 By Terry Johnson, Natural Perfumery Business and Marketing Expert When most natural perfumers start perfume businesses, there is generally only one person involved doing every business activity. This means all responsibility and authority rests with one person. If a one-person business is the plan, then all is fine. If, however, a natural perfumer wants to take full advantage of the growing consumer interest in natural perfume or natural aromatherapy and significantly grow their business, they will have to make the decision to develop a team to professionally carry out all of the growing business functions.
Here are some fundamentals every growing company needs to consider on team delegation: 1. Make careful choices for every person added to the team, including looking for indications of experience in team play. For example, ask if they have ever played on a sports team and enjoyed it. 2. Ensure each member of the team thoroughly understands the company’s Mission, Purpose/Vision, Value Proposition, and policies, and how important their job is in fulfilling these fundamentals. Develop a company manual containing these fundamentals and policies and give the entire team regular access to them, reviewing the manual with everyone periodically. 3. Assign each team member’s responsibilities with some appropriate authority. It is quite easy to delegate responsibility without authority - just tell one of your team to do something. It is not as easy, however, to properly delegate responsibility that includes authority. Delegating responsibility without authority can result in failure, team disengagement, and even resentment, and is also known as "dysfunctional delegation." Proper management practices necessitate clearly stating the lines and limits of each team member’s authority and responsibility. 4. Review each team member’s job performance and knowledge of fundamentals periodically and continually re-focusing on your team regarding your purpose, mission, and value proposition. This keeps the entire team on the same page. 5. Manage the team with balance between ignoring or hovering, and monitor team performance without undermining employees. Remember, team members may do things a bit differently than you would do yourself, but that is part of the give-and-take nature of team delegation of responsibility. Want to learn more about operating a business and marketing natural perfumes and essential oils? Sign up for Business and Marketing in the Natural Essence Community.
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 By Creezy Courtoy, Perfume Historian and Anthropologist The Christmas tree has a rich history that dates back centuries, with its origins often traced to ancient pagan traditions. The use of evergreen trees and plants during winter solstice celebrations predates Christianity. Ancient Egyptians, for example, used palm fronds to symbolize the triumph of life over death during the winter solstice. Similarly, the Druids in ancient Britain and the Romans used evergreen boughs to decorate their homes during the winter months. The modern Christmas tree tradition is widely believed to have originated in Germany in the 16th century. It is said that devout Christians began bringing decorated trees into their homes as a symbol of faith. The earliest documented use of a Christmas tree in a home was in 1570 in the town of Strasbourg. Initially, trees were decorated with apples, nuts, and paper flowers. Over time, the decorations evolved to include candles, which represented the light of Christ, and later, glass ornaments, tinsel, and other festive adornments. The Christmas tree tradition gradually spread to other parts of Europe. By the 18th and 19th centuries, it became popular in countries like France and England. In England, Queen Charlotte, the German wife of King George III, is credited with introducing the Christmas tree to the British court in the early 1800s. The Christmas tree gained widespread popularity in England when Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, were depicted in a drawing in 1848 standing with their children around a decorated tree.  This image was published in "The Illustrated London News," and it played a significant role in popularizing the Christmas tree among the Victorian middle class. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Christmas tree tradition had become firmly established in many Western countries.
