Listening 5 Transcript: Perfume: Th

Listening 5 Transcript: Perfume: The Essence of Illusion (Part One)“Perfume,” says Sophia Grojsman of international Flavors & Fragrances, “is a promise in a bottle.” We want to believe. We want to be prettier, richer, and happier than we are. Consider the names of the fragrances we buy: Joy, Dolce Vita, pleasures, White Diamonds, Beautiful. “We sell hope,” said Charles Revlon, founder of the Revlon cosmetics company.In terms of chemistry, fragrances are a mixture of aromatic oils and alcohol. The “fixatives,” or oils that make a fragrance last a long time, traditionally came from animals. Those have mostly been replaced by synthetic chemicals. The other ingredients come from plants, especially flowers.The area around Grasse, France, is famous for growing flowers. Farmers like Joseph Mul have been producing flowers – including roses, jasmine, and lavender – for centuries. Mul’s “rose absolute,” the fragrant liquid he gets from his roses, sells for $3,650 a pound. “Picking roses will never be done by machine,” explains Mul. The roses are carefully collected by hand during the early morning. By ten o’clock, the heat of the sun begins to affect the flowers, and the workers are done for the day. “Labor is 60 percent of the cost,” says Mul.