PERFUMES.

PERFUMES. It is a multi-billion dollars business. Once upon a time France had its monopoly. Now it is shared by other European Countries and the United States. In this field stakes are high. Behind every great perfume there lies a big nose. You imagine a perfume and its fragrance should come to your mind. Perfumes is Nature’s gift of something rare that enlivens our senses and our mind. We have reduced it to pure business form. Success of perfume begins with the bottle. It must be eye- catching. It has to be rare-unseen here to before. 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 has invested billions of dollars in this business. In the Year l973 US company put into market its brand Charlie-an American life Style perfume, which has netted billions in US dollars and is still in demand. Perfumes are a mixture of oils diluted with eighty to ninety percent of alcohol. 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 kgs. 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 the 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 insaffronal, 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 thirty thousand. Twenty thousand we allot to perfumes Concentrates. Fifty thousand for bottle boxes taxes transportation And publicity. In all it would cost a hundred thousand. Now let us see what we gain. One thousand litres 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. That is a profit