The practice of using electric lights, artificial trees, and elaborate decorations became common. Today, Christmas trees are a central part of holiday celebrations in many cultures around the world. As societies become more interconnected due to globalization, cultural practices often cross borders. If the Christmas tree has evolved from ancient pagan rituals to a beloved symbol of the Christmas holiday, influenced significantly by German customs and popularized by royal figures like Queen Victoria, the adoption of Christmas trees in various cultures, including in predominantly Muslim countries, reflects a broader trend of cultural exchange and globalization. The Christmas tree, originally a Christian symbol, has been embraced in various forms by people who may not identify with the religious aspects of Christmas. In many cases, the tree has come to symbolize the winter season, festivity, and communal celebration rather than its Christian origins. In some Muslim-majority countries, the concept of celebrating "Winter Holidays" or "New Year" has emerged. These celebrations may include the decoration of Christmas trees, lights, and other festive adornments. This trend can be seen in countries such as Turkey, Lebanon, and even parts of the Middle East, where cultural practices blend with local customs and traditions. The secularization of holiday traditions allows individuals from different backgrounds to participate in festive activities without necessarily adhering to the religious significance. For many, the Christmas tree represents a time of joy, family gatherings, and community spirit, rather than a religious observance. The global commercialization of Christmas has played a significant role in the spread of Christmas-related symbols and practices. Retailers and companies often promote holiday-themed products, including Christmas trees, regardless of the cultural or religious context. This commercialization has made festive decorations accessible and appealing to a wider audience. In various regions, the Christmas tree may be adapted to fit local customs and traditions. For instance, in some countries, people may decorate trees with local ornaments, colors, or symbols that resonate more with their cultural identity while still embracing the general idea of a festive tree. As societies continue to evolve, the meaning and significance of such traditions may further transform, creating a rich tapestry of shared experiences but the Christmas Tree, enduring presence in holiday celebrations will always reflect its significance as a symbol of joy, hope, and the spirit of giving.  By Creezy Courtoy, Perfume Historian and Anthropologist The Victorian era, spanning from 1837 to 1901, was a time of significant cultural and social change in England. One aspect that reflected these changes was the strict usage rules for perfumes. Etiquette dictated that perfumes should be worn only in moderation; for example, only a few drops were permitted on a handkerchief, but never directly on the skin. This practice was indicative of the period's emphasis on modesty and propriety. Queen Victoria herself played a pivotal role in shaping the fragrance trends of her time. Following her marriage to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg in 1840, she introduced the custom of using shawls scented with patchouli. This fragrant fabric became a fashionable accessory among the upper classes, symbolizing both elegance and the burgeoning interest in more exotic scents. The use of patchouli, a scent derived from the leaves of the patchouli plant, reflected a growing fascination with natural and earthy fragrances. Only a few drops on shawl or an handkerchief were allowed but never on a person.  Collection Creezy Courtoy The marriage also brought with it the introduction of new customs and traditions into British society. Notably, Victoria popularized the Christmas tree tradition, a custom she embraced from her German roots. This festive practice not only transformed holiday celebrations but also infused homes with the refreshing scents of nature. Fir trees, adorned with ornaments, spread the aroma of pine, which was often complemented by the warm, spicy notes of cinnamon and clove, alongside the comforting smell of candle wax.
This blend of natural scents contributed to the cozy and inviting atmosphere of Victorian homes during the festive season. As Queen Victoria's influence extended beyond Britain, her connection with European royalty, particularly Louis-Philippe, King of France, facilitated the spread of Victorian perfumed fashion across the continent. The era was marked by a calm and reflective approach to fragrances, which were often seen as luxury items rather than necessities. As the 19th century progressed, perfumes transitioned from being essential for masking odors to becoming luxurious toilet accessories reserved for the elite. During this time, English perfumes gained a reputation for their quality and sophistication, leading to their sale in France at exorbitant prices. The Great London Exhibition of 1851 was a significant milestone for the perfume industry, offering a platform for English perfumers to showcase their creations to the world. This event not only highlighted the craftsmanship involved in perfume-making but also allowed natural perfumes to gain international acclaim. Queen Victoria's reign always fascinated me. It marked a transformative period for natural perfumes, characterized by a delicate balance of propriety and luxury. The introduction of new customs, the embrace of natural scents, and the establishment of perfume as a symbol of status shaped the fragrance landscape of the time. As a result, the Victorian era left an indelible mark on the world of perfumery, influencing practices that continue to resonate in modern fragrance culture. If you are passionate about perfume history, consider becoming a Perfume History Teacher or enhancing your knowledge for your perfumery business by enrolling in Creezy Courtoy's World Perfume History course. .  