Eau de Cologne

When people can’t think of a present to give that’s different in some way, they often end up buying perfume, cologne  or aftershave.

Are you wearing any now?

Scientists say mammals (that includes us) are attracted to each other unconsciously by their natural smell. But according to the advertisements, a fragrance is your secret weapon with the opposite sex: choose the right one and the boy or girl of your dreams will find you irresistible. You could spend anything from a few euros in a departments store to hundreds of euros for a tiny bottle of an exclusive perfume at a Paris salon.

But can anyone really tell the difference between them?

A campaign is currently underway in the USA to ban the use of perfume. Not just the perfume the people wear but also the other perfumes around us like those in washing powders, air fresheners, hair spray, cleaning fluids, polishes, toilet deodorisers etc. People who are most affected by them includes asthmatics, allergy sufferers and those who gets migraine headaches, but many other people find strong fragrance offensive. So the campaign aims to stop this form of “pollution” of our atmosphere. It appears to be having some success, too.

There are now air-freshener-free cinemas, odour free rooms in hotel and even “cologne free” waiters in restaurants. Some airlines are now also on the look for passengers who may cause offence!

Will wearing fragrance eventually be seen as antisocial in the way smoking is now?

What do you think? Will we see the day when wearing perfume will be only something you can do in the privacy of your own home?

By the way, do you know that originally the water of Cologne was believed to have the power to ward off bubonic plague?

In fact, it seems that it was first taken to Germany by the French soldiers who used   “eau de toilette” as a disinfectant, later the  original Eau de Cologne a spirit-citrus perfume was launched in Cologne  in 1709 by Giovanni Maria Farina  (1685–1766), an Italian perfume maker from Santa Maria Maggiore Valle Vigezzo.

After you have read all this information, I would like you to investigate  the history of perfume, then create your own perfume, drawing the logo, the bottle and the adv.