THE INTERNATIONAL PERFUME FOUNDATION
  • Home
  • Bienvenue
  • Qui sommes nous ?
    • Mission
    • Histoire
    • Notre équipe
    • Liens
  • About
    • Vision-Mission
    • History
    • IPF Team
    • Links
  • EDUCATION
    • Certified Schools >
      • Online Schools
      • Local Schools
    • Teacher's Academy
    • The Healing Garden
    • The Perfume Roads
    • Empowering Women
    • Children's Programs >
      • Les Ateliers des Petits Nez
      • Earth Keepers
  • ÉDUCATION
    • Ecoles Certifiées >
      • Ecoles online
      • Ecoles locales
    • Teacher's Academy
    • Le Jardin Parfumé
    • Les Routes du Parfum
    • Privilégier les Femmes
    • Programmes pour Enfants >
      • Les Ateliers des Petits Nez
      • Les Gardiens de la Planète
  • CERTIFICATION
    • About Certification
    • Directory
    • Certified Schools >
      • Online Schools
      • Local Schools
    • Natural Perfumers
    • Natural Aromatherapists
    • Olfaction Trainers
    • Perfumotherapists
    • Natural Beauty Products Specialists
    • Natural Candle Producers
    • Natural Incense Producers
    • Flower and Plant Growers
    • Flower and Plant Harvesters
    • Indigenous Flower and Plant Harvesters
    • Natural Essential Oil Producers
    • Essential Oil Bottlers and Distributors
    • Natural Perfumery Retailers
    • Certification Applications
    • Standards and Guidelines
  • CERTIFICATION
    • Importance de la Certification
    • Annuaire de la Parfumerie Naturelle
    • Ecoles Certifiées >
      • Ecoles online
      • Ecoles locales
    • Parfumeurs Naturels
    • Aromathérapeutes Naturels
    • Coach Olfactif
    • Parfumothérapeutes
    • Producteurs de produits de beauté naturels
    • Fabricants de bougies naturelles
    • Producteurs d'encens naturels certifiés
    • Cultivateurs de fleurs et de plantes
    • Récoltants de fleurs et de plantes
    • Récoltants de fleurs et de plantes indigènes
    • Producteurs d'huiles essentielles naturelles
    • Distributeurs d'huiles essentielles
    • Détaillants parfumerie naturelle
    • Demandes de Certification
    • Directives et Guidelines
  • AWARDS
    • New Luxury Awards
    • Submission
    • New Luxury Awards 2019
    • New Luxury Awards 2020
  • AWARDS
    • New Luxury Awards
    • Inscription
    • New Luxury Awards 2019
    • New Luxury Awards 2020
  • Events
  • Événements
  • Research
  • Recherche
  • World Heritage Program
    • Growing >
      • Sustainable Aquilaria
    • Processing
    • Preserving
  • Conservation du Patrimoine
    • Planter >
      • Replanter l'Aquilaria
    • Produire
    • Préserver
  • MEMBERSHIP
    • Membership Info
    • Corporate Members
    • Community >
      • For Students Only
      • Forum
  • DEVENIR MEMBRE
    • Infos
    • Membres Corporate
    • Communauté
  • Blog
  • News
  • News
  • MÉDIAS
    • Revue de Presse
    • Campagnes >
      • Parfumerie Naturelle
  • MEDIA
    • Press Review
    • Campaigns >
      • Natural Perfumery Campaign
      • Healing Garden Campaign
  • Contact

PERFUME LOVERS BLOG

                       THE SECRET POWERS OF FLOWERS

23/7/2015

2 Comments

 
Picture

                                                                  Author: Terry Johnson

It is quite easy and understandable to get caught up in the fast pace and stress of our 21st Century culture and miss the importance of how greatly flowers can positively affect our lives in many almost metaphysical ways.

Ancient cultures certainly recognized these phenomena involving the connections between human experience and flowers, which explains the consistent presence of flowers at important societal ceremonies, such as births, marriages, and funerals.

Besides the symbolism flowers represent (the German philosopher Goethe claimed when he looked at a flower with the naked eye, he could instinctively experience our whole cycle of existence) as well as the "meanings" associated with individual flower varieties or colors, there is certainly much more. Flowers truly do touch us profoundly and mysteriously.

With consumers putting a greater emphasis on improving their indoor environment, we have a great opportunity to educate flower shop professionals, and ourselves with how wonderfully flowers help us all achieve improved health, happiness, and productivity. For instance, since some consumers practice Feng Shui, they can count on the ability of flowers to help balance the energy between natural and man-made objects central to Feng Shui.