By Terry Johnson, Business and Marketing Expert In the vibrant world of perfumery, new brands and budding perfumers often find themselves looking toward established giants like Chanel for inspiration. However, it's crucial to remember that these iconic brands have spent decades cultivating a rich cultural legacy that goes beyond just the fragrance itself. Consumers are drawn to these brands not only for their scents but for the stories, emotions, and the status they represent. In contrast, the realm of natural perfumery offers a unique opportunity for emerging brands to carve out their niche and promote powerful brand differentiation through authenticity, effective storytelling, engaging senses, deep connectivity to sustainable ingredients, and strong community relationships. The Importance of Authenticity In today's market, consumers are increasingly discerning, prioritizing transparency in the products they purchase. Natural perfumes, which often contain sustainably sourced ingredients, resonate with health-conscious consumers seeking authenticity. Brands can leverage this by being open about their sourcing practices, ingredient origins, and production methods. This transparency not only builds trust but also creates stronger emotional connections with consumers who value sustainability and ethical practices. Crafting Compelling Stories Storytelling is a powerful tool in marketing, particularly for natural perfumery. Each fragrance has stories to tell, be it the inspiration behind the scent, the journey of its creation, or the cultural and significance of the sustainably created ingredients used. By weaving these narratives into their branding, new perfumers can create a rich tapestry that engages consumers on deeper, emotional levels. This approach not only differentiates their products from mass-market offerings but also fosters a sense of community and shared values among consumers. Engaging the Senses Natural perfumes are unique in their composition and often offer sensory experiences that differ vastly from synthetic fragrances. Power Marketing strategies should emphasize the sensory journey of product: how they smell, how they feel on the skin, and even the emotions or states of wellbeing they evoke. Engaging consumers through sensory experiences can be achieved through various mediums, including samples, immersive store displays, and tailored online experiences that allow potential customers to explore the fragrances in meaningful ways.  Building Community Connections
Community engagement plays a pivotal role in the Power Marketing of natural perfumes. By fostering connections with local artisans, suppliers, and even consumers, brands can create strong support networks that enhance their authenticity. Hosting workshops, pop-up events, and collaborations with like-minded brands can help engage and build loyal customer bases that feel personally invested in the brand's success. This sense of community not only promotes word-of-mouth marketing but also reinforces the brand's commitment to ethical and sustainable practices. Finally, as the natural perfume market continues to expand, Power Marketing will be crucial in distinguishing new natural brands from their more established synthetic counterparts. By embracing these power principles, new perfumers can effectively resonate with a growing consumer base that prioritizes sustainability, health, and emotional connections in their purchasing decisions. With a thoughtful approach to marketing, the world of natural perfumery holds immense potential for innovation, creativity, and meaningful consumer relationships for a lifetime. Focusing on these core Power Marketing elements will provide new brands in the natural perfumery space with the tools to set themselves apart and thrive in an increasingly competitive market. If you want to know more about marketing your perfume our your essential oil business, enrol for Terry Johnson's Business and Marketing course.  By Andrej Babicky, IPF Natural Perfumery Expert and Teacher Autumn arrives like a whispered secret, a soft sigh from the earth as it prepares to rest. The world around us slowly transforms, as if painted by an unseen hand—leaves turn amber, orange, and red, setting the trees aglow against the cooling sky. Shrubs and bushes swell with berries, their vibrant colors a final exhale before winter descends. This is the season of last-minute magic, when nature both dazzles and retreats, leaving us, the observers, with a fleeting sense of wonder. The air thickens with nostalgia, filled with the smoky sweetness of burnt wood, the damp freshness of rain-soaked leaves, and the earthy embrace of freshly ploughed soil.  Andrej Babicky For a natural perfumer, autumn is more than just a time of transition. It’s a canvas painted with the richest, deepest hues, a sensory feast begging to be captured and transformed. Every step through the forest becomes an invitation to imagine, to interpret, to distill the very essence of the season into fragrance. Picture a walk through a deciduous forest after a rain—damp earth cradles your feet, leaves glisten under the weight of water, and the air hums with the warmth of decay, the richness of life ebbing into the soil. Mushrooms, hidden jewels of the undergrowth, spring up unexpectedly from beneath fallen leaves, while moss-covered bark invites your fingers to trace its rough texture. To bottle this moment is to capture not just a scent, but a memory—a story. The earthy notes of patchouli echo the scent of damp soil, grounding you in the depths of the forest floor.. The dry, almost salty touch of oakmoss reminds you of fallen leaves, crisp and delicate in their final moments. Dark, amber woods like Buddha wood lend a smoky warmth, like a fire crackling in the distance, while cedar and juniper add a sharp, resinous freshness, cutting through the earthy haze. And there, hidden in the heart of it all, is a softness, a velvety touch of labdanum, like a forgotten scarf wrapped tight against the chill, while artemisia brings a breath of herbal lightness, its slightly fruity aroma a playful contrast to the richness of the woods.  