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P A R F U M P L U S 29 NATURAL PERFUMES : THE NEXT BIG THING Natural perfumes are more than just a good smell. They reconnect us with nature, are part of our culture, and are linked to healing in many different cultures worldwide. Since ancient times, in every region of the world, we have been using plants for therapy. We’ve added plants to our food and drinks, we’ve used them to make perfumes and cosmetics knowing the beneficial power of each of them. This precious and ancestral knowledge has been passed on from generation to generation until the mid 20th Century. We can find it way back in cuneiform writings on Sumerian tablets around 1700BC. Prescriptions were found in the “Ebers Papyrus” dated 1552 BC, in Dioscoride’s “Materia Medica” dated 78 AD, in the ”Codex Aniciae Julianae” dated 512 AD, and later in Paracelse and Leonard Fuchs works (16th century). Perfumes were used for healing by all civilizations. In ancient Egypt, it was said “who breathe the scent of flowers breathe the soul of flowers” In South America, Native American doctors were called ”Perfumeros”. In China the sign used to name perfume is similar to the one meaning “remedy” and a proverb mentions that ”a perfume is always a medicine”. In Russia, perfumes were sold essentially in pharmacies. They owned their own laboratories, flower fields and perfume bottles factories. “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” This quote by Albert Einstein is probably more relevant today than any other time. Creezy Courtoy, Perfume Historian and Anthropologist, shares her insights on why it’s time to re-awaken natural perfumery and embrace sustainable perfumery COVID19 IS PROBABLY making people more aware of the importance of healthy living, wellbeing and sustainability. And the consumers are definitely going to change from here on. If some of them were already asking for natural products like food, perfumes and hygiene products before the pandemic, this number will definitely increase after the lockdown phase. I am sure, consumers will completely change their lifestyle to stay healthy. They will be more and more concerned about the environment, worried about their health and conscious about the importance to reconnect with nature. WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT TO ‘RECONNECT WITH NATURE’? Nature is important to our lives. It not only adds beauty to what we see or adds scents to what we smell, it is also adds life to our cells and keeps us healthy. We have been created by nature and instead of being grateful for this we seem to have forgotten it. Born on earth, a planet that nature has enriched with air, water, fruits, vegetables, flowers, plants for animals, including us to co-exist and survive. Nature feeds and provided for each one of us and help us regenerate ourselves. Without nature’s products we would not survive. Our DNA depends on nature’s DNA. Nature’s DNA is perfect and we need to reconnect with it for our cells to return to perfection.