Drawing from science, several universities have released similar studies finding solid links between flowers and human health, happiness, and workplace productivity, confirming what many have observed intuitively, and seeming to verify what ancient cultures have emphasized for thousands of years.

For example, Rutgers University's study revealed “the presence of flowers triggers happy emotions, heightens feelings of life satisfaction and affects social behavior in a positive manner far beyond what is normally believed,” according to Dr. Jeannette Haviland-Jones, Professor of Research at Rutgers and lead researcher on the study. “What’s most exciting about this study is that it challenges established scientific beliefs about how people can manage their day-to-day moods in a healthy and natural way,” explained Haviland-Jones.

Could it be science is finally catching up to this power that flowers possess, much like the medical field has come to accept acupuncture as a viable, mainstream solution to a wide range of human health problems?

You don’t have to convince Dianne Morgado, Morgado Nursery, Keaau, Hawaii. Diagnosed with breast cancer in 1991 and having left a career in banking and finance behind, Dianne was invited to help a friend with an orchid growing operation he was starting up. Stressed out, feeling down and without much self-confidence, Dianne discovered that growing and just being around orchids was a “life-affirming and life-changing” experience. She was so taken by the experience she decided to start her own orchid growing business in 2002, which has three greenhouses and is still growing. Not surprisingly, Dianne credits orchids with helping make her a cancer survivor. Listening to Dianne speak so lovingly of orchids is much like reading the noted 19th Century French author Marcel Proust, who, when thinking of the silk-and-satin texture of orchids, spoke of “the passionate longing one feels sometimes for a particular flower.”

What seems to be the unifying theme here with acupuncture, Feng Shui, and the therapeutic and uplifting effects of flowers is energy. Perhaps the Ancients were right, and the secrets of health, happiness and productivity is the flow of energy within ourselves, within our environment and the recognition that flowers enhance connectivity between the two.

It is fitting that the flower industry is now in the position of offering consumers a range of products, not just for their beauty and artistry, but more importantly because they provide that valuable connection and balance between the natural world and our own stressed out world.

This makes it even more important for all of us to work towards giving consumers the freshest, longest lasting flowers that will encourage everyone to make flowers part of their daily lives.


2 Comments

AWISS, The Temiar CHIEF TEACHING THE YOUNG ONES 

14/7/2015

0 Comments

 

Malaysia, Temiar Forest July 2015


Awiss, the Temiar Village Chief, is shown here teaching his youngest ones how important nature is for their life and wellbeing. This highlights how vital the International Perfume Foundation’s program to replant aquilarea trees is to the region .

The importance of our natural world, its care and preservation, should be part of every country’s education/school program. 

The value of Chief Awiss’ teaching as shown here cannot be overstated, and is an excellent example of how precious knowledge of nature and its bounty has been shared verbally through storytelling from one generation to another for thousands of years. Unfortunately, there are many other places around the world that have lost their heritage forever. Many other regions are at risk of losing their special knowledge of the natural world as older community members pass away and newer generations fail to see the richness of their past legacy.

Thanks to Awiss, this legacy of the value of these plants to the Temiar People will be preserved for future generations.

Thanks to the International Perfume Foundation and its sponsors the actual plants and flowers he is teaching about can also be preserved through our World Heritage Program.

#WorldHeritage #Perfume
0 Comments

SUPPORT GREECE, CRADLE OF EUROPE, Perfume and Cosmetics.

2/7/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture

It is our duty to protect Greece as Greece is part of our heritage and the cradle of our civilisation, but also the cradle of many of our successful industries such as perfume and cosmetics. The International Perfume Foundation encourages all perfume lovers and the businesses of perfume to support Thom Feeney's initiative on Indiegogo: Greek Bailout Fund.


For a long time, Perfume remained an important source of revenue for Greece. Cargos of wax-sealed vials and vases containing perfume oils were leaving the Peloponnese or Crete destined for Mediterranean ports. 

Masters in the Art of creating perfumes, Masters in the Art of Cosmetics, ornament and make-up, Masters of the Art of packaging, the Greeks created the first industry of perfumery during Ancient times. 

In Ancient Greece perfumes were not only used as a tributes to gods but also as a sign of their presence. According to Homer, when a divine entity from the Olympus paid a visit to a mortal, they left behind the smell of ragweed. According to the texts by the Roman author Virgil, Venus (Aphrodite) created rose perfume. 

