Can one compare heroin addiction to perfume addiction? Recently, a quote from the book Opium: A History struck me: “heroin is…an escape to tranquility, a liberation from anxiety and stress…a way out of the drudgery of life.”* Some days I feel that way about my colognes, and a perfume habit, like a drug habit, can deplete my bank account, but at least perfume won’t kill me. (Please, no comments on the chemicals contained in perfumes…those I ignore.)

In 1874, pharmacist C.R. Alder Wright of Saint Mary’s Hospital, London, was experimenting to find a non-addictive replacement for the pain-killer supreme — morphine; Wright boiled morphine with acetic anhydride and created a new substance — diacetylmorphine. Twenty-four years later, the German chemist Heinrich Dreser of Bayer Laboratories (the “birthplace” of aspirin) in Elberfeld, Germany, used diacetylmorphine in a pain killer he named “Heroin” — from the German word heroisch (meaning “mighty, heroic”).* Bayer marketed Heroin as a remedy for tuberculosis, laryngitis, coughs and, most ironically, as a “possible cure for morphine addiction”.**

Heroin was celebrated as a wonder drug — five to eight times more powerful than morphine…

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The Nasomatto website would have been a perfect place for Prix Eau Faux contestants to get inspiration. Amsterdam-based Nasomatto is secretive (no fragrance notes are given for any of their perfumes and the owners/perfumers provide only their first names — Alessandro* and Arturetto — and cryptic bios online). One offering, Hindu Grass, “aims to breathe the belief in universal peace and love”. I was able to distance myself from the bad writing and annoying coyness of Nasomatto’s “Manifesto” when I saw their handsome bottles (I want one) and read the name Hindu Grass…

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