PERFUMES.

PERFUMES.

It is a multi-billion dollars business.  France had its monopoly.

Now it is shared by other European Countries and the USA.

Stakes are high. Behind every great perfume there lies a big nose. You imagine a

perfume and its fragrance should come to your mind. Perfume is Nature’s

gift of something rare that enlivens our senses and the mind. We have reduced it

to pure business. Success of perfume begins with the bottle. It must be eye-

catching. It has to be rare-unseen.  The box likewise. Packing must be attractive like the contents. Its sale runs on publicity. It is a craft not an art. Marketing comes first, quality comes thereafter. It is a twenty billion dollars business an year. Americans alone consume perfumes worth eight billions.

American Companies invested billions of dollars in this business. In the

Year l973 US put into market its brand Charlie-an American life

style perfume, which has netted billions in dollars and is still in demand.

Perfumes are a mixture of oils diluted with eighty to ninety percent of spirit.

Perfumes are an accessory like jewelry. Some are conservative, some lively.

The fragrance should not shout. It has to be elegant, crisp and sophisticated.

Perfume is a promise in a bottle. “We sell hope.” It is an industry of myths.

It does not hold up in scrutiny of daylight. It is lot like show business.

It is reported Cleopatra of Egypt invited Mark Antony on her barge, which had

its sails soaked in perfumes.

Nero, the Emperor of Rome used to bath in rose water.

Natural fragrance comes from musk of deer, plants and flowers. It takes 800

kilo of rose flowers to make one kilo of rose oil concentrate. Jasmine smell

is a popular one. In our country  female workers work in jasmine flower gardens

right very early in the morning to pluck them before sunrise. Sun rays

diminish the fragrant oils contained in jasmine flowers. Roughly ten lakh

jasmine flowers yield a kilo of jasmine oil concentrate. This costly reality

of natural perfumes has led to making of synthetic perfumes. In ancient

times many who could afford made their houses of sandal wood.

In our country we have availability of Toluene and Benzene at our oil refineries.

We have natural resources of flowers like rose jasmine daisy etc. We have many

Glass bottles manufacturing units. We have many paper and paper board box and Cartons manufacturing units making eye catching boxes to wrap the perfume bottles. Our perfumes must be well quality wise. It must smell well. It must last and not evaporate. The smell must stay.

Mankind is divided into different smell groups. Persons of similar taste of smell flock together. Nose is the smell organ that does it. Smell and memory are inter-woven.  Sense of the smell is recorded in the backseat of the mind. It helps to identify a particular smell and link it to the memory of a particular person. Nose can identify a person on the basis of smell of his perfume. No other organ of the body possesses so quick an access to the mind.

Ancient world saw perfumes in shape of incense sticks and smoke of scented wood. Natural perfumes were made from musk of deer, from flowers herbs and mints basil etc. Males used to perfume their beard. Perfumes were made from spices saffron clove cardamom cinnamon peppermint dry fruits like almonds etc. depending upon its availability. Perfumes are a part of your self. It must not be gaudy. It must mix with your body not revealing as well as not concealing. It has to be natural as if it belonged to you. It should not shout. It should be calm quiet and awe inspiring. They are a promise in a bottle.

Saffron and musk smell is captivating. Musk is obtained from the

navel of deer in the Mountain side.  Musk deer carry a pouch of musk in

its navel.  It is obtained by killing them. Now trend is for synthetic musk.

Saffron grows in the slopes of the Mountains and parts of the Country. Saffron

is purplish crocus that blooms over night. After snipping few buds of saffron,

fingers turn yellow which if not washed soon would remain stained for a few days.

Saffron is high in chronic natural dye whose color when diluted is

Mellow yellow, which exudes an ambrosial aroma of

sweet tobacco laced with an elixir. It is a practice to collect saffron from

a flower before the petals open up. It protects stigmas inside. Pulling

filaments from each bud are called process of deflowering. About 2400

buds of saffron yield about two-ounce of green saffron. It is allowed to

dry. It turns pure saffron about an ounce fetching hundred dollars by our

standard.

Let us examine the manufacture in terms of business profit and loss.

For example a quantity of one thousand liters of Benzene Toluene

May cost fifty thousand. fifty thousand we allot to perfumes

concentrate. Fifty thousand for bottle boxes taxes transportation

and publicity. In all it would cost a hundred fifty thousand. Now let us see

what we gain. One thousand liters of Benzene or Toluene would make

ten thousand l00 ml bottles to be sold each at a price of hundred rupees.

It would fetch a sum of ten lakh against our investment of one lakh.fifty.

That is a profit margin of one to ten. Not a bad business.