The return of the oldest, most luxurious perfume in the world | Culture

Two years in the past, the perfumer Cécile Zarokian acquired an uncommon request. It got here from Renaud Salmon, the inventive director of Amouage, a luxurious perfume home based in Oman: he was to imagine a problem the perfume home had pending, specifically, to reinvent a portion of its assortment of attars – oil-based perfumes that beforehand solely individuals residing in Oman have been legally in a position to purchase.To meet the problem, the perfumer needed to undertake the variety of meticulous market analysis that may’t be finished on-line: “Creating a 100% pure oil perfume was utterly new to me, and an enormous problem,” says Zarokian. “I visited loads of souks, contacted conventional suppliers to obtain samples and mentioned the matter at size. All the fragrances had that exact uncooked, wild dimension, with a sure roughness and loads of texture, depth and richness. That’s what I wanted to work with to develop my formulation. Without it, I might have misplaced the soul of the real attar.”There’s nothing arbitrary about the course of of concocting an attar. A devoted testomony to the evolution of perfume making, the attar – or Ittar – boasts greater than 60,000 years of historical past and an ancestral custom of secret formulation that have been handed down from era to era.An attar is determined by who makes it. From the legendary rose compositions, comparable to the basic Gulab, to the present variations with the most costly ouds, every concoction is infused with a singular thriller. Furthermore, the attar can’t be separated from historical ritual and therapeutic makes use of. Hindu sadhus and non secular seekers used these scents for his or her journey to enlightenment. They have been additionally utilized by the Sufi dervishes for his or her hypnotic dances.A rose picker photographed for Amouage’s Rose Aqor attar marketing campaign.AmouageThe first attars have been concocted by medical doctors and used for medicinal functions, based on the high quality of their elements: utilized chilly, attars constituted of jasmine and rose have been used to carry down fevers or to chill off in scorching temperatures. Warm attars constituted of saffron or oud have been used to extend physique temperature. The objective of this oldest perfume in the world was primarily to treatment and to make use of as an providing to the gods. Made from grinding the pure botanical elements in pure oil, usually sandalwood, it will be left to mature till it obtained an depth fairly completely different from trendy perfumes which use alcohol or a solvent as a base, which is, of course, extra economical and broadly obtainable. The ageing course of for attars can vary from one to 10 years.The complexity of the course of signifies that the attar reacts in another way on completely different skins. The heat of our pores and skin releases an aroma of candy, smoked or spicy nuances. The attar could be easy, comparable to the Gulab, constituted of rose petals steeped in sandalwood, or extra advanced, comparable to the Shamama attar, with has greater than 40 elements, together with flowers, herbs and resins. One of the most widespread is the Mitti attar – perfume of the earth – which is a mix of botanical vegetation that evokes the precise second when the monsoon hits the dry earth. This later turned often known as Petricor – the perfume of rain, though there at the moment are many various variations.The first attars have been made in India, or extra particularly, Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh, the epicenter of the perfume tradition. References to its elaboration could be discovered in sixth century texts, and legend has it that the governor of the metropolis of Awadh would put attar round his bed room for aphrodisiacal functions. The most unique perfumes, bottled in small decanters, got to friends as a gesture of hospitality, a customized particular to the Mughal Empire. Being largely concocted from base notes, the perfume was very wealthy and intense. The superior high quality of the elements and the advanced course of they underwent to provide the attar meant the consequence was one thing akin to liquid gold with an equal price ticket. The attar was, in reality, a treasure which turned all however extinct on account of the problem in buying the conventional elements, comparable to the coveted sandalwood or the wild oud.The new assortment of attars by the Omani label, Amouage. AmouageIn actual fact, Amouage is one of the few worldwide perfume homes that has stored the attar custom alive. Last yr, the agency, based by Omani royalty in the Eighties, offered its new assortment of concentrated perfume oils to exchange the one which preceded it – a set discontinued some years again. Cécile Zarokian has been put in cost of replicating some of the most emblematic attars for the Amouage home, comparable to Rose Aqor (impressed by the historical rose-based Ruh Gulab) and Saffron Hamra (utilizing the world’s most costly spice, Kesar).The attar can also be very advanced from a technical level of view, as immediately’s attars should adjust to strict worldwide perfume laws. “I wished to pay a recent however professional tribute to this historical custom to honor the heritage and permit the individuals to recollect the origins of perfume,” says Zarokian. The Saffron Hamra attar, combining saffron, rose and Cade wooden, is an ode to the crimson hue of the Al Hamra village at the foot of Oman’s highest peak. It is an opulent scent, but additionally balsamic on account of the medicinal properties of the coveted Kesar spice.So, is that this the reincarnation of the attar? The rising recognition of oil-based perfumery is sort of definitely on account of the naturalness of its elements and the craftsmanship concerned in placing it collectively. “Attars meet the calls for of present tendencies,” says Zarokian. “The intimate gesture of making use of just a few drops is in line with our deal with self-care and wellbeing, a lot in vogue in latest years. The conventional and historic side addresses the thirst for authenticity and information, and the pure and alcohol-free elements handle the development of clear, nature-oriented magnificence.”Sign up for our weekly e-newsletter to get extra English-language information protection from EL PAÍS USA Edition

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