                                                                          One day, 
                                Venus wanted to cut a white flower and pricked herself, 
                                        covering her with an everlasting purple color 
                                                                          To Cupid, 
                                         the rose seemed so beautiful that he kissed it… 
                                                 This is where its smell comes from. 

In Ancient Greece's everyday life, perfume was not a neutral thing or simply an aroma but a feminine being. It was used in and for everything; as a life elixir, a nectar, a ragweed.
It gave hope of immortality to Man because the gods were beautiful and immortal. 

In order to resemble the gods, Greeks, concerned about their appearance and beauty created the Art of Cosmetics[1]. 
The sculptural art reflects this refined lifestyle. Greece was then a country of farmers, breeders, Artisans and a warrior aristocracy. 
 
Due to its geographical location and numerous islands around, Greece, it was a gateway to Minor Asia, Syria and Egypt. 
Thanks to its fleet and its ports, traders came from all over the world supplying a large variety of raw materials, oils and perfume ointments. 

The Greeks are credited for having added spices to gums and balms and perfumed oils to flowers. 
Flowers and plants used for export had to be preserved in order to be transformed. Olive oil, one of the main resources of Greece, was used as an ointment and as an ingredient or absorbent in perfume oils. From a very early time, the Greeks practiced ‘enfleurage’ and the art of creating perfumed oils.  

The Greeks buried their dead with their possessions and a terracotta or alabaster vase containing perfume. These objects played the role of intermediary between the world of Man and that of gods, helping the dead to reach the other world. 
For the poorer people, alabasters vases were replaced by vials painted onto the coffin. Pliny the Elder, in his Natural history text [2] , mentions at least 22 kinds of perfumed oils, most of them being extracted from plants naturally growing on the island of Crete: cypress, marjoram, broom, iris, spikenard, rose, myrtle, laurel, crocus, lily, juniper, pine, nut, almond, carnation, poppy, coriander, aniseed, cumin, narcissus, daisy. 

In the mythology, the goddess Athena, created the olive tree, a universal symbol of peace was born in Crete. Athena drove her magic spear into the Earth which turned into the first olive tree. Greeks named that place Athens in her honor.

 
Circa 1450 BC, perfumery was truly an industry controlled by the Masters of the Mycenaean palaces. 
During the Mycenaean Period, even taxes were paid in plants.  
« jo-oporo, aromo, (dosi ?) Mijo » « these are the terms that were used for the aromatic plants owed by the taxpayers… » [3]
The decryption of linear writings[4] found on 20% of the 7000 Mycenaean clay tablets of the islands of Aegean Sea showed that a prominent position was given to scented products, ointments, incenses, aromatic wine, perfume oils, spices.  Everything listed on these tablets reveal a real accounting of orders and exports. 
Greeks were the first to create the industry of perfumery.

In Ancient Greece, perfume shops sprawled everywhere and were used as meeting places where the interests of the State were debated and where fashion standards were established… 
In Athens, people would say ‘let’s go to perfume’ as we say ‘let’s go to the pub’.

If ragweed was still the exclusivity of the gods, mortals soon saw a wide choice of ‘Myron’[5] become available. 
Incense, myrrh, styrax, sandalwood, musk, amber, costus and camphor married with cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper or ginger, not forgetting vanilla and cardamom. The luxury of perfumes went so far that Solon the Wise criticised this refinement, saying it was effeminate and prohibited its use to the Athenians like Socrates while Lycurgus did the same among the Lacedemonians.  

Thanks to the Phoenicians, Cartagena merchants and the major explorers trading in spices and new scents, perfumes were traded via the established Perfume Routes. 

Sandalwood, cinnamon, nutmeg, benzoin, musk and civet from India and China as well as ambergris found on the coasts of the Indian Ocean changed the way hygiene was practiced, gave us medicines and a world of scents. 

The Greeks were the first to utilise ‘’packaging’’ and ‘’marketing techniques’’. 
The alabasters, the oenochoes and the ariballoi were all made of terracotta decorated with trendy themes, perfectly understood by all the populations of the Mediterranean and all refer to the Greek mythology or to major known themes. These vials were presented in various sizes in the same way as bottles are today: from the small inexpensive ariballoi vial containing little perfume to the enormous and expensive ariballoi jar which would today correspond to 1 litre of perfume.   

Copyright 1998 Research and Author: Creezy Courtoy, Founder Les Routes du Parfum, Chairman Perfume Foundation. Thank you for your respect. 

