Everything But The Weed

Approved by:
Linda Maze, a Wedding photography Gainesville FL in Gainesville Florida

Fragrances have played a deep emotional role for a long time. People have delighted in the pleasurable practice of perfuming themselves with aromatic blossom blends for thousands of years. Before the 1900s fragrances were basic and uncomplicated, like vanilla and jasmine water extracted from out of the back garden. Science changed all that in the 20th century, replacing pure, unadulterated organic ingredients under an avalance of chemical impostors.

The fragranceboom begun when Jacques Guerlain created Shalimar in 1925, and Francois Coty released his fragrances, Grasse, Chypre de Coty, and La Rose Jacqueminot. Scientific advances during WWII enabled the formation of even more elaborate chemical perfume classics like Opium, Chanel No. 5, and 4711.  When Charles Revson designed Charlie for Revlon, women began purchasing perfume for themselves. Cosmetic stores everywhere were filled with a glut of synthetic perfumes made by multinationals and their copy cats.

Following that the business has grown. And in fact, in the weeks leading up to Christmas this year, it will be predicted that a bottle of Chanel No.5 perfume will sell every 30 seconds around the globe.

The good news is that shoppers are becoming more critical. And with escalating concers about the consequence of synthetic perfumes on the well being of both individuals and the planet, there is now a trend in the direction of specialist or niche scents, perfume created in small amounts by traditionally skilled artisans, for example miessence perfumes. Sometimes billed as ‘natural’, a number of of these perfumes still include sometimes harmful artificial ingredients, unlike organic fragrances

Banning manufactured scents from the work place is turning out to be a social issue of the time. A growing number of people are experiencing from multiple chemical sensitivities, (MCS Syndrome), with recorded sensitive reactions such as headaches, dizziness, irritability, hypertension, and depression. Giving these people with a aroma-free surroundings has become such a critical issue that it won’t go away.  The concern has been taken up across the world and carries on to grow in intensity.

Australian environmental expert Dr. Mark Donohoe has been cited as saying that he believes that the artificial fragrance issue could become even larger than the anti-smoking activities of the past.  Even now, anti-fragrance reform is taking place in the most unlikely places. England’s Lady Mar is a high profile campaigner on chemical poisoning issues in the Uk. In 2004, she nearly single-handedly succeeded in preventing the excessive use of synthetic colognes and perfumes in the resolutely traditional British House of Lords.

The European Committee has begun research to appraise the applications of all chemicals on the European market. Germany now has regulations to combat synthetic fragrance issues. And in the US, workers are claiming protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act.  Yet, for now, it appears that control is most likely to be influenced by employers reacting to workers’ complaints. Writing in the Melbourne Age (2004), Elisabeth King said, ‘…after banning the wearing of freshly dry-cleaned clothes, perfumes, and over-fragranced cleaning products on a trial basis, they (employers) often discover that all of their employees, not just MCS sufferers, feel much better.’