1881

Fougère Royale

William Henry Perkin (1838–1907)

The human nose contains hundreds of different receptors for sensing odors, and subtle differences in chemical structure can make vastly different impressions. For thousands of years, the chemistry of perfumery has explored and exploited the human response to scent, but it was limited to techniques that concentrated and combined the scents of nature. Most perfume scents were (and are) derived from plants: flowers, naturally, but also aromatic seeds, bark, and roots. Animal secretions such as musk and ambergris also became valuable ingredients, often dissolved in mixtures of alcohol and water. The field advanced as new procedures were found to extract and preserve delicate natural essences, giving master perfumers new combinations to experiment with.

In 1881, however, the perfumer House of Houbigant marked a new era in perfumery when it launched its scent Fougère Royale (which translates rather pedestrianly as royal fern). It was the first perfume that depended on a synthetic chemical, the sweet-smelling coumarin, as an ingredient. Coumarin is found in many plants, but since English chemist William Henry Perkin (see Perkin’s Mauve) had first synthesized it in 1868, it was far more easily obtained as a single synthetic compound than from any natural source. The perfume became a sensation, and it was produced—by its original makers and by copycats—for many years. The next synthetic ingredient to be added to a perfume was vanillin (the main constituent of natural vanilla extract), and soon perfumers were using compounds that had never appeared in natural sources at all. Instead of imitating flower scents (or combining them into bouquets), perfume designers found themselves with a far wider palette to work from and enthusiastically began to explore more impressionistic styles.

These days, the majority of perfumes use synthetic ingredients. Some natural fragrances (and flavors) are relatively easy to imitate with a few synthetic compounds, and their artificial versions are inexpensive. Others are very complex mixtures indeed, and they may also have key components that are difficult to synthesize, so perfumes made with natural extracts are correspondingly more costly.

A c. 1884 bottle of Fougère Royale, the first scent to depend on a synthetic chemical.

Perfumer Paul Parquet, the fragrance’s creator.