Autumn’s gift to the natural perfumer is this harmonious dance of contrasts—deep earthiness interwoven with fresh, aromatic notes. In every blend, there is the potential to tell a story of transition, of the slow turning inward that autumn encourages. The scents are complex, layered, and full of nostalgia, yet they also hint at the freshness and life still brimming beneath the surface, waiting for another season to bloom. But autumn is also a time of preparation, a quiet gathering before the long rest of winter. Fruits are plucked from the trees, mushrooms foraged from the forest floor, herbs carefully cut and laid out to dry. These are the treasures of the season, to be preserved and transformed into tinctures, essential oils, and absolutes—each one capturing a moment of autumn’s fleeting beauty, ready to be released in the depths of winter. The garden, too, undergoes its ritual pruning, as old growth is cut away to make space for the new. Bulbs are planted, tucked beneath the cooling soil, their springtime blooms nothing more than a promise in the dark earth. In this way, autumn mirrors the process of natural perfumery. Just as we prune the garden to encourage growth, we distill our inspirations, our raw materials, stripping away the unnecessary until we are left with the pure essence. It’s a process of transformation, of preserving the life and vitality of the season, even as the world around us grows quieter. What we gather now, whether through distillation, enfleurage, or extraction, becomes the heart of our creations in the months to come.  There’s something almost magical about the methods of extraction during autumn. The cool, crisp air makes each step in the process feel deliberate, intimate, a conversation with nature. Through the ancient method of enfleurage, we press the last of autumn’s flowers and herbs into fat, capturing their delicate essence as if freezing a moment in time. The fragrant oils and resins distilled from woods and shrubs are rich with the scent of a forest retreating into itself, a fragrant echo of the season’s end. And yet, autumn is not without its playfulness. Beneath the surface of stillness and retreat, there is joy, a sense of childlike wonder that beckons us to experiment and explore. What if we combined the green, spicy scent of freshly cut hay with the sweetness of overripe apples, or mingled the warming spices of cinnamon and clove with the surprising freshness of rain-soaked petals? There’s room for creativity here, for the unexpected, for the playful mingling of scents that mirror the dance of falling leaves, the fluttering breeze, the surprise of sunlight breaking through gray skies. As autumn slips toward winter, we are reminded that everything in nature is cyclical. The seeds we plant now—both literal and metaphorical—will one day burst forth in bloom. The fragrances we blend in this golden, fleeting season will carry the warmth and color of autumn with us, even as the snow falls and the earth grows still. In natural perfumery, we become the keepers of this cycle, gathering the essence of the moment and preserving it, ready to share it again when the world outside is frozen and quiet. Autumn teaches us to pause, to gather inspiration, and to create something that outlasts the season. Each blend of notes, each drop of precious oil, carries within it the memory of amber leaves, the scent of wet earth, and the warmth of the last rays of autumn sun. As the world prepares to rest, we too prepare, knowing that the fragrances we craft now will bloom in the hearts of those who wear them, long after the last leaf has fallen.  If you want to learn more about Natural Perfumery, enroll for the next Natural Perfumery Course and the Natural Raw Material Extraction Methods Master Class taught by the author.
 By Terry Johnson, IPF Vice Chair and Business & Marketing Expert Don’t wait for opportunities in the distance but recognize them and embrace them right where you are! One of the biggest mistakes businesses make severely limiting their success is stopping the learning process after a certain level of business experience is achieved. It’s as though once they figure out how to make their business work initially, they don’t believe any further training or learning is valuable or necessary.
In contrast, if there is one attribute that all successful businesses have in common, it is having the ability to continuously learn and then teach what they have learned to others needing that information for a lifetime. So, who should we be learning from and teaching to, and who benefits from these learning and teaching processes? Everyone in the Natural Perfumery supply chain including:
Action Steps all Natural Perfumers should consider: 1. Decide what content you should be teaching, to whom you will teach it to, and by what method(s). 2. Determine the best content to learn and where that content will come from. Sources of learning can come from a variety of places within the Natural Perfumery Community, and each Natural Perfumer should learn as much as possible about what makes Natural Perfumery as valuable to consumers as it is. Two courses from the IPF Natural Perfumery Teacher’s Academy immediately come to mind: World Perfume History, and Teaching Methodology. Both courses are taught by IPF Founder and Chair Creezy Courtoy, and you can find the teaching methodology course here: https://www.teachers-academy.org/masterclasses.html and the World Perfume History course here: https://www.teachers-academy.org/courses.html 3. Don’t wait for opportunities in the distance, but recognize them, and embrace them, right where you are! By Creezy Courtoy, Founder and Director, Natural Perfumery Teacher's Academy The Natural Perfumery Teacher's Academy is expanding, welcoming new instructors and introducing an exciting array of courses for the upcoming academic year.
