How Was Perfume Invented?

The word perfume came from a Latin word "fumus", meaning smoke. So it's likely that in the early days people made a pleasant odor by burning certain nice-smelling woods, gums and leaves. The Egyptians used perfumes more than 5000 years ago. Arabians were the first people to use rose petals to make rose water about before 1300 years. One of the earliest true perfumes made was attar of rose that was "essential oil of rose". Flowers such as roses, violets, jasmine, orange blossoms as well as cedarwood, sandalwood were the source of some of greatest perfumes. Some leaves such as lavender, peppermint, geranium and even certain roots like orris and ginger were also used to make perfume. In the earlier days of making perfume, the French used a process called "enfleurage", that mean "en-flowering".

Now a day of modern science, chemistry competes with nature in producing perfume essence. The chemists are making synthetic perfume fragrances from coal tar and turpentine and from hundreds of other substances.

A girl named Nina around 100 BC