My Perfume Cabinet

Although there was a wealth of fascinating information taught to us while studying raw materials as ISIPCA, one piece of information in particular caught me off guard. It seemed obvious that competition over the synthesis of new molecules by fragrance houses and associated companies to gain an edge would take place. However, what did not occur to me at the time was that this competition extended beyond aroma-chemicals to nature itself. While discussing jasmines, our professor casually mentioned that the entirety of production of one specific jasmine was purchased by a particular fragrance house to ensure competitors were not able to replicate their finished product by getting their hands on this specific botanical. At the time, I found this to be mind blowing. It felt almost God-like to me that one company could control the entire existence of a product of nature. Upon returning home, I decided to dive deeper into the subject and thought I would share my findings here!

 Today, I’ve chosen to talk about the inaugural fragrance from Shiseido , Hana Tsubaki , launched in 1917. “The origin of all subsequent Shiseido fragrances”

By way of introduction, my name is Talal and I describe myself as a perfume enthusiast and collector.  My journey with perfume has been a long and enduring one but only recently have I decided to take my curiosity about and love of perfume to a deeper, more meaningful level. To do this, I not only began reading as much as I could find on the subject, but also started a long, never-ending, slightly obsessive (and often expensive) journey of collecting as many of the iconic fragrances of the past as I could get my hands on.