My Perfume Cabinet

“The First Great Perfume Born in America” My fascination with history is, in large part, the reason behind my obsession with perfume. Perfume is, to my mind, a rare and tangible way to travel back in time.  At the beginning of my perfume journey, my aim was to learn as much as I possibly could. While so many aspects of perfumery are interesting to me, I found myself delving more and more into the perfumes of the past. For this , I found one particular resource to be absolutely invaluable:   Perfume Legends II: French Feminine Fragrances  (a 2019 revision of the original 1996 work) by Michael Edwards.  A Bible for those interested in perfumery in general, it is even more valuable to those attempting to trace the lineage of modern perfumery back to its storied origins.  You can imagine my thrill when I discovered that there was, in fact, a follow up to the 1996/2019 masterpiece focused specifically on the evolution of American fragrances — American Legends (2024)...

For the third and final part of the series on the Islamic Golden Age and the genesis of modern perfumery, we will be discussing how the knowledge, techniques, and common raw materials cultivated during the Islamic Golden Age made their way to Europe and, eventually, the world. We will also take a look at their lasting legacy and how they shaped the perfume industry as we know it today! For those who may have missed them, here are  Part I   and   Part II  of the series. 

Today, we will continue the story where we left off; looking at the specific developments to perfumery and the key figures responsible for them during the Islamic Golden Age . For those who missed it, you can find Part I here !