A long time ago, people found a way to create a nice smell. They put nice-smelling wood or leaves into a fire. A nice smell came through the smoke. That is how we got the word perfume. In Latin, per means “through,” and fumus means “smoke.”
In ancient times, people used a lot of perfume. The Greeks used different perfumes for different parts of the body. Everybody used perfume, both men and women. When guests came for a special dinner, the host gave them more perfume to put on themselves. The Romans did the same as the Greeks. But they did not just perfume themselves once a day. They perfumed themselves three times a day! They also perfumed their dogs and horses. They perfumed their flags and things around the house such as drapes and cushions. Perfume was as important as food.
Today, perfume is not as natural as it was in the past. Perfume is also not simple to make. A perfume expert must tell the difference among nineteen thousand different smells. Most of these smells are from chemicals; they are not from real flowers. For a very good perfume today, the expert mixes more than a hundred ingredients.
Perfume has other uses too. Plastic that smells like leather is just one example. Also, scientists are finding that some smells make us feel better. They help us to relax, to sleep, or to feel happier. Scientists found that the smell of apples with spices can make our blood pressure go down. In the future, we may use perfume in a completely different way.
Perfumes we see in the stores have names of famous designers like Gucci or Chanel on them. Some perfumes even have names of movie stars on them. People buy perfumes not just for the smell, but also for the name.