Does cultivating flowers for fragrance, not for beauty, sound strange to you? Undoubtedly it does. Yet that is precisely what folks in southern France have been doing for centuries. No one there is at all concerned with capturing prizes at flower shows or growing flowers for arrangements! Fragrance alone is queen. For nature, in one of her benign moods, lavished upon this region all the essentials for growing full-scented flowers, flowers ideally suited for perfume making: an intensely sunny, remarkably dry climate with little temperature variation, and proper soil and altitude.
To this nature-blessed locale – this favored niche right in the center of the flower basket of Europe – add the artistic imagination of the French, their love of the esthetic, as well as the innate European trait of infinite patience, and you may understand why southern France – the ancient town of Grasse, to he exact – reigns as the perfume capital of the world.
Grasse, with its steep, twisting, cobblestone streets, Romanesque 12-century church and tall, jutting chimney stacks. clings like an Alpine plant to the terraced limestone slopes of the Maritime Alps. Lying some 10 miles inland from the Mediterranean, the town fairly breathes the wonderful essences brewed in its many farm-factories as well as the living fragrance of the flowers blanketing surrounding hills and plains.
Most of the flower farms or plantations, as they are called, are actually small family-owned and operated gardens, cultivated by methods often as ancient as the gar. dens themselves. The soil determines precisely the crop, and some whole districts grow only one or two flowers.
The “Three Graces” of Grasse, the trio of flowers which reigns supreme in this little world of perfume, are the rose, jasmine and orange blossom. But the rose is queen. The favored variety is Rose de Mai, a hybrid of the French rose and 100-leaved rose. Four tons of rose blossoms produce but a single pound of oil!
If the rose is queen, the jasmine is considered the fairest. It is the most precious, too, for it cannot be produced synthetically and is an absolute must in all quality perfumes. Imparting smoothness, elegance and life, it is to quality perfumes what butter is to fine French cooking. The variety used at Grasse is Jasminum officinale grandiflorum, which is grafted on common jasmine. Each shrub yields some 24 ounces of blooms a year, the exact amount depending on temperature and atmospheric conditions. Jasmine shuns strong sun and is at its peak in early morning. Precisely at 6:00, it opens up and the peasants cull the blossoms in baskets slung from their shoulders.
The third of the Three Graces, the fragile and romantic orange blossom, is valued for the full floral note it contributes to perfume. Although a single tree may yield 60 pounds of blossoms, it takes 800 pounds to make 1 pound of oil. And in rainy weather, the oil yield is even less. The violet, ever a favorite particularly with European men, is also prized and cultivated extensively. However, the modest violet is unduly modest in its yield of oil. An acre of finest violets produces but a few drops of essence. Naturally, it is extremely expensive. The variety Victoria, known as Luxonne, is the one most grown. Violet leaves, too, are utilized, their oil adding a leafy or dewy quality to perfume. Mimosa, carnations and lilacs are also widely grown in the Grasse region.
Harvest time finds the flowerpickers, mostly women and children. in the fields before dawn, ever careful while plucking the blossoms not to bruise them. Bruised petals decompose readily and harm the quality of the oil. The tons of blossoms are then carted to the factory yards, which throughout harvest time look like enormous flower gardens.
Steps in the manufacture of perfume in the factories are as follows:
- (1) Extraction of natural essences from flowers by one of several methods: the age-old process of distillation, in which a jet of steam is applied to the flowers to carry off the oil essence, which is then condensed by a stream of cold water; enfleurage, in which the flowers are compressed between large blocks of fat, which absorb the aroma; maceration. in which the flowers are immersed in boiling fat; and extraction. in which the blooms are infused in a dissolving liquid such as ether or benzine.
- (2) Blending. The formula, previously drawn up by the “nose” or chimiste parfumeur, is then copied in large quantities. In addition to natural flower essences, a formula includes synthetic products such as geraniol and carvone; vile-smelling fixatives such as musk, civet or ambergris, which give the perfume its lasting quality; various oils; and alcohol, which constitutes 80 to 85 per cent of the perfume. Incidentally, in addition to the natural plant essences produced locally, others – particularly essences of herbs, woods and spices – are imported from all over the world.
- (3) Maturing. After the mixture is poured into glass-lined tanks, it is left for a definite period to mature.
- (4) Bottling. Lower grade perfumes are bottled by machine, while higher grade scents are bottled by hand in containers especially designed for them.
The heart and soul of every factory – indeed of the perfume industry itself – is the “nose.” He, in the realm of the calculated smell, is comparable to the grand couturier in the fashion world, to the expert wine and coffee taster, And, because factories (just like the plantations) are family monopolies and the ingredients of every perfume a highly guarded secret (unless the fragrance is patented), the “nose” is usually a son or close relative. His training, a long and arduous one, takes six to nine years. While a background in chemistry is helpful, it is more important that be possess excellent nasal sensibilities, patience and emotional stability. No woman, incidentally, has ever achieved this distinction.
Nose Sniffs
A “nose” sniffs through the thousands of bottles of exotic essences the way a bibliophile browses among books – and can identify them all. One with whom my husband and I visited can even tell where and in what year the flower was grown! A “nose” looks like any successful businessman, except for his long white smock and mouillette – his badge of office. This is a long strip of absorbent paper, which has usually been dipped into a new scent. He carries the same one with him for days or weeks, sniffing periodically to determine how it can be improved. Regardless of the frivolous use to which a perfume may be put. to the “nose,” perfumery is indeed a serious business!
Even the most articulate “nose” finds it difficult to explain just how a new perfume is created. Some of the work is done with paper and pencil. For just as a musician can hear music by reading it, a “nose” can smell the odor a certain combination of ingredients will produce. The inspirations which come to him are akin to those received by painters and composers. A “nose” creates with his nose, expresses himself with a scent!
Trial and Error
An unusual amount of trial and error go into the creation of a new perfume. Often several months labor are poured down the drain. One new scent a year is considered an excellent batting average. More, exceptional.
“Nosing” sounds pleasant, you say? Yes, but it has an occupational hazard. Alcohol being the basis of all perfumes, the “nose” absorbs it through his nostrils and so is subject to the liver ailments from which dipsomaniacs suffer. Thus, most “noses” take the cure at Vichy with solar regularity – and most abstain from drinking and smoking.
To the men of Grasse, partly synthetic or chemical perfumes are an anathema. Much to the delight of my husband (to his pocketbook in particular), we were told that some of the perfumes which we American women prize – and pay for – so highly are considered by experts as the “Coca-Cola” of the industry.
With perfumes one of women’s more subtle attention-getting devices, it’s reassuring to know that the “nose” lives by Michelangelo’s creed: “Trifles make perfection and perfection is no trifle.” Our fate rests in competent hands.
One final word, now, about the origin of the art of perfumery. Actually, its beginnings are lost in the dimness of time. But because the word perfume means “through smoke,” it is assumed that fragrant gum and herbs used with sacrifices to primitive nature gods were the earliest known forms of perfume. But from the time of the establishment of the first civilizations on, we have clear records to show that fragrance played an important part in the daily living of most all of them. In ancient Greece, the perfume shops of Athens were the popular meeting places of the day. The Arabs, who adapted the Greek method of distilling perfume, were the first manufacturers of rose water. And it was in the 17th century that perfumery began to be studied scientifically, with Catherine de Medici, mistress of the art of poisoning, one of the earliest promoters of the scientific approach. She is also believed to have founded the first perfume factory in Grasse!
by E Gantner – 63474
