ROSE: Bow down to the KING!
That’s ROSE for you… ROmantic and SExy! It truly is the king of flowers! And only an Emperor knows the true value of this floral royalty:
“There is no other scent of equal excellence. It lifts the spirit and refreshes the soul." ~ Jahangir, the Mughal Emperor of India (1569-1627)
In fact, it was Nur Jahan, Emperor Jahangir’s 20th wife and the only co-sovereign Mughal Empress, who is to be credited with the rose extraction process. Empress Nur Jahan was the most powerful woman in 17th Century India. She was born in the same century as Queen Elizabeth I, and ruled a territory far more diverse than that of the Queen. She was a fascinating woman who was celebrated for her bravery, expert hunting skills, political acumen, and also her romantic poetry and devoted love for her husband. She was also an innovative architect, whose design for her parent’s tomb later became the inspiration for construction of Taj Mahal, one of the seven wonders of the world and the quintessential symbol of love. The Empress Nur Jahan first noticed the fragrant oil left behind in her bathing pool filled with rose petals, and being an avid enthusiast of exquisite fragrances, she encouraged extraction of the fragrant oil from roses. And so, the legacy continues for centuries!
Indeed, it’s the most prized floral gem that our private distillery is carefully distilling from majestic Damask rose blossoms, for generations over the last 200 years. It’s a very labor-intensive steam distillation process…but actually a labor of love really! Our traditional hydro-distillation method gives unmatched fragrance compared to newer and faster methods that have been developed recently. In fact, the time and resources needed to obtain the absolute pure rose oil, in addition to its divine smell, is what makes it unique. The process starts before dawn, by carefully hand-picking the Damask rose blossoms before sunrise, as the oil yield decreases as the day progresses. Now imagine that it’s still before sunrise, so it’s dark and you are picking rose blossoms from thorny bushes (ouch!). Moreover, in addition to doing it fast, you also have to be very careful not to bruise the petals as that will alter the final scent. Now the roses are sent immediately to the distillery location, where the petals are separated and put in large copper pots together with a small amount of water. The traditional steam distillation process then releases precious rose oil, which is carefully condensed and collected in receiver pots. Throughout this process, our master perfumers are continuously monitoring the heat, almost instinctively based on the practical knowledge passed on for generations. If too little heat, then steam distillation is hampered, but if you heat it too much, then the rose oil will be burnt leading to unfavorable smoky scent. Every step of this process has to be picture perfect!
It’s a wonderful sensation to steam distill tonnes of roses through this laborious process every year and the end result makes all this worth it. It takes 4 tonnes of rose petals to obtain just 1 pound of pure rose oil, so no wonder it costs more than the pure gold on a per Oz basis. At Kusumina Perfums, we take pride in using this pure natural gem of a floral essence to create our two magnificent perfume blends, viz. EP!K and ENCANTO. Notably, on a per Oz basis, our EP!K eau de parfum contains essence of over 2,000 majestic rose blossoms among other pure natural essences. This is in line with our brand “Kusumina”, which is an ancient Sanskrit word meaning “flowered”, and to the best of our knowledge, there is no other natural rose perfume of equal excellence as compared to our EP!K perfume, which contains such copious amount of the world’s most expensive rose oil (over 40% of the total oil content!). It’s like taking a royal stroll in a magnificent Damascene rose garden! Thus, one application of our all-natural EP!K perfume will surely reveal why rose is crowned as the undisputed King of the flower kingdom.
It is worth emphasizing here again that over 1.5 million rose blossoms are required to obtain only around 1 pound of pure rose oil. Just keep this in mind next time when buying for special someone, a bouquet of few dozen roses that do not even possess any classic rose scent. You are better off buying a pure natural rose perfume instead, which will smell heavenly and also last much longer compared to a bouquet.
To summarize, there is nothing in this world that can come even close in terms of the scent of the pure rose oil, which is known to provide tremendous benefits to both body and mind. It is both calming and uplifting, with strong aphrodisiac and anti-depressant properties. Here, it is noteworthy that the pure rose oil is in fact composed of hundreds of natural constituents that have a very synergistic effect on human well-being, as compared to individual man-made chemicals synthesized in the lab in a futile hope of imitating natural rose scent. Seriously, a synthetic rose perfume versus a natural one is same as the microwave-cooked food versus gourmet food cooked with love in a wood-fired oven. Who wouldn’t like to enjoy the latter one? So, go ahead...be one with the Nature!