Fragrance Oil, the exquisite scent of beautiful aromas

Sacred and rare . . .  Fragrance made for the gods

B.C./A.D. – Frankincense & Myrrh.  Fragrance is as old as mankind, but let’s start here, with that famous biblical combo. Up till now and for 1000 years to come, fragrance ingredients were limited to aromatic plant resins, woods, spices and herbs.  Brought by boat and caravan from the Middle and Far East, these items were precious and costly.  They were offered as gifts and tributes to gods, emperors and tyrants (often one and the same). The 3 Wise Men brought gold, frankincense and myrrh.  Today, we’d still thrill over the gold but who wants tree sap!

When knighthood was in fashion . . .  so was fragrance

1100-1300 – The Crusades.  Although justified as religious wars for Christians to wrest the Holy Land from Muslim control, the Holy Wars were also great opportunities to hold raiding parties. Spices, bath ointments, and essences brought home from the Crusades  started a new industry – the European perfume trade.  Centered in Venice and Naples, perfumery flourished there for the next 200 years.

Fragrances enter a new world

1400’s – Distillation.  The Arabs discovered distillation --the process of concentrating fragrant essences -- thereby making them vastly easier to ship and a lot less perishable. Around the same time, the distillation of wine was perfected also, which led to the mass production of alcohol or “spirit water” – as healing elixirs.  As we’ll see, distillation was to have a major impact on perfumery, in 17^th Century Hungary.