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Saturday, September 21, 2024

What’s in a petrichor perfume: Baked soil and bacteria for the earthy scent in the bottle

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What’s in a petrichor perfume: Baked soil and bacteria for the earthy scent in the bottle

For centuries, perfumers in Kannauj – known as the perfume capital of India – have been creating earthy perfumes by capturing the scent of the season’s first rain in tiny bottles. This was before the term petrichor and international perfumes popularised this earthy scent.

Thanks to earthy scents and petrichor perfumes, you can feel the fragrance of the first rain of the season even on a dry day.

Do you know that earthy scent that fills the air after a rain on a summer afternoon? When the dry earth gets wet, a special fragrance emerges. It is called petrichor. For many, this earthy scent is a reminder of the carefree days of childhood; for others, it is the comforting touch of nature; for Indian songwriters, it is their favorite inspiration! Many also love it for its relaxing and calming effect.

So it’s no wonder that this simple yet complex, distinctive yet natural, and warm yet refreshing scent has been the subject of so many poems and songs. Ah! The warm embrace of this fragrance is unmatched.

thanks for doing Earthy perfume (This ITR Or Perfume), petrichor perfumes and scented candles, you can experience this magical smell even on a dry day. These products are created to mimic that relaxing earthy aroma, so you can wear it outdoors or enjoy the magic of nature indoors.

Earthy perfume
The scent of the first rain was captured in a bottle. (Photo: Amla Earth)

Many international brands like Jo Malone and La Labo offer petrichor perfumes. But these came much later. Even the word petrichor came much later. For centuries, perfumers in Kannauj – known as the perfume capital of India – have been making perfumes. Earthy perfumeCapturing the fragrance of the first rain of the season in small bottles.

What is in a name?

As for the term petrichor, it was coined in the 1960s by Australian researchers Isabel Joy Beyer and Richard Grenfell Thomas when they studied the distinctive scent released when rain falls on dry earth. Nature In a 1965 journal, Beyer and Thomas discovered that the smell of mud is produced by compounds emitted by certain plants during dry periods. This oil, along with other molecules, is absorbed by soil and rocks. When it rains, the moistening of these porous materials releases the oil into the air, binding with another compound called geosmin, produced by soil-dwelling bacteria such as actinomycetes.

But why the word petrichor? It has a connection to Greek mythology. The pair of researchers coined the term from the Greek words ‘petra’, meaning stone, and ‘ichor’, meaning the fluid that flowed in the veins of the gods.

But in Kannauj, where there are more than 300 perfume shops that prepare oil-based natural fragrances (Perfume) using age-old distillation methods, Earthy Attar Petrichor perfumes have been made for centuries. “While petrichor perfumes are now popular around the world, India was the first place to create a wearable fragrance using this scent,” says Vidushi Vijayvargiya, founder and CEO of fragrance brand Isaac Fragrances.

First Rain Perfume Oil by Isaac Fragrances.
First Rain Perfume Oil by Isaac Fragrances.

Divya Gupta of Rahi Perfumes, a seventh-generation perfumer in Kannauj, explains india today who is making his family Earthy Attar for more than two centuries. “This is a very unique fragrance made from real Soil,” He says.

What goes in the bottle?

You will find many perfumers in Kannauj selling these signature earthen perfumes. Most of these are B2B companies that also have an online retail presence. But what do these small perfumers do? Perfume Do you want bottles that instantly take you back to that moment when the rain was just waiting to fall? Well, it all started with many hours of hard work and lots of baked mud.

Traditional degree And burst This method is used to make earthen perfumes. Perfume Divya Gupta explains, “It is made by distilling the scent of baked mud, which usually occurs after the first rain of the monsoon season. The mud is collected, baked and then steam distilled to extract its unique aroma.”

The process begins with removing clay from the topsoil, which is then baked in a kiln. The baked clay is often shaped into discs or even Kulharis submerged in water degree (a large copper pot) in batches. The degrees are carefully heated to allow steam (carrying the essence of the clay) to rise. This steam then passes through a bamboo pipe into an earthen pot. burst (a receiver flask) containing the base oil Perfume,

Perfume making work in Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh. (Photo: Getty Images)

Gaurav Mehrotra of Pooja & Perfumery in Kannauj explains that 1 litre Earthy Attar Depending on the desired quality and intensity, this can take anywhere from a week to a month. “Earlier, pure sandalwood oil was used as a base Soil ItarsBut because of rising prices, many people now use carrier oil instead,” he said. india today,

Earthy perfume It is one of the best-selling products for the perfumers who make it in Kannauj. Until a decade ago, only 10 percent of perfumeries in Kannauj were making it. Earthy Attar,

“Though we export our products to other countries, the most demanded Earthy Attar It comes from India. People love it Scent of the Earth’s clay and want to keep it with themselves,” says Mehrotra. Perfume It can also be used as an ingredient in perfumes.

In the world of chemical perfumes, there are several common ingredients that become the soul of petrichor perfumes. One of them is vetiver essence, which is derived from the roots of petrichor. Khas Grassy. Vetiver’s grassy scent smells like the moment when summer ends and the monsoon season begins.

Vetiver Mousson perfume by Lilanoor, available on Goodearth, is one such fragrance. It retails for Rs 21,200. It is also present in Petrichor by Marisa Zappas and Undergrowth by London-based Rook Perfumes. It is also present in Thunderstorm by Demeter Fragrance Library, which is a popular petrichor perfume. Apart from vetiver, it also uses patchouli to enhance the scent of wet soil – another popular ingredient in petrichor perfumes.

Leelanur
Vetiver Mousson by Leelanur, is a petrichor perfume, retailing at Rs 21,200.

Geosmin (a compound produced by soil-dwelling bacteria such as actinomycetes) is also a popular ingredient in perfumes that smell like the air after rain on dry soil. Petrichor perfumes often use a synthetic version.

However, new age Indian perfumers familiar with developments around the world say that India’s petrichor is unmatched.

For example, Vidushi of Isaac Fragrances uses self-made products. Earthy Attar With his newly launched First Rain perfume, he said international brands do not take this route.

“When I opened the bottle of Isaac’s First Rain at the World Perfumery Congress in Geneva, everyone was stunned by its scent. His Petrichor perfumes don’t have such an earthy smell,” she says.

Divya Gupta from Kannauj agrees and says that perfumes labelled as petrichor are often very different from regular perfumes. Earthy Attar He already makes perfumes. He says his perfumes smell more like grass than soil.

Vidushi says, “Even though the perfume industry in India has a 5,000-year-old history, we blindly run after Italian and other international perfume brands. After spending a few years in Europe, I understood how they were able to make a mark despite limited resources. India is a mine of resources and now it’s time that we celebrate the beauty of Indian perfumes.”

This year, we are facing a prolonged monsoon. But once it is over and you crave to smell that soul-soothing fragrance Scent of the Earth’s clayYou know which bottle to get.

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