Perfume has been used for thousands of years. Its name comes from the Latin “per fume”, meaning “through smoke”.
Egyptians were the first to use perfume as part of their religious rituals. They burned incense and herbs and applied perfumed creams and oils to their skin. The Egyptians also invented glass, and introduced the use of perfume bottles around 1000 BC.
The use of perfume spread to Greece, Rome and the Islamic world. With the fall of the Roman Empire, perfume use declined and only became popular again in the 12th Century with the beginning of international trade.