[1] "cosmetic" comes from "cosmos" in ancient greek it means « harmony »
[2] XIII 9-12 XV, 28-38
[3] GE 602 - Mycenes
[4] By Alice Kober (1947), Michaël Ventris et John Chadwick (1952)
[5]Profane perfumes 

     
              Thank you for understanding the importance of preserving our World Heritage

SUPPORT THE GREEK BAILOUT FUND CAMPAIGN TODAY
0 Comments

    Author

    International Perfume Foundation

    Archives

    April 2021
    December 2020
    June 2020
    October 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    April 2018
    March 2017
    January 2017
    October 2016
    July 2016
    April 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015

    Categories

    All
    ADF-PCD
    A La Corbeille Fleurie
    Andrej Babicky
    Anosmia
    Anosmie
    AQUILAREA
    Aux Armes De France
    Awards
    Bee Day
    Bees
    Book Of Medicine
    BUSINESS OF PERFUME
    Codex Aniciae Juliannae
    COVID19
    Creezy Courtoy
    Deserts
    Dioscoride
    Ebers Papyrus
    Ecuador
    Ecuadorian Flower Growers
    EDUCATION
    Esperança Cases Prats
    Essential Oil
    Event
    Extract
    Extraction
    Fashion
    Flower Growers
    FLOWERS
    Flowers MHz Frequencies
    Flowers New Luxury Expert
    Fragrance
    Fragrances Belles Lettres
    Give Water To Bees
    Greece
    Green Wall Africa
    HEALTH
    Houbigant
    Impact Investment
    International Bee Day
    International Perfume Day
    International Perfume Foundation
    Interview
    IPF
    IPFreconnectwithnature
    Isolates
    La In Concert
    Laurie Arbuthnot
    Laurie Stern
    Leonard Fuchs
    LES ROUTES DU PARFUM
    Louis XVI
    Lubin
    Materia Medica
    Natural Perfume
    Natural Perfumery
    Natural Perfumes
    Nature
    Newluxuryawards2019
    New Luxury Awards 2020
    New Luxury Products
    New York
    Odorat
    Olfaction
    Olivia Larson
    #OnlyTogetherCanWeSucceed
    Packaging
    Paracelce
    Parfum
    Perfume
    Perfume Bottles
    Perfumeria
    Perfumeros
    Perfumery
    Plant Flowers For Bees
    Processing
    Raw Material
    Replant
    RESEARCH
    Robespierre
    Rodney Hughes
    Save The Bees
    Sense Of Smell
    Sens Olfactif
    Sentido Del Olfato
    Standards
    Study Perfumery
    Sumerian
    Support The Bees
    Sustainable Agriculture
    TEMIAR FOREST PROJECT
    Terry Johnson
    THE VALUE OF PLANTS
    Tincture
    Versailles
    WORLD HERITAGE PROGRAM

    Share

    RSS Feed

THE INTERNATIONAL
​PERFUME FOUNDATION

About
Mission
History
IPF  Team
​News
Links
Media
Contact
Natural Perfumery Schools
Certification
Awards
World Heritage Program
Children's Programs
Les Routes du Parfum
Les Ateliers des Petits Nez
Reconnecting with Nature
Teacher's Academy
Healing Garden
Natural Perfumery Directory
The Perfume Foundation is a non profit organisation 
 Belgian  ASBL number:  0455.479.930
USA Non Profit Organisation Tax deductible 501c3​
​IPF © COPYRIGHT 1995-2021. All Rights Reserved  

    RECEIVE OUR NEWSLETTER

Subscribe to Newsletter

The International
​Perfume Foundation

Qui sommes nous?
Mission
Histoire
Notre équipe
​News
Liens
Media
Contact

EDUCATION
ACTIVITÉS
 

Ecoles de parfumerie Naturelle
Certification
Awards
Conservation du Patrimoine
Programmes pour Enfants
Les Routes du Parfum
Les Ateliers des Petits Nez
Reconnecting with Nature
Teacher's Academy
Le Jardin Parfumé
Parfumerie Naturelle
The Perfume Foundation est une organisation sans but lucratif  
  ASBL belge numéro:  0455.479.930
Tax deductible USA organisation  501 c3     
​
IPF © COPYRIGHT  1995-2021.Tous droits réservés     

                                               SOUTENEZ NOS ACTIONS!

    RECEVEZ notre newsletter

Subscribe to Newsletter