![]() ![]() One of the most popular is the Mitti attar – perfume of the earth – which is a blend of botanical plants that evokes the exact moment when the monsoon hits the dry earth. The attar can be simple, such as the Gulab, made from rose petals steeped in sandalwood, or more complex, such as the Shamama attar, with has more than 40 ingredients, including flowers, herbs and resins. The warmth of our skin releases an aroma of sweet, smoked or spicy nuances. The complexity of the process means that the attar reacts differently on different skins. The ageing process for attars can range from one to 10 years. ![]() Made from grinding the natural botanical ingredients in pure oil, often sandalwood, it would be left to mature until it obtained an intensity quite different from modern perfumes which use alcohol or a solvent as a base, which is, of course, more economical and widely available. The purpose of this oldest perfume in the world was primarily to cure and to use as an offering to the gods. Warm attars made from saffron or oud were used to increase body temperature. The first attars were concocted by doctors and used for medicinal purposes, according to the quality of their ingredients: applied cold, attars made from jasmine and rose were used to bring down fevers or to cool off in hot temperatures. A rose picker photographed for Amouage’s Rose Aqor attar campaign. They were also used by the Sufi dervishes for their hypnotic dances. Hindu sadhus and spiritual seekers used these scents for their journey to enlightenment. Furthermore, the attar cannot be separated from ancient ritual and therapeutic uses. From the legendary rose compositions, such as the classic Gulab, to the current versions with the most expensive ouds, each concoction is infused with a unique mystery. A faithful testament to the evolution of perfume making, the attar – or Ittar – boasts more than 60,000 years of history and an ancestral tradition of secret formulas that were passed down from generation to generation.Īn attar depends on who makes it. There’s nothing arbitrary about the process of concocting an attar. Without it, I would have lost the soul of the genuine attar.” That’s what I needed to work with to develop my formulas. All the fragrances had that particular raw, wild dimension, with a certain roughness and a lot of texture, depth and richness. “I visited a lot of souks, contacted traditional suppliers to receive samples and discussed the matter at length. To meet the challenge, the perfumer had to undertake the kind of meticulous market research that can’t be done online: “Creating a 100% pure oil fragrance was completely new to me, and a huge challenge,” says Zarokian. It came from Renaud Salmon, the creative director of Amouage, a luxury perfume house founded in Oman: he was to assume a challenge the perfume house had pending, namely, to reinvent a portion of its collection of attars – oil-based perfumes that previously only people living in Oman were legally able to buy. Two years ago, the perfumer Cécile Zarokian received an unusual request. ![]()
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