Join us for immersive workshops in nature led by Andrej Babicky, who is launching a New Natural Perfumery Course. This program is perfect for anyone looking to deepen their passion or advance their career in perfumery, offering a comprehensive exploration of natural perfumery techniques—from the fundamentals of olfaction to the intricate art of scent creation. Andrej Babicky, winner of the New Luxury Awards 2019, has been a valued member of our academy and a great teacher ever since. We are also thrilled to announce the addition of new Master Classes featuring renowned experts such as Lakenda Wallace and Rachel Binder, along with engaging lectures by the iconic Roxana Villa. In other exciting news, the International Perfume Foundation will be awarding certificates to students during special events. Receiving a certificate publicly not only celebrates your achievement but also serves as excellent self-promotion for natural perfumers on social media. A special thank you to Yusif Meizongo for traveling all the way from Ghana to Los Angeles to receive his Olfaction Training certificate during the Scent of Healing event. This coming year will mark the 40th anniversary of the International Perfume Foundation, and we have a fantastic lineup of events and workshops planned worldwide to celebrate this milestone. Stay tuned for more updates!  By Terry Johnson, Natural Perfumery Business and Marketing Teacher Over the years, many perfumers have told me why they got into natural perfumery in the first place. Many have shared their personal experiences with having allergic reactions from synthetic perfumes or colognes, leading them to create natural perfumes for themselves. Others have said they enjoy the creative process of producing perfumes from natural materials. Regardless of how perfumers find their pathway to natural perfumes, from a business and marketing perspective it is not enough to only rely on internal experiences and policies to ensure business success. Yes, all natural perfumers need motivation, missions, visions and other important internal business practices, but more importantly, they need to balance their internal needs with an external focus on identifying, selling, and keeping Customers For Life. So, how can natural perfumers create Customers For Life (CFL)? Improvements at Points-of-Sale and Points-of Consumption with CFL Strategies Whether online or brick-and-mortar, points-of-sale are the interfaces between the entire supply chain and customers. Improvements to this critical touch point increase the likelihood of a profitable sale. Points-of-consumption are an even more important touch point, since it is here that customers determine product satisfaction and make the decision to repurchase or not. Approaching natural perfume marketing from a Customers For Life perspective positively changes the dynamics of points-of-sales and points-of-consumption strategies completely. For example, when natural perfumers decide to attend sales-related events, they should use CFL strategic mathematics: Each $200 perfume sale at an event + 1-$200 follow-up sale per year for 20 years = 21 CFL perfume sales or $4,200. This strategy promotes proper follow-up from sales, which is typically a weak point in natural perfume marketing. Be a lifetime Student and Teacher. Never stop learning and then teaching customers, potential customers, and the rest of the supply chain. Learn more about your suppliers, gather as much information as possible from them on the value of their business practices and the products they supply, and then teach that knowledge to your supply chain community including consumers. No better place to share this knowledge can be found than IPF’s 2025 Natural Perfumery Summit, where besides gaining valuable exposure for natural perfumers’ businesses at IPF’s collective booth, perfumers can pass on CFL strategies to suppliers, distributors, the media and all others withing the natural perfumery community. Everyone in the supply chain benefits from a Consumers For Life strategy. Instill Consumer Confidence and Trust in Yourself, Your Company, and Your Products Natural perfumers wishing to get customers continually coming back for more products for a lifetime need satisfied customers who trust and have confidence in the products they purchase. This means demonstrating that perfumers are the experts in the communities they serve, and writing articles about your experiences is one way to do that. You can even submit those articles to IPF’s Newsletter that will be read by thousands in the supply chain. Participating in the New Luxury Awards is another opportunity to be recognized by your peers as an industry leader. Customers For Life requires a complete commitment from natural perfumers to establish and maintain long-term relationships with every customer they sell. Keep in mind that it will always be a lot less expensive to keep customers for life than to acquire new ones. Learn more about Terry Johnson's Natural Perfumery Business and Marketing Course
