Abstract
Springtime in Grasse, France, is a fragrant affair. The town and its surroundings enjoy a warm, maritime climate perfect for growing lavender, jasmine, and the hundred-petaled, or centifolia, rose. Grasse’s flower farmers and experts in extraction techniques have made the region the center of the perfume industry since the late 1700s. But the region’s primacy was shaken when perfumer Ernest Beaux, laboring over a new perfume for Coco Chanel, decided to incorporate some synthetic fragrance ingredients. His Chanel No. 5, introduced in 1921, made use of aliphatic aldehydes to add a sparkly top note to the perfume’s base of rose and jasmine. Chanel No. 5 was not the first fragrance to contain synthetic ingredients, but it was the first to become an icon. In the years to follow, demand for Grasse’s flower essences waned as synthetic chemists got better at producing large quantities of perfume ingredients at low cost. The
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