Welcome back to the Gentleman's Gazette in our mini-series on cologne and
fragrances.
today's part one, we discuss the history of Cologne in part II, we talk
about how to pick the right Cologne for you as well as how to apply it and part
three is about do's and don'ts.
There are entire YouTube channels and websites solely dedicated to Cologne and
fragrances.
last time I checked, smell-o-vision wasn't a thing of reality
so it may come as a bit of a surprise.
at the same time, the fragrance you choose
can be a defining component of your style and who you are in the perception of
others.
unlike your clothes, cologne can leave a long-lasting non visual
impression however it can also be very subjective and so we thought it was a
good idea to create a mini-series on Cologne and fragrances. of course I also
share with you what I use and for what reasons and at what time during the day
and during what season.
so first of all let's talk about the history.
cologne has been around since the old days of
Mesopotamia in Egypt.
it was quite rudimentary at a time but essentially
was considered to be a part of alchemy.
the first perfume was a person known as tapputi.
by using distilled flowers oils and other aromatics tapputi was
able to create the first kind of perfume which is similar to what we know
today.
by the 9th century the book of chemistry of perfume was written by the
arab Al-Kindi.
later on a Persian chemist of the name of Avicenna experimented
with extracting oils from flowers by distilling them particularly roses.
the perfume was introduced to Europe during the medieval period.
it would take until the 14th century until Hungarians
created the first alcohol-based perfume.
at this time perfumes or fragrances were only available to the very rich and they
were usually used to mask the odors on the streets.
at that time there was no common septic system or sewer system in
the cities so typically a gentleman or a lady would apply cologne onto her
handkerchief hold them in front of their nose as
they would walk down the smelly streets at the time perfume so desirable there
expensive that the laboratories were only often be reachable by secret
passageways to avoid stealing.
so why is cologne called cologne?
actually it aids back to the German city of Cologne which
in German is actually called KOLN. in 1709 the
Italian native Giovanni Maria Farina who had emigrated to cologne invented the
first perfume as we know it today. he named his creation eau de Cologne
which means as much as water of Cologne in order to pay homage to his new
hometown.
it was popular at the time it became known as aqua mirabilis which
means as much as miracle water.
a single vial of that stuff sold for half the
annual salary of a public servant in Germany at the time.
quite a bit isn't it?
it was believed to be a Fountain of Youth and doctors even encourage their
patients to drink it during the 19th century there were disputes by the name
of Farina and eventually the eau de cologne 4711
was created towards the end of the 19th century.
it is still round today in the supposedly same recipe and you can buy
it everywhere.
honestly I'm not a huge fan of it but ever since that the eau de
Cologne has been around to denote a form of fragrance.
what is cologne today?
on the one hand it means any kind of fragrance for men.
on the other hand the term eau de cologne
is used to determine the aromatics portions of a fragrance for example
traditionally colognes or perfumes would contain 20 to 30 or 40% of flavor
components.
today eau de parfum also known as EDP usually is about 15 to 20
percent.
eau de toilette usually is 10 to 15 percent of aromatics and eau de
Cologne is anywhere from two to four or sometimes three to eight percent and eau fraiche
things or the Cologne is actually not quite desirable anymore
you'd rather want to go with eau de parfum
so if there only so few aromatics in Cologne what's the rest of
it?
basically when you read the ingredients you oftentimes see aqua
which means as much as distilled water nothing else
other parts basically ethanol which is alcohol because it evaporates quickly
but it helps to stabilize the scent on top of that you can usually find other
stabilizers such as benzoic acid or in fact 70% of all consumer
fragrances on the market today contains DEP some people are concerned
about it because are known to be not good for your health
however in the case of DEP there's no evidence that has a negative impact on
you or your health at least none at this point usually one that less percent of a
are DEP at the same time they're not listed on
the ingredients list which personally I find quite concerning because as a
consumer I'd rather like to know what's in it and what is not so I can make a
decision by myself another common stabilizer is beeswax but it's usually
something you find in solid forms such as scented candles so if you read beeswax
it doesn't mean that it's particularly natural or anything it's a common
stabilizer in industry
alright now that you know the historic basics of Cologne
let's move on to part two about how to pick the cologne that's right for you and
how to apply it
If you want to know what I'm wearing today
stay tuned for the outfit description in part three