 Polyanthus Tuberose By Ana Elena Sastrias, IPF Australia Chair and Natural Perfumery Teacher An Olfactory Landscape Through History In 2018 I decided to visit my family and friends back in Mexico and took the opportunity to get in contact with relevant people working with Mexican Botanical Raw Materials and producing Ethnobotanical Essential Oils from Mexican sourced plants, flowers, seeds, gums and resins at the Botanic Garden and Research Institute “Herbario CICY - Centro de Investigación Científica de Yucatán”, where I met up with Dr Luz María Calvo in Mérida, Yucatán. Among the most aromatic raw materials used in modern perfumery, it is the Mexican “Nardo” known as “Polyanthus Tuberose”. This flower “Nardo” or “Polyanthus Tuberose” was used by the Mayans as a Soap as this plant contains high levels of sapogenines and rizomas, ingredients that can make soap. In Nahuatl, this plant was called “amole” that means “soap” or “omixochitl” that means “boney flower”. In Mexico, there are 20 species of “Polyanthus”. These “Polyanthus” have been grown and domesticated since the Pre-Hispanic Era among the Mayan Civilization. Its fine seductive floral fragrance is found all over the world in fine perfumes. The essential oil extracted from these flowers have the following properties: anti-fungal, anti- bacterial, used in wound healing treatments, it is also used as an insecticide and herbicide. During that visit I also spent time reading relevant books about Aztec and Mayan Civilizations and their Olfactory Experiences in Rituals at the Hemeroteca Nacional, UNAM in Mexico City. The Historical Research Institute in Mexico (IIH) states that in order to understand the History of Mexico, it is necessary to know the Aromas appropriate to each Period in History. Dr Elodie Dupey García and Guadalupe Pinzón Ríos are working together in the reconstruction of smells from Ancient Times up to 20th Century in Mexico in order to recover the Olfactory Memory from each Period in time. They consider Olfaction, not just as a physiological activity, but also as a way to interact in Society and Culture triggered by different stimuli bringing a diversity of values in Society through time. The smells have a meaning in Society. For instance, a fresh clean smell compared to a smell of a warm “tortilla” or a fresh bread. The behaviour in humans and other species is definitively influenced by what we smell and this can trigger behaviours in our relationships and also can be part of our rituals. This reconstruction of ancient olfactory landscape is being done through research on Ancient Texts, Nahuatl, Mayan and other Indigenous languages and Archeological Objects, aside of Ethnobotanical Research. Dr Elodie Dupey García recognises that it is quite challenging to recover the original smells of the Mesoamerican civilizations due to the length of time and the exposure to the wind. Archeological, iconography and linguistic and historical sources have been useful as a base to learn more about the aromas that were characteristic of the Pre-hispanic Era.  In religious rituals, Aztec priests were scarifying themselves by offering their blood to be then incinerated to the gods. The remains of this type of smells can be described in pictograms from Codex as images of ancient practices and beliefs. The same as in the narrative stories from the Spaniards witnessing such sacrifices in the Fall of the Pre-Hispanic Civilizations. After this collection of information, the questions that were important to ask for this research were: - Which are the ideas behind the Aromas in the Pre-Hispanic Civilizations? - Which kind of categorisation they assigned to Olfactive Sensations and which aromas were more relevant or bringing much attention to Pre-Hispanic society? - With which kind of concepts they associated each aroma? La Société Américaniste in Paris, France states that since the 18th and 19th Century, the intellectual elite put more importance to a Visual aspect of the world, more than the Tactile, Gustative, Olfactive aspects of our lives as a society. Since then, we have gradually been missing the use of our Sense of Smell and we now will need to re-train this important Sense. Since “reading” has been a marker in society to learn science, develop technology and be part of a cultural landscape and participate in the workforce. The priorities to exercise senses aside of our Vision and Hearing, were left behind, regarded almost as a non- important. It is since 2020 when Covid-19 pandemic started and we experienced as Humanity some of the effects of Covid-19 of losing the Sense of Smell, that Science is starting to catchup with studies and research in the consequences of losing the Sense of Smell in Human Beings and how to recover the Sense of Smell by doing Olfaction Training.  Aromas and fragrances were sacred in Ancient Times in Mexico, pointing this smell to the “Sahumerio o Sahumador de Copal” (Copal’s Smoke recipients). The resin of Copal was burnt in diverse ritualistic contexts. The resulting fumes from burning the resin of Copal were fundamental to the rituals and ceremonies.  Copal This Aromatic Offerings to the gods comprised herbs, gums and resins that were burnt and their combustion created aromatic smoke central to various rituals. The recipient used to burn the raw materials is called “Sahumador or Sahumerio”. They were of different kind, some were basic, some others more luxurious. Those artefacts were found in archeological sites. Murals and Codex describe the various raw materials used to make aromatic smokes and the use of “sahumadores or sahumerios”. Also, they could give us some information of which characteristics the olfactory landscapes had in the Religious Festivities. The aromas could be concentrated in the Ritual Activity derived by the raw materials used in the ceremonies taken places either in restrictive access places or open space ceremonies or around the reach of people participating in the ceremony.  The Offering of Fire was a ritual that burnt Copal resin in wood in front of the images of their deities.
