ROMANCE IN PERFUMES.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3379, 20 June 1927, Page 7

ROMANCE IN PERFUMES.

SECRETS OF THE PARIS SCENT TRADE.

The perfumery business just opened in Paris, in which the ex-Snah of Persia is stated to have a financial inteie«t, is housed in a shop built of marble, with cunningly-arranged lighting, which provides the necessary exotic, Oriental setting. French scent manufacture, whim from the 12th century had been centred in Grasse, in the south, received a severe blow when the British Government increased; the import tax on perfume, but the trad© has now recovered, and is booming. British scent manufacturers still import from France, but, in order to overcome tariff difficulties, they only import desiccated essence, and manufacture the finished product in England. . , The city of Grasse, with its terraced flowerbeds, is one of the most romantic towns in France, and for many years the ex-Czarina of Russia had roses specially grown there for her in order to provide her own brand of scent. Harvesting the flowers continues almost throughout the year. It is violet time now in Grasse; the season for violets begins in February and ends in April. The jasmine season is the longest, because it begins in July and does not end before the middle of October. Hyacinths and jonquils are picked in March and April, and orange blossoms and roses provide perfume in May and June. Carnations and mignonette—a favorite scent in England—are also picked in enormous quantities in June. .The flowers are used in the Grasse distilleries, where it is said the annual production is 2,000 tons of roses, 1,500 tons of jasmine, 2,500 tons of orange blossoms, and great quantities of mimosa, vio,lets, carnations, and mignonette. The flowers must be picked at dawn, and are placed immediately between layers of purified fat in order to extract the perfume. This is obtained from the fats tq which the flowers have transferred their scent. British Custom officials have to keep a sharp watch for scent smugglers coming from France, and officials at Victoria Station, London, tell of innocent looking trunks full of clothes but with false bottoms, in which scent is concealed. Scent is also smuggled into England in vacuum flasks and medicine bottles. These are but two of the methods known to the Customs. Watch is now being kept for a young Englishman who last year frequently drove a high-powered motor-car from Paris to Le Touquet. He spent a couple of days there and then drove to Boulogne or Calais, took tn© motoronr in his ship across the Channel, and drove t 0 London. It is now known that the motor-car was provided with what, ostensibly, were extra petrol tanks, but . the' “petrol” contained therein was immense quantities of eau do Cologne.