as cocoa, vanilla, and green tea. I didn’t elaborate on the others because they are pretty much self explanatory. 6 Floral, and 7Earthy fragrances such as patchouli.

As you can see the job of being a professional perfumer is a complicated one. It requires a love of what you do and a knack for fragrances

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