Why Marie Antoinette wore perfume and why should I be Glad You're alive now

Perfume is not new. Marie Antoinette wore perfume when she was Queen of France. I was not even the first queen to wear perfume or hire the services of an official perfume manufacturer. Catherine de Medici (also Queen of France, many years earlier) brought with it a man to serve as a real perfume when he left his native Italy to marry Henry II of France. The perfumer brought the family had served Medici many years before embarking to Catherine of France. In Italy, the Medici had been poison-maker's official. This was a man of considerable professional versatility.

Catherine de Medici was an interesting character. She was the richest woman in the world at the time, not very handsome, and the last of a great dynasty Italian which, as you remember, engaged the services of a manufacturer of poison on staff. Catherine did not grow up in a home and uncles caramel quickly decided that would be best for all concerned (and by "all" they mean "yes") if Catherine were to marry into a family of powerful politicians.

Meanwhile, the family of Valois ruled the most powerful nations on earth, France. The Valois were powerful, self-absorbed, extremely cultured, and broke. A deal was made for Henry to marry Catherine in 1533. (Both were 14, which was considered a great age to marry in those days.) Catherine moved to France to be with her new husband. In a few years, was the King Henry II, Catherine was the queen and the king had given his father's mistress, a woman many years older than him.

Catherine devoted her life to a variety of interests, including being the pattern of Nostradamus, perfume, and annoying her husband's mistress. When her husband died in a freak accident, saw her children come to power as she was about the power behind the throne.

What happened in Catherine's day in the world of perfume was a clever Italian perfumer is suddenly introduced to a world of new flowers, plants and herbs. At that time there were only perfumers natural substances to work and generosity of this new botanical naturally led to the creation of more floral fragrances.

At the moment Bourbons came to power in France, the perfume had not only risen to an art, which was considered a medical necessity. Despite the opulence of the palaces of France, that lacked running water. Historians say that in some way to know things that report, it was not uncommon to find human feces in the elegant carpeted stairs of the great palaces. The batteries can be found in the halls and corridors. With bathing an oddity and a liberal interpretation and not the break room floor, the world court French stank.

One way for grown nostrils of the day to survive a constant environment was to dab some smell in the nose. It similar to the approach used by some medical examiners when applied mentholated ointment to the nose before the autopsy. Besides that, the perfume was intended to be an antiseptic. During the dark days of the Black Plague (when about a third of Europe died), it was believed that I could keep smelling the perfume that somehow protected.

This idea of rich people smell the perfume to mask the gamey and the world around them sick, soon coined the perfumed glove. For many years, aristocrats French wore gloves soaked in perfume that could only lift a real finger in the nose to protect olfactory assaults around them.

In fact, even today, glovemaking and perfumery are related arts in France.

When Marie Antoinette arrived on the scene, floral perfumes were all the rage. Perfume is no longer was seen as a miracle drug, but it was still believed to help dilute or kill the germs in the world still stinking around the French court. Perfumes are limited once a royal family, but to-day Marie Antoinette were in a wider distribution. However, they were so outrageously expensive that only the richest the rich could afford them.

In those days of the court of Versailles, the bath was a rarity. It was not entirely unknown, but is most likely reserved for special occasions such as birth and death. Men and women in the court would be washing sinks in their rooms, but probably more reserved in their care makeup to wash their faces to wash hands or other body parts.

Moreover, the clothes of the type used in court was exorbitantly expensive. Few people in the court, except maybe the queen, could afford to own more than one or two dresses. Corsets were sometimes used to help the ladies in these clothes, but we know as underwear panties were unknown at Versailles.

It is known that Marie Antoinette worked with a perfumer in court to develop a strong floral perfume. The formula has been preserved and it comes to re-create the original fragrance. If available today, which would be used as a fragrance. But Mary Antoinette used more to disguise the fact that he never bathed rarely changed clothes and was around people who were actually less hygienic than her.

Meanwhile, back in Germany, a small shop in Cologne was working on a light citrus scent that would become a more wide. This odor, known as 4711, a day is itsway medicine cabinet in Europe. It is still available today.

Aroma became more democratic. When he became a regular swimwear and health laws were instituted (with water) became the perfume less "medical" and cosmetics more. Along with that, the scent is less expensive. Normal people (well, normal people with money) may use perfume and get away with it.

Now perfume has been always a luxury item. Even today, it is an expensive commodity. But the emergence of the middle class (and by that I mean that the money in the world was being controlled by people much more) and increased hygiene created an unprecedented situation in which perfume can be enjoyed by itself.

Marie Antoinette wore perfume to protect against disease, health protection, block bathroom smells in the corridors of the palace, and disrupt the body odor of the gentlemen and gentle ladies around her in court. For her, the perfume was like a vitamin pill (a way to stay healthy) and a mood enhancer (a way to make the world more nice).

By the 1800s, the perfume was more common. Then in the 1920s, became a consumer product. Today, using perfume for sensory enjoyment of it. Few people today use perfume to mask the odor of the world around them, but rather to enhance their sensory experiences. No wonder floral aromas that heavy old Marie Antoinette today seems to get progressively lighter and airy.

About the Author

Want to know more about perfume? Visit http://www.thePerfume-Reporter.com for exclusive articles by Joanna McLaughlin not found anywhere else. While you’re there, visit our ship and get some fashionista accessories for the woman of fragrance. Joanna McLaughlin loves perfume and her favorite scent today is Gramercy Park by Bond No. 9.

Perfume up nose 2!!!!!!!!!

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