You are choosing your new face cream: read what it is made of, feel the consistency, bring your nose closer. If the texture is excellent, but its scent does not conquer you, you will hardly want to spread it on your skin!
It is like this: the scents of a face cream are not a detail at all and often condition the choice of a cosmetic or a body product. They do not affect its effectiveness, but undoubtedly the pleasantness of the fragrance transforms skin care into an enveloping pampering.In short, being seduced by a fragrance is not just a matter of nose: emotions and a good dose of desire to dream come in. In this article we discover the fascinating world of fragrances by answering 5 questions that we often hear.
Let's start with some curiosities, among Egyptian priests, alchemists and court ladies in Catherine de Medici's France ...
When did we start using perfumes?
The word perfume derives from the Latin term per fumum and evokes the ancient rite of fumigating bodies with essences by burning woods, resins, dried flowers, to tie earthly souls to a divine dimension. Without the use of fragrant fragrances, moreover, the practice of embalming the Egyptians would not have been so pleasant ...
The Greeks, the first true philosophers of the cult of beauty, brought the perfume from the gods to man: the "Treatise on Smells" by Theophrastus from Ereso (372 - 287 BC) was the first perfumery text in history, with all due respect of Socrates who deplored the new fashion of massaging lily essences or "kipros" with mint and bergamot aroma on the skin.
To mark a crucial point in the history of perfume was an all-Italian discovery, the distillation of alcohol: alcoholic perfumery was born in Salerno, around 1300.
But for the perfume to literally become a status symbol we must move to Renaissance France: Catherine de 'Medici arrived there who was just 14 years old, married to the Duke of Orleans, later king of France. Cultured and refined, she brought with her the famous perfumer Renato Bianco (or René le Florentin, as the Parisians called him) from Florence: the noble tradition of perfumery art thus entered the court and became a very prosperous activity for entire regions. Above all, the town of Grasse became famous, where Caterina had Florentine roses planted, laying the foundations of the world perfume industry.
How is a fragrance made?
In ancient times, before the discovery of alcoholic distillation, natural oils were used as a "vehicle" of the fragrance, but later on alcohol showed its advantages: odorless and easily volatile, alcohol is able to spread a fragrance without interfering with its bouquet.
Today the fragrances are born from the meeting of fragrant essences and alcohol: getting, from these two basic substances, to that potion that seduces the senses, is the result of the intuitions of great master perfumers, a true art.
Where do the essences of perfumes come from?
Almost all the perfumes, and therefore also the scents of the face creams, contain all or part of synthetic substances, especially phthalates: reading the INCI you could identify them as "diethylphthalate" or DEP. Phthalates are obtained from naphthalene, which in turn derives from oil.
Those who have particular problems of dermatitis or skin sensitization will necessarily have to turn to very selected products of 100% ecological bio-cosmetics. In this case, it will be easier to find plant essences in the scent of a face cream.
They are extracted from flowers, leaves, fruits, berries, wood or roots and the distillation process can take place with alcohol, with heat (i.e. by boiling the part of the plant until it releases the essence) or, for very delicate flowers like jasmine, through the enfleurage technique, placing the petals on a layer of fat which slowly absorbs the smell and is then distilled.
Much rarer to find fragrances of animal origin, both for the greater difficulty of extraction and for the widespread attention to cruelty free products: we still remember amber (a substance that sperm whales regurgitate spontaneously and can settle on the beaches), musk (extracted from musk ox), the castoreum (from the beaver).
Why does a fragrance conquer us?
"I want a woman-smelling perfume for women." With this request to her trusted perfumer Ernest Beaux, in 1921, Coco Chanel was bringing in the history of women's fashion and beauty what will become a real object of desire for classy women around the world: the sublime Chanel N. 5 made women dream (and probably many men, after Marylin Monroe confided in an interview to wear only "Two drops of Chanel N ° 5" in bed ...)
But why does a fragrance conquer us? Each fragrance is made up of top notes, heart notes, base notes: the so-called olfactory pyramid
the top note is the first that reaches the nose, citrus and aromatic, but it is also the first to fade
the heart note is the one that remains in the air as we pass, the soul of the perfume, floral or fruity
the base note is perceived last but is the most persistent: it can envelop you all day and has spicy, woody, oriental hints
Which fragrances can I choose in the B.easy personalized face cream?
By now you will be familiar with Dr. Lauranne's customizable face cream: B.easy. Which fragrances can you choose from when creating your ideal cream?
Seduction, sweetness, mystery. A perfume is an encrypted message to the world: it always communicates something about itself. Here are the scents of the face cream you can choose to create a completely personalized beauty ally.
CASHMIR: woody oriental touch, mixed with white flowers, mysterious and enveloping
VANILLA AND GINGER: meeting of sweet vanilla and pungent notes of ginger, an elegant and lively mix
INDULGING: floral-citrus note, sensual and luxurious
INCENSE AND BLACK PEPPER: vibrant and persistent essence between penetrating and spicy accords
GUAIACO WOOD: pinkish scent, slightly chypre, with a soft woody note
