Perfume is a powerful tool to express our personality, build our self-image and engage with others. Fragrances, in fact, accompany us in everyday life and tell something about us, raising memories and feelings. Ernst, Rodolphe – The Perfume Maker Origins of perfume The history of perfume is definitely not recent. The origin of perfume is commonly attributed to the ancient Egyptians. They utilized scents to celebrate prayers and religious ceremony by burning essential oils, resin, and perfumed unguents. This practice had several functions. First, the oils and unguents burned were necessary to ensure divinities’ protection and benevolence. Besides, scents were also used to convey messages and prayers to the dead, to purify the body and to conduct embalming ceremonies. Over time, scents were not only confined to the sacred aspects, but they were also introduced in daily hygiene. Already at the time of the ancient Egypt there was an intense trade of spices, aromas and resins that were abundant in Egypt but also imported from distant lands such as the Middle East, Arabia and the Indians lands. From these trades were imported fine woods, scented resins, myrrh and incense that made up some of the main ingredients of the scents of the time. Abbey,Edwin Austin Potpourri 1899 The sacred function of the scent is not lost in time though, and it goes on together with the secular one through the centuries. The Book of Exodus gives a precious testimony of the use of perfume as sacred offerings in the Jewish religion. The same adoration of the Magi narrated in the Bible demonstrates the importance of the gesture of offering sacred essences such as incense and myrrh. In addition, the perfume was used in religious ceremony to purify the body and as a real cosmetic. Unguents, water and perfumed oils were obtained with slow process of maceration and extraction of essences from aromatic plants, woods and resins. During the period of the ancient Greeks, the perfume leaves its religious rituals and begins to accompany everyday life of common people. While continuing to accompany the sacred rituals and key moments like births, weddings and funeral ceremonies, perfume now also enters the profane sphere. It’s linked to the myth of beauty and body care, and is precisely in this sense that it begins to play a fundamental role in everyday life. Expeditions to the East through the Spice trade will then allow the discovery of new exotic and precious materials, facilitating an intense perfume trade all over the world then known. The Romans gathered the Oriental and Hellenistic heritage, and they keep associating perfumes both to the sacred and the profane sphere. The Romans may not have invented perfumery, but they gave it its name: per fumum (‘through smoke’). In Rome, thanks to the continuous conquests and expeditions, they begin to feel the influence of the different cultures and customs that become gradually assimilated. From Etruscans, for example, seems to derive the habit of burning essences in special containers or censers, to spread the perfume during playful moments, dances and funeral rites. It is especially in the Roman domus that the spread of fragrances begins to accompany daily convivial situations and banquets. But even outside the private context, access to Roman baths allowed anyone to wash and apply perfumed oils and unguents. One of the most important innovations attributed to the Romans is the use of blown glass containers for perfumes. This material is odorless and easy to shape, so glasses could be made in different shapes and colors and perfect to contain the first cosmetics and scented oils. Perfume continues to play a key role also in the Oriental culture, thanks to the reciprocal influences between Western acquisitions and Arab scientific knowledge. In particular, amongst the Arabs it is common to use fragrances for personal use, to accompany purification rituals or as an air freshener. Arabs are also the inventors of the alembic and responsible for the diffusion throughout Europe of the ancient art of distillation. From this special and scent land many essential oils come from. The most common oil was rose water, used to perfume the house and to purify people in religious places and to prepare food and drink. Chemistry and alchemy discoveries allowed Arabs to export valuable raw materials around the world and thus control fragrance and perfume trade for many centuries. An Oriental painting depicting a serene sense of good smell