This Offering was executed by each family when the Sun rises, also in temples four times during the day, and five times during the night, this was done to celebrate the God of the Sun and the God of the Night respectively. The aromas were given a Social, Medicinal and Ritualistic role associated with Cosmological beliefs in the Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican Era. The mesoamericans conceived the World of the Dead as a putrefactive smell. Putting in perspective the importance of the Sense of Smell in Ancient Civilisation and Indigenous communities living in Jungles, it does make sense when being surrounded by a very thick lush and green jungle, our Vision will not be enough to detect any danger or find your way to reach out other community or designated destination. The smells of each community could be an identifiable factor to guide us in our journey. The smells of each town bring an identity that can be part of our olfactory memory map. Dr Elodie Dupey García has been working on the Olfactory Sensitivity Project applied into the History of Smells in Mexico since 2014. Her book “De olfato. Aproximaciones a los Olores en la Historia de México” (Olfaction. Olfactory approximations to Aromas through out the History of Mexico) has been published since 2020. References: Gaceta UNAM - Agosto 2021 - Frías, Leonardo Olores y Sensibilidad Olfativa en Mesoamérica - Dupey García, Elodie CICY Newsletter Article - Aromas de México para el mundo, el caso del Nardo: Polianthes Tuberosa - Calvo, Luz María By Creezy Courtoy, Olfaction Training Expert  The olfactory sense is the first sense to be developed in the foetus.
It starts during week 7. It is also the sense that arrives at maturity before the others during week 25. Immersed in amniotic liquid, the foetus swims in a bath of emanations and swallows four to five quarts of flavoured water per day. Before their first feeding, newborns show attraction for their own amniotic liquid and keeps this preference for the one or two days required to adapt to the new food source.. Strongly flavoured foods, such as cumin, ginger, anise, when consumed by pregnant women can contribute to an interesting prenatal olfactory experience for the child. The olfactory sense presents an important development in infant behaviour. The first odour discerned by newborns is the smell of their mother, and it is that smell which will determine their behaviour towards others. The mother not only shares genes with her child, but also shares phenotypic features that are smells. The olfactory sense of newborns is certainly their most developed sense. It guides the child, and the messages they receive make them feel secure. Only a few days after their birth, babies begin using their noses to receive all emanations passing around them. Their smell is so sharp that they encounter all odours, smells that we are not able to smell anymore. Their olfactory sense is so much more sensitive than that of an adult. Even though they do not yet know how to express themselves verbally to communicate their senses, newborns react to odours through motor reactions of the respiratory or cardiac rhythm changes. Babies less than two weeks old orient themselves automatically towards maternal odours. They will learn to recognize their mother by her smell, which they will prefer to any other smell and will bond with it; this process gives them the security they need to live. It could be said that newborns “see” with their noses. When they grow older, children will use their sight as their primary sense and the olfactory sense appears last. This is why it is important to preserve their olfactory sense, encouraging them to smell as often possible. This will prevent them to lose this important sense and feel insecure in the future. “Les Ateliers des Petits Nez” (Workshops for Little Noses) pilot project proposes olfactory menus to nurseries and kindergartens. With the support and the involvement of master chefs, IPF proposed the food needs of the child and to the development of their olfactory perceptions. Menus should comply with local dietary directives and also budgetary and organisational instructions. Menus are composed such in a way, not to mix ingredients. They can be ground, but only ground separately to not mingle fragrances, allowing children to discover them one by one. Chefs are different for each country, so in order to respect the children’s food culture, in our course we don't give you recipes but we will list the ailments adapted to baby and child development. It has been proven scientifically that the sense of taste is 85% olfactory. This training will not only preserve and awaken children’s olfactory sense, but also their tasting curiosity and a good food habit. Children will then learn from the youngest age to associate all of their senses together starting from the olfactory sense. More info about the course |
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