Perfumes have performed a deep emotional role for a very long time. People have indulged in the pleasant routine of perfuming themselves with fragrant blossom blends for thousands of years. Up until the 1900s perfumes were simple and uncomplicated, like vanilla and jasmine water distilled from out of the back garden. Science transformed all that in the 20th century, submerging pure, unadulterated plant derived ingredients under an influx of chemical fakes.
The perfumegrowth started when Jacques Guerlain created Shalimar in 1925, and Francois Coty released his fragrances, Grasse, Chypre de Coty, and La Rose Jacqueminot. Scientific innovations during WWII made possible the creation of even more complex synthetic perfume classics like Opium, Chanel No. 5, and 4711. When Charles Revson designed Charlie for Revlon, women began buying fragrances for themselves. Cosmetic shops all over the place were inundated with a glut of manufactured perfumes created by corporations and their copy cats.
Since then the business has grown. And in fact, in the weeks leading up to Christmas this year, it is expected that a bottle of Chanel No.5 perfume will be sold every 30 seconds around the planet!
The good news is that customers are becoming more critical. And with rising alarms about the effects of manufactured fragrances on the health of both people and the environment, there is now a shift on the way to specialist or niche scents, perfume produced in smaller quantities by traditionally educated artisans, such as miessence perfumes. Often billed as ‘natural’, quite a few of these fragrances still contain possibly harmful synthetic ingredients, unlike organic fragrances
Prohibiting manufactured smells from the office environment is starting to be a social issue of the time. A growing number of people are having difficulties from multiple chemical sensitivities, (MCS Syndrome), with documented hypersensitive reactions such as headaches, dizziness, irritability, hypertension, and depression. Supplying these people with a perfume-free environment has become such a critical issue that it won’t go away. The concern has been taken up across the world and proceeds to increase in strength.
Australian environmental consultant Dr. Mark Donohoe has been quoted as saying that he believes that the artificial perfume concern may possibly become even bigger than the anti-smoking activities of the past. Already, anti-fragrance reform is taking effect in the most unlikely places. England’s Lady Mar is a well-known campaigner on chemical poisoning troubles in the United kingdom. In 2004, she almost single-handedly succeeded in preventing the extreme use of synthetic colognes and perfumes in the resolutely traditional British House of Lords.
The European Committee has begun investigation to evaluate the uses of all chemicals on the European market. Germany now has legislation to combat synthetic fragrance issues. And in the US, workers are claiming protection from the Americans with Disabilities Act. Nevertheless, for now, it would seem that control is more likely to be exerted by employers responding to workers’ complaints. Writing in the Melbourne Age (2004), Elisabeth King said, ‘…after banning the wearing of freshly dry-cleaned clothes, perfumes, and over-fragranced cleaning products on a trial basis, they (employers) often discover that all of their employees, not just MCS sufferers, feel much better.’
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