On JLF day 5, we met India’s only woman perfumer who’s working at a global level. Jahnvi Dameron Nandan talked about ‘Smell and Perfume in Ancient India’ in the session with James McHugh.

James McHugh let us smell the taste of Earth and Sandalwood, and shared what were the types of smell in Ancient India.

“In ancient times, the names of the perfumes were erotic, like Moon Juice, but nowadays, they have very tacky names, like Obsession,” he explained.

Talking about the roles of perfumes, Jahnvi said, “In those times, the role of smell was as medicinal, as it was for any other reason. But, now smell is only associated with love.”

On being asked about the masculine and feminine smells, Jahnvi pointed out that, “In India, there’s not much demarcation of masculine or feminine smells. A study showed that Chanel No.5 which is a feminine perfume is used more by Indian men. And, lavender which has a masculine smell is preferred by many Indian women.”

Jahnvi also revealed that all perfumes are synthetic, “even the ones that claim to be completely natural.” 

“The last time we created an au naturel perfume was in like the 1970s,” she added.

She concluded the session by saying, “I am desperately trying to make synthetic sexy.”

Later, IndianWomenBlog got a chance to interact with Jahnvi and here’s what we discussed:

JWB: One Indian spice you would like to turn into a perfume fragrance?

Jahnvi: Ahhh… There’re so many types of peppers and we only know  about 2 or 3. So, I would like to create a pallette of 10 different peppers. 

JWB: Isn’t using synthetic smells actually preserving the environment?

Jahnvi: Exactly! It is not possible to depend only on natural things to make a fragrance. We should understand that they are precious. We need to conserve nature and use its resources very cautiously. So, creating smells synthetically actually helps in conservation of the environment.

JWB: You talked about Indian women using Male perfumes. Which male perfume do you love to use?

Jahnvi: *smiles* Dior’s Homme!