Perfumes for Personal and Home Use
Everyone enjoys the inhalation of a beautiful perfume. There is no better example than the common spontaneous desire to sniff a rose. We hope for an exquisite sensory experience that may be subtle and elusive yet we seek to be reminded of it and to repeat the pleasure, although never prolonged to our full satisfaction.
In spite of this, scent and perfume play a strong and lasting role in human life, both in personal use and in the environment, remaining a challenge to our desire to ‘have and to hold’ beautiful experiences.
The modern perfume industry is demonstrating constant growth. We enjoy the freedom to choose from an ever widening range of scents to suit our personal preferences in our grooming and in our use of household products. High class perfumery continues to remain in high demand as affluence allows high expenditure by consumers in the perfume market. Although the market has been generally undercut by chemists able to analyse the ingredients used and replicate the famous brand products, the originals retain a selective market.
Natural essential oils and essences remain in demand for the sophisticated commercial perfumes which utilize a high percentage of them but the general public has been made aware of the advantage in being able to purchase the individual oils to blend and use according to their health needs as well as for their olfactory enjoyment.
Aromatherapy has expanded in popularity as a profession that offers a gentle form of non- invasive therapy that has the potential to result in benefit to body and brain. The psychological benefits are well known now with inhalations of lavender, for instance, providing relief from mental stress.
The choice of lavender as a personal perfume is used to soothe but also to harmonize with the individual’s gentle qualities, moods and personality as the stronger, woody oils such as pine, cedar and sandalwood are more masculine in their influence.
We cannot ignore the negative things that also register on this sensitive instrument of olfaction that we possess that alerts us to potential dangers of increasing toxic chemical fumes that are polluting our environment. These are larger issues that must be dealt with on national and international levels to help preserve the health of our planet.
But we do have the power to use beneficial aromatics on our person and in our homes.
Included in the many ways we employ essential oils are as natural deodorants and skin care, or in perfumed baths, massage oils, as direct inhalants, in scented pillows and pot pourri or lit as incense.
