Grasse, France: A historic fragrance center

Rino Jasper — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:11:01 +0000

At Beauty-id, our French heritage coupled with our desire to work with only the best and purest ingredients means that before we create any new product, we visit our supplier in Grasse, France.
A town nestled in France’s famed region of Provence, Grasse has been renowned the world over for its essential oil and fragrance production since as far back as the 17th century, when the royal courts of Europe sourced their perfumes there. The region first produced perfumed gloves for Catherine de Medici in Italy, and soon turned its production purely to fragrance, and the raw materials used in the process. So why did this little town soon grow into the world’s perfume capital? For one, the countryside around Grasse is rich in plants used in the perfume-making process, including lavender, myrtle, jasmine, rose and mimosa.
Small family-owned raw materials suppliers flourished in the region for centuries, and when industrialization came along, they were slowly bought up by bigger players. In the 20th century, demand for synthetic fragrances began to outpace that of natural fragrances, yet Grasse remained an important source for raw materials. Some say that just under 15% of the world’s fragrance raw materials supply comes from there, and still today, perfumery remains the Provence town’s biggest commercial activity.
We visit Grasse on a regular basis to choose the various ingredients that end up in our hair-care products—from our grape and aloe extracts to ginseng and mandarin. We take these essential oils very seriously, so much so that we conceived our single-sachet packaging to insure that these precious oils won’t go stale, and that your hair will get a “fresh burst of beauty every time”.
Have you visited Grasse? If so, tell us your impressions, or your favorite spots, be they museums, restaurants, cafés or nightclubs.

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Grasse, France: A historic fragrance center