I noticed whereas Habit Rouge wears off after a couple of hours, the scent of Givenchy Gentlemen lasts for several hours
Some are oil based and some are water based. Make sure you get oil based because they last longest.
Were her perfumes stolen ? and if so where did they end up.Has anyone tried to recreate any of the perfumes made for Queen ?
Chances were it were destroyed. However, the palace of Versailles is set to launch a perfume based on the fragrance once used by Marie-Antoinette.
The perfume, which is based on the original composition unearthed by a historian, will be sold only to order.
The perfume is said to adhere to the 18th Century custom of combining "100% natural primary materials" and is "intensely floral".
It combines various scents including rose, iris, jasmine, orange blossom and sandalwood.
So just WHY do the French have such a strong association with Perfumes? Why are French Perfumes supposedly in the top class available today? They certainly are amongst the most expensive perfumes for sure!
The history of perfume goes back thousands of years. It is thought that the process of making perfumes began in ancient Egypt and was developed and further refined by the Romans when they occupied large parts of that country. Many of the perfumes to be found in Arab and Asian countries are based on incense, which means they need to be heated or burned to produce the fragrant effect.
There can be little doubt that in France its popularity was primarily down to its wide use within the court of Louis XV in the 18th Century, who encouraged its liberal use. This royal patronage ensured a good start for this fledgling industry and it quickly became used widely outside the royal courts. France is fortunate to have soil well suited to growing aromatic plants and the area around Grasse in the South of France is still a major production area for supplying the raw materials needed for French Perfume production. Indeed Grasse today supplies concentrated fragrance oils to companies all around the world.
The fields all around Grasse are heavily populated with an amazing range of flowers and aromatic plants of every colour in the rainbow. There are many ‘perfume houses’ based there, this is the term used for perfume production and perfume refining companies. The raw ingredients are turned into concentrated perfume oils in methods that have not fundamentally changed over many centuries.
French perfume production
French perfume production vats
Once the raw materials have been distilled and converted into liquid form, they need to be carefully filtered and samples checked in the on-site laboratory, so as to maintain the high standard expected. These are expensive ingredients by now!
Modern French Perfumes have many ingredients. It is the combination of usually dozens of different perfume oils that make the smells we recognise on the High Street. Great skill is required to be able to formulate a new fragrance. Sitting at a desk, surrounded by a huge array of potential ingredients for a new fragrance, requires great skill.
French perfume formulation - the nose's desk
The people who formulate French Perfumes are called ‘noses’ in the industry. They often come from a long line of perfumers within one family, it is a very traditional speciality and it takes many years to develop the required skills. These days a degree in chemistry is usually required, science has largely replaced what was an ancient art.
So with that history and background of making fine French perfumes it is no surprise that France still plays a major part in the ‘designer’ world of fragrances and fashion. All of the famous clothing designers have their own brands of perfume too – names you will recognise are Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Lagerfeld, Cartier, Gucci and modern perfumes like Jean Paul Gautier and French Connection. The choice is wide, though the prices are unfortunately rather on the expensive side!
