My Perfume Cabinet

Coming from the Gulf, I’ve been exposed to perfume, incense, and all sorts of fragrant products for as long as I can remember.  It is not an exaggeration to say that, in this part of the world, fragrance is so deeply ingrained, its use is practically instinctual.  From layering oils, lotions, and sprays to scenting your clothing and hair with burning oud chips, fragrance permeates every aspect of daily life without exception.

“A velvet boudoir at midnight”  After leaving the corporate world to realign and recentre, I used my time to dive deeper into various interests that had hitherto been neglected. Since I had always been a perfume enthusiast, exploring that world further happened to be on my list of many, many things I planned to eventually get around to if work permitted. During my online investigations, it was a post I came across on Bois de Jasmin that gave new life and renewed zeal to my interest in perfumery, this time focused on the great classics. As a lifelong history buff who has always yearned to travel through time, I was in hot pursuit of the perfumes of the past. So, happening upon Victoria ’s countdown of fragrances that influenced perfume history was like striking gold. Alongside the usual suspects, however, were a few fragrances I hadn’t encountered before. One, mentioned in passing, from a fragrance house I’d never heard of, caught my attention. This was Tabu by Dana .

Although there was a wealth of fascinating information taught to us while studying raw materials as ISIPCA, one piece of information in particular caught me off guard. It seemed obvious that competition over the synthesis of new molecules by fragrance houses and associated companies to gain an edge would take place. However, what did not occur to me at the time was that this competition extended beyond aroma-chemicals to nature itself. While discussing jasmines, our professor casually mentioned that the entirety of production of one specific jasmine was purchased by a particular fragrance house to ensure competitors were not able to replicate their finished product by getting their hands on this specific botanical. At the time, I found this to be mind blowing. It felt almost God-like to me that one company could control the entire existence of a product of nature. Upon returning home, I decided to dive deeper into the subject and thought I would share my findings here!

 Today, I’ve chosen to talk about the inaugural fragrance from Shiseido , Hana Tsubaki , launched in 1917. “The origin of all subsequent Shiseido fragrances”