Understanding the Battle between Natural and Synthetic Ingredients
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Throughout the 15th, 16th and 17th century, synthetic ingredients for perfume making were unheard of. Chemists to help aid the art of perfumes were unheard of and even distillation, a fairly easy process today, seemed impossible then.
Everything was au natural. The first Egyptian fragrance called Kyphi were made up of plant extracts such as peppermint, myrrh, saffron, cinnamon and juniper. Another interesting contraption for perfuming by the Egyptians were their Rose Cones. Fresh macerated roses were placed on a cone on their heads. The heat, sweat and natural oil allowed the perfume oil to trickle down and glide through their necks and back.
Romans used perfume together with their Roman baths. During this time, other European countries also had extra room in their houses for making perfume and cosmetics. The French Queen Marie Antoinette was famous for commissioning people to make vanity materials such as cosmetics and perfume. Jean Louis Fargeon was the commissioned perfumer and used ingredients such as violets, roses, lilies and tuberoses.
The growth of the Industrial Revolution after the death of Marie Antoinette added to the death of a lot of natural ingredients for perfume making. This was because people left their homes to work in big cities. Plants and Animals that made natural ingredients for perfume were forgotten. Along with the Revolution, science also flourished in this stage. This was the birth of synthetic ingredients.
Synthetic ingredients try to replicate natural ingredients or create chemicals that simply no natural ingredient can do for perfume. Try as they might though, synthetic sources can never replicate the healing properties of natural ingredients. However, they do have some advantages natural sources do not have. Plants do not usually produce essential oil all year round or if they do, they produce very little quantities the way 2,000 pounds of rose petals make 1 pound of essential oil while synthetic materials can be produced all year round. Plus, synthetic ingredients take up very little land space. All it takes is a laboratory unlike hectares of land for growing flowers to extract oil from.
There are synthetic ingredients which do not try to replicate nature but rather create a new scent so unlike it that the novelty is refreshing for other people. Coco Chanel once asked her perfumer, Ernst Breaux, to create something 'completely artificial'.
Whichever one decides really depends on their values and priorities. It is interesting to note though that the debate on which one to choose has been going on centuries before us.
